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Former NBA player Terrence Williams was sentenced to 10 years in prison in relation to a scheme in which he defrauded the league's health and welfare benefit plan out of more than $5 million, the U.S. Attorney's Office's Southern District of New York announced in a news release shared on Thursday (August 3).
Williams, who has been jailed in Brooklyn since April 2022 after threatening co-defendants and a witness, pled guilty to charges of "conspiracy to commit health care and wire fraud and aggravated identity theft," the news release states.
“Williams led a wide-ranging scheme to steal millions of dollars from the NBA Players’ Health and Welfare Benefit Plan," said U.S. Attorney Damian Williams in the news release. "Williams recruited medical professionals and others to expand his criminal conspiracy and maximize his ill-gotten gains. Williams not only lined his pockets through fraud and deceit, but he also stole the identities of others and threatened a witness to further his criminal endeavors. For his brazen criminal acts, Williams now faces years in prison.”
The NBA Players' Health and Welfare Benefit Plan is intended to provide benefits to active and former NBA players, as well as their family members. Williams is among the more than a dozen individuals who took part in a widespread scheme to defraud the plan from at least 2017 to at least 2021. The former Louisville standout was selected by the then-New Jersey Nets at No. 11 overall in the 2009 NBA Draft and averaged 7.1 points, 3.6 rebounds and 2.4 assists while appearing in 153 games for the Nets, Boston Celtics, Houston Rockets and Sacramento Kings during four seasons.