NBA Benefits Fraud

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Ed O said:
That these former players did?
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i mean, there was talk of ben simmons faking an injury and not play to get his 8 million, and no one batted an eye. It was even bandied about on TV shows by former players.

Jimmy Butler was held out for "general soreness" so he could still get paid without playing in Minnesota.

<40k/yr doesn't do much for me.
 
illmatic99 said:
i mean, there was talk of ben simmons faking an injury and not play to get his 8 million, and no one batted an eye. It was even bandied about on TV shows by former players.

Jimmy Butler was held out for "general soreness" so he could still get paid without playing in Minnesota.

<40k/yr doesn't do much for me.
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I'll do you for $40k!
 
illmatic99 said:
I shall. I'm legitimately trying to understand why people are up in arms about this.
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Huh? Seems newsworthy that 18 former NBA guys received 3M in the span of 3 years for defrauding their health insurance provider? It’s a big story. Fraud? NBA guys?
 
Darius Miles, Ruben Patterson, and Sebastian Telfair were part of a massive ring of former NBA players to defraud the NBA :lol:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nb...-health-insurance-fraud/ar-AAPeZEY?ocid=ientp

Eighteen former NBA players, including former Celtics and Clippers player Ronald Glen "Big Baby" Davis, have been arrested and charged with defrauding the NBA's Health and Welfare Benefit Plan out of nearly $4 million.

The ex-players are accused for submitting false reimbursement claims from around 2017 to 2020 for medical and dental services that were not actually purchased, according to an indictment filed in federal court in the Southern District of New York.

Those false claims totaled about $3.9 million. The players received about $2.5 million in fraudulent proceeds, according to the indictment.

Terrence Williams, 11th overall in the 2009 NBA draft by the then-New Jersey Nets, was the alleged ringleader of the scheme, according to the indictment.

Williams allegedly recruited other NBA players by offering fabricated invoices to be used in false claims in exchange for the payment of kickbacks to him. According to the indictment, Williams received a total of at least $230,000 in kickbacks from the players.

Williams allegedly assisted three of the ex-players – Davis, Charles Watson Jr. and Antoine Wright – obtain fabricated letters of medical necessity to justify some services on which the false invoices were based.

Williams was also accused of impersonating an individual who processed the health care plan claims at one point.

Among the false reimbursement claims is a $19,000 claim that Williams filed for chiropractic services that he allegedly never had. He received $7,672.55 in reimbursement, according to the indictment.

Several of the fake invoices and medical necessity forms stood out because they had "unusual formatting, they have grammatical errors" and were sent on the same dates from different offices.

Some of the ex-players charged were instructed to repay the proceeds they received from the health care plan once it was determined that the claims were false, according to the indictment. Some did while others did not.

Also charged: Alan Anderson, a former Washington Wizards and Los Angeles Clippers player; Shannon Brown, who played for the Cleveland Cavaliers and Los Angeles Lakers; and Tony Allen, a six-time NBA All-Defensive Team selection.

Allen's wife, Desiree Allen, is the only woman and non-NBA player charged in the indictment.

The list also includes William Bynum, Christopher Douglas-Roberts, Melvin Ely, Jamario Moon, Darius Miles, Milton Palacio, Ruben Patterson, Eddie Robinson, Gregory Smith, Sebastian Telfair, Charles Watson Jr., Antoine Wright and Anthony Wroten.

The NBA did not immediately respond for comment. A spokesperson for the Southern District of New York did not immediately respond for comment.
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If these guys were minimum wage workers bagging groceries or flipping burgers would this be "news"?

Given that at least some of those guys suffered career ending injuries, I hope there is more to this than just nit-picking their medical bills.
 
I hope they get sentenced like anyone else but it's fucking criminal of the government to put people in jail who aren't a danger to society. Fine the shit out of these guys, make them work off the fines doing whatever job they can get (i.e. some regular ass job) and put them on probation so they can't party. That shit should be enough of a punishment from the criminal side of things and let the league go after them in civil court to recoup the damages.

The idea of a bunch of people taking up tax dollars to serve jail time for this kind of shit is fucking absurd.
 
illmatic99 said:
i mean, there was talk of ben simmons faking an injury and not play to get his 8 million, and no one batted an eye. It was even bandied about on TV shows by former players.

Jimmy Butler was held out for "general soreness" so he could still get paid without playing in Minnesota.

<40k/yr doesn't do much for me.
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Meyers Leonard claimed to be a basketball player, defrauding the NBA out or dozens of millions....
 
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blazerkor said:
I hope they get sentenced like anyone else but it's fucking criminal of the government to put people in jail who aren't a danger to society.
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Jesus. They didn't steal a god damn bag of chips - they stole more money than most of us make in at least a year at our jobs (good for you if you're reading this and that's not the case). If everyone was doing that it would absolutely be a danger to society. White collar crimes should absolutely be prosecuted to the full extent of the law - that goes for rich athletes, corporate execs, whatever.
 
BlazerBeav said:
Jesus. They didn't steal a god damn bag of chips - they stole more money than most of us make in at least a year at our jobs (good for you if you're reading this and that's not the case). If everyone was doing that it would absolutely be a danger to society. White collar crimes should absolutely be prosecuted to the full extent of the law - that goes for rich athletes, corporate execs, whatever.
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Thus we imprison more people per capita than any other country... it's brilliant.
 
blazerkor said:
I hope they get sentenced like anyone else but it's fucking criminal of the government to put people in jail who aren't a danger to society. Fine the shit out of these guys, make them work off the fines doing whatever job they can get (i.e. some regular ass job) and put them on probation so they can't party. That shit should be enough of a punishment from the criminal side of things and let the league go after them in civil court to recoup the damages.

The idea of a bunch of people taking up tax dollars to serve jail time for this kind of shit is fucking absurd.
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I disagree, jail time is a fitting punishment and good deterrent for fraudulent crimes.

If the only deterrent is a fine nothing stops people from doing these activities, keeping most of their assets as cash and fleeing to different states.

Now if the people charged admit what they do and agree to plea bargains I'm fine with some of them possibly not going to prison very long if at all. The guy who orchestrated this thing should certainly go to jail. Anyone fighting it should go if convicted.
 
I'll just add, there is a very real chance financial fraud happens that never leads to a conviction. So those times when a conviction happens definitely need large punishments.

If someone only has a 20% chance of getting caught, but then when caught only has to deal with inconvenient fines and community service its a risk more people might take.

If getting caught means spending years in jail, I think many will decide not to take that risk.
 
WesleyMatthews said:
I disagree, jail time is a fitting punishment and good deterrent for fraudulent crimes.

If the only deterrent is a fine nothing stops people from doing these activities, keeping most of their assets as cash and fleeing to different states.

Now if the people charged admit what they do and agree to plea bargains I'm fine with some of them possibly not going to prison very long if at all. The guy who orchestrated this thing should certainly go to jail. Anyone fighting it should go if convicted.
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This is why I am a great believer in asset forfeiture laws. For purely financial crimes, remove the incentive (and require restitution). Save those expensive prison cells for violent offenders.
 
Buffalo Custard said:
This is why I am a great believer in asset forfeiture laws. For purely financial crimes, remove the incentive (and require restitution). Save those expensive prison cells for violent offenders.
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Are prison cells really overflowing with convicts from financial crimes? I suspect its an insignificant strain on the prison system.

But Martha Stewart going to prison certainly showed many people the risks of insider trading, I'm all for that.

This being a high profile case again warrants possible prison time for those convicted.

But even if it was people that are not high profile, I'm all for white collar crimes having some cases where prison sentences are possible.
 
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