Ex-NFL Player Sentenced to 196 Months for $200M Medicare Fraud

A federal court in Mississippi sentenced Joel Rufus French, a 47-year-old former NFL player from Armory, to 196 months in prison on Wednesday for orchestrating a multiyear fraud scheme that defrauded Medicare and the Civilian Health and Medical Program of the Department of Veterans Affairs, known as CHAMPVA, of nearly $200 million.

French, who owned a marketing company and served as the beneficial owner of eight durable medical equipment companies, must also pay $110,753,619 in restitution and forfeit approximately $17 million that authorities seized from his bank accounts and other assets. He was convicted in February following a six-day trial on charges including conspiracy to commit health care fraud and wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and conspiracy to offer, pay, solicit, and receive kickbacks.

Court documents and trial evidence showed French collaborated with overseas telemarketing call centers that targeted elderly Americans and families of disabled or deceased veterans. The call centers pressured individuals to provide personal and health insurance information and agree to receive medically unnecessary orthotic braces. In some cases, operators altered...