Greg Smith had been out of the National Basketball Association for about two years in December 2018, when the former power forward for the Houston Rockets and Dallas Mavericks had what appeared to be a long day at a dental office in Beverly Hills. Invoices submitted on his behalf showed that he received IV sedation and root canals, and had crowns placed on eight teeth.
But the invoices, totaling $47,900, were fake, federal prosecutors in Manhattan said on Thursday.
Mr. Smith was actually thousands of miles from California, playing basketball in Taiwan at the time, the prosecutors said, adding that they had evidence to prove it, including box scores showing he had appeared in games there.
Mr. Smith was one of 18 former N.B.A. players who were charged in what federal authorities portrayed as a brazen conspiracy to defraud a health care program extended to current and former N.B.A. players.
The claims submitted by another defendant, Sebastian Telfair — a Brooklyn high school legend who went on to a journeyman’s professional career — suggested truly woeful dental problems. His claims showed he had received root canals on 17 teeth in a year’s time, the indictment said. He pleaded not guilty on Thursday and was released on bond.
“The defendant’s playbook involved fraud and deception,” Audrey Strauss, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, said at a news conference on Thursday announcing the charges.
“Their alleged scheme has been disrupted and they will have to answer for their flagrant violations of law,” Ms. Strauss said.
She and Michael J. Driscoll, the head of the F.B.I.’s New York office, each added that the investigation was continuing.
The prosecutors said that the former players — and one player’s spouse who was also charged — submitted claims totaling $3.9 million, and they ultimately received about $2.5 million in fraudulent proceeds.
While none of the defendants were superstars, several were well-known players, like the defensive stalwart Tony Allen, and Ronald Glen Davis, who went by his middle name and was nicknamed “Big Baby.” Both played on the Boston Celtics team that won the N.B.A. championship in 2008.
