According to a report by NBC‘s Tom Winter, 18 former NBA players have been arrested.
For defrauding the league’s “Health and Welfare Benefit Plan out of approximately $4,000,000,” Winter tweeted that 18 former players, including a handful of household names, had been arrested.
The list of former players, which includes Milt Palacio, Sebastian Telfair, Antoine Wright, Darius Miles, Ruben Patterson, Eddie Robinson, Gregory Smith, Glen Davis, Jamario Moon, Terrence Williams, Alan Anderson, Tony Allen, Shannon Brown, William Bynum, Melvin Ely, Christopher Douglas-Roberts and Tony Wroten, features some actual big names.
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In the early 2000s, Sebastian Telfair was neck-and-neck with LeBron James when it came to the best high school hooper in the country, Kobe Bryant said Tony Allen was the best defender he ever played against and Darius Miles was a part of some legendary young Clippers teams and currently co-hosts the Knuckleheadz podcast alongside Quentin Richardson.
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 global pandemic, a handful of scams involving unemployment assistance and fraudulent Payroll Protection Loans have found their way to the forefront of financial conversation but scams remain relatively shocking to hear about, especially when they involve nearly 20 former NBA players going down for defrauding the league’s own health and welfare plan out of $4 million.
What ends up happening to these former players is obviously yet to be seen but it will be interesting to see how things proceed. The NBA has been good about protecting former players but it’s hard to think that the league, as well as the legal system, will be kind to these guys.
Keep it locked to HNHH for updates on this situation and let us know what you think of the whole thing down in the comments.