Former NBA player sentenced to 10 years in prison

Terrence Deshon Williams is a retired American basketball player selected as the 11th overall pick by the New Jersey Nets in the 2009 NBA draft. He was the senior co-captain for Rick Pitino’s 2008-2009 University of Louisville Cardinals basketball team.

Williams was drafted by the New Jersey Nets in 2009 and achieved his first triple-double in 2010. He was traded to the Houston Rockets in 2010 and later played for the Sacramento Kings, Boston Celtics, and other teams before signing with Vaqueros de Bayamón in Puerto Rico in 2015. However, he was released after only two games.

In April 2015, Williams became a player for the Venezuelan team Guaiqueríes de Margarita for the remainder of the 2015 LPB season. Later, on October 6, 2015, Williams signed up with AmeriLeague for the upcoming season. Sadly, the league collapsed once it was revealed that the founder was a fraudster.

The reason for his incarceration

According to reports from the New York Post, the 36-year-old former player has been found guilty of devising a fraudulent scheme that exploited the National Basketball Association’s player health insurance and welfare programs. This individual was a former member of the New Jersey Nets, Houston, Sacramento, and Boston teams and was joined by 17 other former NBA players who also submitted false medical claims. Investigations revealed that the group made approximately five million dollars through this fraudulent activity. Amongst those involved were Tony Allen, Shannon Brown, and Glenn Davis.

Terrence Williams has been sentenced to 10 years for participating in a $5 million healthcare fraud scheme. A federal judge handed down the sentence on Thursday. The judge stated that Williams used his people skills to convince others to join in the fraud after losing a significant amount of money he had earned during his professional basketball career. Williams resides in Seattle and has been ordered to pay over $650,000 in forfeiture and $2.5 million in restitution for defrauding the NBA’s Health and Welfare Benefit Plan between 2017 and 2021. Williams received assistance from a dentist in California and doctors in both California and Washington states, who helped generate profits by submitting claims for fake medical and dental expenses.

Williams admitted to conspiring to commit health care, wire fraud, and aggravated identity theft. This led to charges being filed against 18 former NBA players. Williams expressed remorse in court, stating that he appeared “humble and humiliated.” He attributed his involvement in the crimes to his opioid addiction, which developed when he began taking painkillers to manage lingering injuries from his professional basketball career.