NBA Health Care Fraudster Bynum's New Trial Motion Rejected

Michael McCann

"There is no honor among thieves."

In a bluntly worded denial of former NBA player Will Bynum's motion for acquittal or a new trial on grounds her jury instructions were erroneous, U.S. District Judge Valerie Caproni this week sustained Bynum's conviction for conspiracy to make false statements related to health care matters.

The Southern District of New York judge found her instructions were lawful and, through them, jurors permissibly concluded Bynum conspired with another former NBA player, Terrence Williams, to make false statements. The duo submitted 20 pages of fake invoices for $200,000 worth of medical services for Bynum that supposedly took place at Advanced Chiropractic & Rehab Center in California. Those services were never rendered and would have taken place on days when Bynum was in Illinois.

At issue is how Caproni communicated to jurors the applicable test for determining if Bynum was guilty.

As Caproni explained, a conspiracy charge conviction requires the defendant both knowingly participated in a scheme and possessed some knowledge of the scheme's illegal objectives. Jurors can't use a defendant's "conscious avoidance"—when a person intentionally tries to avoid learning something, more colloquially known as "hear no evil, see no evil"—to support a finding the defendant knowingly participated in a scheme. However, jurors can use conscious avoidance with respect to whether a defendant knew about the scheme's illegal objectives.

Bynum argued that Caproni misled jurors into believing they could more broadly rely on conscious avoidance, but the judge rejected that premise and critiqued Bynum's underlying theory of innocence.

Caproni recounted the basics of the case against Bynum, a point guard who earned $17.1 million in NBA salaries between 2005 and 2015 and who spent most of his career with the Detroit Pistons.

In 2018, Williams contacted Bynum with an offer to help him, in exchange for a $40,000 fee payable to Williams, obtain funds from the NBA's health and welfare benefit plan. Among other things, the plan provides needed money to retired NBA players and their families to help pay for legitimate health care expenses. Bynum testified he thought Williams worked for both the NBA and the NBA Players' Association, though as Caproni noted, "there was no evidence that Mr. Williams falsely represented himself to be working for either."

Bynum then learned from the NBA's plan administrator that he had a balance of $275,000. Williams, who last year was sentenced to 10 years in prison, texted Bynum, "You gonna have to pay tax [and] Fee but [I] can get you A LOT[.]".

Bynum testified Williams' reference to a supposed tax payment made him think the transaction was legitimate. Bynum also testified the Rehab Center had previously treated him "hundreds of times" over the years and that he had paid by cash. However, the center had no such patient records, and its primary doctor, whom Bynum didn't recognize, didn't know Bynum.

Bynum also testified he only "glanced" at the fake invoices even though he signed and completed them using Adobe software. Further, he didn't ask Williams how he had obtained his medical records or why Williams used a Gmail address for supposedly official emails if he was working for the league or union.

Williams also impersonated Bynum on a phone call to the plan administrator. Bynum argued the impersonated call wasn't evidence of a conspiracy, since the discussion concerned a timeline for payments. Caproni wasn't convinced, finding that one conspirator impersonating the other "brings to mind the adage: There is no honor among thieves."

In that same light, Caproni reasoned there was "ample evidence" for jurors to "discredit" Bynum's testimony and conclude he either knew what was going on or consciously avoided knowing the truth.

"Instead of obtaining invoices from the Rehab Center, Mr. Bynum obtained invoices from Mr. Williams, a former NBA player who used his personal email address for supposedly official NBA business, and who provided invoices that totaled exactly $200,000," the judge wrote.

She also found it suspicious Bynum didn't question why Williams required him to a pay "a fee and purported taxes even though plan reimbursements were not taxable and there was no explanation why taxes would be paid to Mr. Williams rather than to the taxing authorities."

In fact, the judge wrote, Bynum didn't ask "any follow-up questions about this parade of red flags."

Bynum, 41, will be sentenced March 12 at the Thurgood Marshall Courthouse in New York City. He could face five years in prison along with other penalties, but in the absence of a prior criminal record, he'll likely receive a lesser punishment.

(This article has been corrected in the third paragraph to reflect that it was Bynum, not Williams, who was in Illinois.)

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