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The U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Florida indicted the owner of several medical equipment companies in Pinellas County who allegedly paid kickbacks and bribes to doctors to sign off on millions of dollars' worth of sham Medicare claims.
Joel French, a resident of Armory, Mississippi, and his Texas-based conspirator, Steven Parker, received nearly $40 million in Medicare reimbursements between 2017 and 2019 through fraudulent claims submitted by eight medical equipment companies French operated, including two in this region, according to an indictment filed in the Middle District of Florida court that was unsealed last week.
French and Parker submitted an additional $34 million worth of fraudulent claims to Medicare between 2018 and 2019, according to the indictment.
Court documents show that Parker pleaded guilty to conspiracy to violate anti-kickback laws shortly after he was indicted by the U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Florida in June 2023.
Attorneys for French and Parker did not immediately return requests for comment.
French used a marketing company he owned and operated in Mississippi, R&L Marketing Group, to target Medicare beneficiaries and solicit information to create orders for medical devices like knee and back braces, walkers and hospital beds, according to claims in the indictment. He allegedly paid kickbacks and bribes to various unnamed doctors to sign off on the orders and then sold them to Parker to disguise the scheme.
The indictment alleges that Parker, through a broker company he operated, Unique Media Connections, resold the orders to French's medical equipment companies, including Embrace of Clearwater Inc. and Perfect Motion Medical in Holiday.
French and Parker allegedly disguised the scheme with sham contracts and invoices purporting to show legitimate service payments.
In April 2019, French withdrew $75,000 in cash from a bank in Mississippi and transported it to this region to pay his conspirators, the indictment alleges.
The U.S. Attorney is seeking forfeiture of the $40 million along with an additional $12 million derived from the offenses’ proceeds and currently sits in various bank and trust accounts, the indictment shows.
French faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for conspiracy to commit wire fraud and health care fraud, 20 years for conspiracy to commit money laundering, and a five-year maximum sentence for conspiracy to defraud the U.S. and receive illegal health care kickbacks.
Trial attorney Catherine Wagner of the Justice Department’s criminal division and Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Florida Jennifer Peresie are prosecuting the case.