Ex-U of L basketball star allegedly ‘orchestrated’ multimillion-dollar fraud scheme
A former University of Louisville basketball star is accused of leading a fraud scheme that took about $2.5 million from an NBA health care plan, according to a federal indictment filed this week.
Terrence Williams, who played at U of L from 2005 to 2009, “orchestrated” the multimillion-dollar fraud scheme, according to court records. The players operating the scheme filed about $3.9 million in claims. Williams made at least $230,000, according to court records.
Seventeen other former NBA players have also been indicted, according to court records.
“Williams recruited other plan participants to defraud the plan by offering to supply them with false invoices to support their false and fraudulent claims to the plan in exchange for the payment of kickbacks to Williams,” the grand jury wrote in its indictment.
The health care plan was for current and former NBA players and was intended to help athletes with medical costs not covered by insurance, according to court records. Williams and the other players allegedly took advantage of the plan by making claims for medical treatment they never received, the indictment alleged.
The faked documents were made to appear as though they came from dentists, chiropractors and doctors, according to the indictment. Williams started running the scheme in 2017 and it continued into 2020, according to the indictment. Williams allegedly made a fraudulent claim for himself first, then recruited other former players to do the same.
Unnamed individuals helped Williams make fabricated invoices and other documents to help the bogus claims look more legitimate, according to the indictment. But the documents had errors. They weren’t put on letterhead, they had unusual formatting, names were misspelled and there were grammatical issues.
Some of the documents coming from different players were virtually identical, according to the indictment. Invoices from two players featured the same invoice number, descriptions for treatment and costs.
There were also problems with dates on some of the documents. One fraudulent claim from Gregory Smith indicated he’d gotten $47,900 worth of dental work done in California on Dec. 20, 2018. But records showed Smith was out of the country playing basketball in Taiwan at that time.
All 18 players were charged with attempt to and conspiracy to commit health care fraud and wire fraud, according to federal court records. One of the players’ wives was indicted in the scheme. Williams is additionally charged with aggravated identity theft because he allegedly impersonated an administrator who was handling all claims to determine their legitimacy.
In his four years with the Cardinals, Williams became the first U of L basketball player to record multiple triple-doubles. He also appeared on three Sports Illustrated covers. He was drafted 11th overall by the New Jersey Nets in the 2009 NBA Draft and played in the NBA for a few years with the Nets, Houston Rockets, Sacramento Kings and Boston Celtics.
He also played professional basketball overseas and had stints with teams in the NBA’s developmental league.
Several other notable players were indicted in the case, including Sebastian Telfair, who played for several teams around the league from 2004 to 2013. Glen “Big Baby” Davis, a former player with the Celtics, Orlando Magic and Los Angeles Clippers, was also indicted. Davis starred at Louisiana State University in college and led the school to a Final Four appearance.
Darius Miles, who was drafted third overall by the Los Angeles Clippers in the 2000 NBA Draft, was also indicted.
This story was originally published October 7, 2021 at 2:32 PM.