Ex-NFL Player Sentenced to 16 Years in Prison for $200M Medicare Fraud Scheme
Rufus French, a former NFL player who starred at Ole Miss, was sentenced last week to over 16 years in prison for orchestrating a years-long scheme to scam government agencies out of nearly $200 million by selling patient information and sham doctors’ orders for orthotic braces that patients did not want or need.
According to the Department of Justice, French worked with overseas telemarketing call centers that pressured elderly Americans to provide their personal and health insurance information and agree to accept medically unnecessary orthotic braces.
French paid sham telemedicine companies kickbacks to obtain signed doctors’ orders from doctors and nurse practitioners who never examined, and often never even spoke to, the patients. French sold the orders to marketers and medical supply companies, which then submitted claims to Medicare.
French defrauded Medicare and CHAMPVA by billing the programs for orthotic braces through durable medical equipment supply companies that he owned and managed, using straw owners and false documents to hide his connection to the companies from Medicare.
In addition to the prison sentence, the defendant, French was ordered to pay $111 million in restitution and to forfeit approximately $17 million that the government seized from bank accounts and other assets.
“Fueled by lies, bribes, and overseas telemarketers, this corrupt scheme preyed on senior citizens and disabled veterans to flood the country with unnecessary medical devices — and then billed the taxpayer for it,” said Assistant Attorney General Colin M. McDonald of the Justice Department’s National Fraud Enforcement Division.
French, 47, played tight end at Ole Miss from 1996-98. He twice earned All-American All-American honors.
After going undrafted in 1999, French signed with the Seattle Seahawks. He was released by the team in 2001 without playing a game. French signed with the Green Bay Packers in 2002 but never saw playing time.
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.
Source: DOJ