Man gets 12 years in prison in insurance scheme after posing as patients, including NBA player

CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. (AP) — A medical biller has been sentenced to 12 years in federal prison after being convicted in a massive insurance fraud scheme. Prosecutors say the scheme involved posing as an NBA player and other patients to harangue the companies for payments that weren’t actually due. Matthew James was convicted in July 2022 of fraud and identity theft charges. Prosecutors say the 54-year-old bilked insurance companies out of hundreds of millions of dollars through various tactics. One of the people he impersonated was NBA point guard Marcus Smart of the Memphis Grizzlies, formerly of the Boston Celtics. According to court papers, Smart testified at James’ trial that the impersonation upset him because he wasn’t raised to treat people the way James did.