A former NFL player who was the beneficial owner of eight durable medical equipment companies and owned a marketing company was sentenced to more than 16 years in prison for his role in a yearslong Medicare and Civilian Health and Medical Program of the Department of Veterans Affairs fraud scheme.
Joel Rufus French was sentenced to 196 years in prison along with a $110,753,619 restitution pay, and he will have to forfeit approximately $17 million that the government seized from bank accounts and other assets. the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Public Affairs said May 8.
Mr. 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 in a jury trial that ended in February.
According to court documents he paid sham telemedicine companies kickbacks to get signed orders from physicians and nurse practitioners who never examined patients. He worked with overseas telemarketing call centers to pressure patients to provide personal and health insurance information to accept medically unnecessary orthotic braces.
Mr. French sold orders to marketers and medical supply companies, which then submitted claims to Medicare. He also defrauded Medicare and the Civilian Health and Medical Program of the Department of Veterans Affairs.
In total he defrauded the programs out of nearly $200 million. He also laundered approximately $225,000 in cash from a bank in Mississippi.
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