mcj-2026-05-20-news-doj-logo

A former NFL player who owned a marketing company and was the beneficial owner of eight durable medical equipment (DME) companies was sentenced May 7 to 196 months in prison for his role in a yearslong scheme to bilk Medicare and the Civilian Health and Medical Program of the Department of Veterans Affairs (CHAMPVA) out of nearly $200 million by selling patient information and sham doctors’ orders for orthotic braces that patients did not want or need.

In addition to the prison sentence, the defendant, Joel Rufus French, 47, of Amory 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.

Newsletters

Tags