An Amory native and former Ole Miss football player will spend more than 16 years in prison for his role in a major Medicare fraud scheme.
On Friday, Joel “Rufus” French, 47, was sentenced to 196 months in prison for the part he played in a years-long scheme to defraud the Medicare and the Civilian Health and Medical Program of the Department of Veterans Affairs (CHAMPVA) out of nearly $200 million. He did this by selling patient information and sham doctors’ orders for orthotic braces that patients did not want or need.
A Florida jury convicted French 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 February. He faced a maximum penalty of 20 years behind bars, but was ultimately given a lesser sentence.
“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,” Assistant Attorney General Colin M. McDonald of the Justice Department’s National Fraud Enforcement Division said. “Today’s sentence makes clear that if you target America’s elderly, sick, or vulnerable — and rob America’s purse doing so — you will be targeted and brought to justice.”
According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, French worked with overseas call centers that pressured elderly Americans to provide their personal and health insurance information and agree to accept medically unnecessary orthotic braces. Some of the individuals who agreed to the braces suffered from Alzheimer’s and dementia. In certain instances, the call centers altered call recordings to make it seem like Medicare patients agreed to the braces when they did not.
Court records further show that French paid sham telemedicine companies to obtain signed orders from doctors and nurse practitioners who never examined, and often never even spoke to, the patients. He sold the orders to marketers and medical supply companies, which then submitted claims to Medicare.
French also defrauded Medicare and CHAMPVA – the health care program for spouses and children of veterans who have or had a permanent and total service-connected disability or who died from a service-connected condition – by billing the programs for orthotic braces through eight durable medical equipment supply companies that he owned and managed. He allegedly used false documents to hide his connection to the companies from Medicare.
The evidence at trial showed that French and his co-conspirators caused Medicare to be billed for braces for amputees for limbs they did not have and for deceased beneficiaries. Also during the conspiracy, French withdrew approximately $225,000 in cash from a bank in Mississippi, over $10,000 of which was placed in a bag and driven to Florida to pay accomplices who sold him beneficiaries’ personal and insurance information.
French was an All-American tight end for Ole Miss from 1996-99, finishing his college career with 84 receptions, 814 receiving yards, and four touchdowns. He also spent three seasons in the NFL, playing for the Seattle Seahawks and Green Bay Packers. On top of his prison sentence, he was ordered to pay $110,753,619 in restitution and to forfeit approximately $17 million that the government seized from bank accounts and other assets.
