Jazz assistant, ex-union VP arrested
A former vice president of the National Basketball Players Association was arrested Wednesday and added to a criminal case in which 18 former NBA players were charged with illegally pocketing millions of dollars by defrauding the league’s health and welfare benefit plan.
The rewritten indictment added Keyon Dooling to the case first brought in October, when federal officials said a number of former NBA players combined to collect about $2.5 million from the benefit plan.
Dooling, who was a union officer for eight years and eventually became its first vice president, was among three individuals added to the indictment Wednesday. Dooling, now an assistant coach in the Jazz organization, spent parts of 13 seasons in the NBA as a member of seven different teams.
In a statement, the Jazz said Dooling made the club aware of the indictment Wednesday morning.
The Jazz play Game 6 of their Western Conference first-round playoff series against the Mavericks at home Thursday.
Dooling was arrested Wednesday in Utah, officials said.
Dooling, officials said, “allegedly engaged in the scheme and recruited other co-conspirators to join the scheme.”
The updated indictment Wednesday said Dooling pocketed about $350,000 of plan proceeds illegally. In all, it said about $5 million in false claims were submitted, though claimants did not receive as much in proceeds.
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