A Seattle physician has been sentenced to a five-year prison term for his role in a scheme that siphoned almost half a million dollars from the NBA Players’ Health and Welfare Benefit Plan. William Washington was sentenced after a conviction for generating false invoices for medical treatments that were never provided to retired NBA players.
According to a statement from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, the 47-year-old operated clinics in the Seattle area and, from around 2019 to 2020, he fabricated nearly $500,000 in medical services invoices, including claims for $10,000 office visits and $25,000 shoulder injections. "William Washington, a licensed medical doctor, had a solemn responsibility not to abuse his position of trust. Instead, Washington used his license and his clinics to generate fraudulent invoices for medical services he never performed. Over just one year, Washington pocketed nearly a half-million dollars for himself and his co-conspirators. Today’s sentence sends a clear message that those who engage in health care fraud schemes, particularly medical providers, will face stringent penalties," U.S. Attorney Damian Williams outlined in the announcement.
Furthermore, beyond creating fake invoices, Washington also used plan-issued debit cards to collect payments for these nonexistent services, resulting in over $450,000 diverted from the plan into his pockets and those of his co-conspirators. In delivering the sentence, U.S. District Judge Valerie E. Caproni added three years of supervised release, and Washington was also ordered to pay a $20,000 fine, forfeit $475,042, and pay an equal amount in restitution.
The FBI's investigative efforts were instrumental in bringing the case to a close, with the Office’s Complex Frauds and Cybercrime Unit handling prosecutorial duties. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Rushmi Bhaskaran, Qais Ghafary, and Rebecca Delfiner took the lead at trial, while Assistant U.S. Attorneys Ryan Finkel and Daniel G. Nessim supported the investigation and prosecution phases.
