Who Knew NBA Players Had Such Bad Teeth? [Dealbreaker]

Oh, they don’t and were just (allegedly) ripping off their health insurance plan? Got it.

When professional athletes are involved in financial frauds it is generally in the role of victim, and in the relatively few exceptions in which they are the perpetrator, it’s generally a small-scale affair. So congratulations to Terrence Williams, Big Baby Davis, Sebastian Telfair, Antoine Wright, Darius Miles, Ruben Patterson, Jamario Moon and 11 other NBA veterans for flipping that script.

The ex-players are accused of submitting false reimbursement claims from around 2017 to 2020 for medical and dental services that were not actually purchased…. Those false claims totaled about $3.9 million, according to the indictment.

Of course, one of the things that make those with physical prowess such appealing targets for scams is their, shall we say, lack of intellectual prowess. On this point, alas, Big Baby & co. did not exactly flip the script.

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, the indictment said…. A few of the false claims were also for identical reported procedures on the same day, according to Strauss. For example, three players claimed to have had root canals on the same six teeth on April 30, 2016 and crowns on the same six teeth on May 11, 2016.

18 former NBA players, including ‘Big Baby’ Davis, charged in alleged $4 million health insurance fraud [CNBC]

For more of the latest in litigation, regulation, deals and financial services trends, sign upfor Finance Docket, a partnership between Breaking Media publications Above the Law and Dealbreaker.