18 Ex-NBA Players Charged In $4M Health Care Fraud Scheme

NEW YORK (AP) — Eighteen former NBA players have been charged with defrauding the league’s health and welfare benefit plan out of about $4 million, according to an indictment Thursday.

Federal prosecutors planned a news conference to describe the case that was brought in Manhattan federal court. It wasn’t immediately clear whether all those charged had been arrested.

According to the indictment, the ex-players engaged in a widespread scheme to defraud the plan by submitting false and fraudulent claims to get reimbursed for medical and dental expenses that were never actually incurred.

The 18 players were among 19 individuals charged in the indictment. It said that the scheme was carried out from at least 2017 to 2020, when the plan received false claims totaling about $3.9 million. Of that, the defendants received about $2.5 million in fraudulent proceeds.