Ex-NBA Player Terrence Williams Was Sentenced to 10 Years in Prison for Fraud

Former NBA player Terrence Williams is not a name you're likely to remember from his time on the court. Williams played just four seasons on in the NBA, and last appeared on the court in 2013, having played for the Nets, Rockets, Celtics, and Kings.

More recently, though, Williams's name popped up for much more unsavory reasons. News recently broke that he had been sentenced to 10 years in prison, leading many to wonder more about his case and what he's been convicted of.

Given that he was recently sentenced to 10 years, Williams is likely to be transferred to a prison soon. He has been in jail in Brooklyn since the spring of 2022 because he was threatening witnesses. The news of his sentencing came after years of investigation, and is a fairly severe consequence for a former player. The crimes Williams was accused of are directly connected to his affiliation with the NBA, which may be part of the reason his case has received so much attention.

Terrence was convicted of defrauding the NBA health and welfare benefit plan out of more than $5 million, and pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit health care and wire fraud in addition to aggravated identity theft last year.

"Williams led a wide-ranging scheme to steal millions of dollars from the NBA Players' Health and Welfare Benefit Plan," U.S. attorney Damian Williams said in a statement.

"Williams recruited medical professionals and others to expand his criminal conspiracy and maximize his ill-gotten gains," Damien continued. "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 health and welfare plan is intended to serve active and former players in the league. Williams was accused of recruiting other former players to make bogus claims to the plan from 2017 through 2020.

The plan involved using fake invoices for medical and dental work that never happened, and Williams was one of 18 former players to be indicted related to the case in 2021.

In addition to the fraud, Williams also impersonated and health care employee and threatened former players who did not offer him a kickback of $300,000 for bringing them into the scheme.

Williams was jailed ahead of his trial for intimidating witnesses. According to the US Attorney's office, Williams texted a witness and wrote that they were "talking way to[o] f-----g much," that they needed to "shut the f--k up" and that "me spitting in your face is exactly what you'll see."

The scheme was ultimately caught because of discrepancies with the paperwork, and because one former player filed a claim suggesting that they were in California when they were playing basketball in Taiwan. In addition to his prison time, Williams has been ordered to pay more than $3.1 million in restitutions and forfeitures.