Former NFL player sentenced to 16 years for $200M Medicare fraud scheme

A former NFL player who owned a marketing company and was the beneficial owner of eight durable medical equipment companies was sentenced to more than 16 years in federal prison for orchestrating a yearslong scheme that defrauded Medicare and the Civilian Health and Medical Program of the Department of Veterans Affairs (CHAMPVA) out of nearly $200 million, the Justice Department announced.

Joel Rufus French, 47, of Armory, Mississippi, was also ordered to pay $110.7 million in restitution and forfeit approximately $17 million seized from bank accounts and other assets, according to court documents.

French worked with overseas telemarketing call centers that pressured elderly Americans into providing their personal and health insurance information and agreeing to receive medically unnecessary orthotic braces, prosecutors said. In some instances, call centers altered recordings to make it appear that Medicare patients had consented to the braces when they had not, according to evidence presented at trial.

To obtain doctors’ orders for the braces, French paid kickbacks to sham telemedicine companies, which then secured signatures from physicians and nurse practitioners who never examined — and often never spoke with — the patients, court documents show. He sold those orders to marketers and medical supply companies, which submitted the fraudulent claims to Medicare.

French also billed Medicare and CHAMPVA — the health care program for spouses and children of veterans who have or had permanent and total service-connected disabilities or who died from service-connected conditions — through eight DME supply companies he owned and managed. He used straw owners and false documents to conceal his connection to those companies from Medicare, prosecutors said.

French additionally laundered approximately $225,000 in cash, including more than $10,000 placed in a bag and driven to Orlando to pay accomplices who sold him beneficiaries’ personal and insurance information, according to court documents.

After a six-day jury trial concluding in February, French was convicted of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and conspiracy to offer, pay, solicit, and receive kickbacks.

“Fueled by lies, bribes, and overseas telemarketers, this corrupt scheme preyed on senior citizens and disabled veterans,” Assistant Attorney General Colin M. McDonald of the Justice Department’s National Fraud Enforcement Division said in a statement.

Advertisement Advertisement

The case was investigated by the HHS Office of Inspector General, the FBI and the VA Office of Inspector General. It was prosecuted by Acting Assistant Chief Catherine Wagner and Trial Attorney William Hochul III of the Justice Department Criminal Division’s Fraud Section.

This article was constructed with the assistance of artificial intelligence and published by a member of The Washington Times' AI News Desk team. The contents of this report are based solely on The Washington Times' original reporting, wire services, and/or other sources cited within the report. For more information, please read our AI policy or contact Steve Fink, Director of Artificial Intelligence, at sfink@washingtontimes.com

The Washington Times AI Ethics Newsroom Committee can be reached at aispotlight@washingtontimes.com.