Over a dozen former basketball players have been accused of health care fraud as it relates to the National Basketball Association’s health care fund. The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Audrey Strauss, announced the charges Thursday against 18 former basketball players and the spouse of a former basketball player.

Former players who played for championship teams and were first-round draft picks made up the list of players who filed false claims to the NBA’s Health and Welfare Benefit Plan. Despite the players earning a collective $360 Million during their NBA careers, officials estimate that the players defrauded the fund out of nearly $4 million in bogus health care claims. Officials explain that the claims were supported by made-up invoices that were strewn with typos and discrepancies. The Department of Justice shared that the fraudulent claims cost the NBA’s Health and Welfare Benefit Plan over $2 million before the fraud was detected and stopped.

The former basketball players are said to have filed false claims for services from chiropractors, dentists, and other doctors when they had not actually received the services. The DOJ details that flight records, location information and even GPS evidence, show that at times, the players were not even in the vicinity of where they said their medical and dental treatment took place. For instance, former Boston Celtics player Gregory Smith claimed that he underwent a $48,000 root canal at a dentist's office in Beverly Hills in 2018. However, location records show that he was actually in Taiwan playing basketball the day of the operation.

Rainier Beach High star player and former New Jersey Nets shooter Terrence Williams has also been charged with aggravated identity theft as he is accused of using the personal information of an employee of the Administrative Manager that managed the health plan.

Williams is also accused of acting as a ring leader as he allegedly recruited other former players to defraud the fund. Williams offered to provide fraudulent invoices that appeared to come from a chiropractic doctor in California. As a result of providing false supporting documents for their fraudulent claims, Williams allegedly received kickbacks from players totaling at least $230,000.

The letters were submitted by two of the defendants before they caught the attention of authorities. “[The] letters are unusual in several respects: they are not on letterhead, contain unusual formatting, have grammatical errors, and one of the letters misspells a purported patient’s name,” the indictment explains.

Inflated payouts for claims also drew red flags. Much like Smith’s outrageous $48,000 root canal, Celtic’s power forward, Ronald Glen Davis, or Big Baby as he was called on the court, filed a dental claim for $27,000. Court documents show that Davis was documented to have been traveling to Paris on the day the dental work was allegedly performed.

Other bogus and poorly thought out claims detail that players including Davis, Anthony Wroten, and Anthony Allen claimed they had six root canals each on the same tooth on the same day.

The indictment adds that the fraudulent claims would at times extend beyond the former basketball players as family members of the players are also said to have been recipients of the fraudulent medical and dental care.

Officials say that the fraud began in 2017 and continued through 2020 before the fraud was detected. Roughly $2.5 million was paid out before the payments were stopped. The defendants face one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud. The charge carries with it a maximum penalty of 20 years behind bars.

Defendant Sebastian Telfair pled “not guilty” to the charges Thursday and was released with a $250,000 bond. Fourteen of the defendants have been arrested and three others have yet to be detained.

Spencer Haywood, chairman of the National Basketball Retired Players Association shared his disappointment in the former players. “What I was fighting for is we had no health insurance as retired players,” Haywood shared with the Boston Globe. “Chris Paul and LeBron James and all those guys came up with a plan to come up with insurance for all of us. And what these guys [the alleged scammers] have done is taken advantage of that health insurance we worked so far for. And it’s blackened all of our eyes.”