The U.S. Department has justice has indicted nineteen former NBA players on charges of committing health care fraud and wire fraud.

The indictment alleges that the defendants defrauded the National Basketball Association's Health and Welfare Benefit Plan out of nearly $4,000,000 by submitting "false and fraudulent" medical and dental service invoices.

The DOJ alleges that the defendants received about $2.5 million in fraudulent proceeds, with each

The people charged in the indictment are:

According to a DOJ statement, Williams orchestrated the scheme to defraud the NBA health plan. and tecruited the other participant, providing them with "false invoices to support their fraudulent claims."

Audrey Strauss, the US  Attorney for the Southern District of New York said at a  press conference that 16 of the defendants have been arrested and taken into custody byt the FBI. 

FBI Assistant Director Michael J. Driscoll said: “Today we’ve charged 18 former NBA players and one spouse for their alleged participation in a  health care fraud scheme that resulted in nearly $2 million in losses to  the National Basketball Association’s Health and Welfare Benefit Plan.  The health care industry loses tens of billions of dollars a year to  fraud. Thanks to the work of our dedicated FBI agents and partners  alike, cases like this demonstrate our continued focus in uncovering  health care fraud scams that harm both the industry and the consumers of  their services.”