Ole Miss standout and former NFL player Joel Rufus French has been sentenced to more than 16 years in federal prison after prosecutors said he helped orchestrate a nearly $200 million Medicare and CHAMPVA fraud scheme that targeted elderly Americans and veterans’ families.
A Department of Justice press release confirmed that French, 47, received a 196-month prison sentence this month following his conviction on multiple federal charges tied to a yearslong operation involving medically unnecessary orthotic braces. In addition to the prison term, the former football star was ordered to pay more than $110 million in restitution and forfeit roughly $17 million in seized assets.
Federal prosecutors said French operated behind a network of durable medical equipment companies while secretly controlling the businesses through straw owners and falsified paperwork. According to court documents, the scheme relied on overseas call centers that pressured seniors into giving up their personal and insurance information before billing federal health care programs for braces patients neither wanted nor needed.
Before his legal troubles, French was best known for his football career at Ole Miss, where he became a unanimous All-American tight end in 1998 and earned first-team All-SEC honors twice.
He later signed with the Seattle Seahawks and Green Bay Packers, though he never appeared in a regular-season NFL game. French had also been drafted by the San Diego Padres out of high school.
The Department of Justice described the operation as a coordinated fraud effort built around kickbacks, fake telemedicine consultations, and manipulated patient recordings.
“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 said in a statement.
Investigators said French paid sham telemedicine companies to secure signed doctors’ orders from medical professionals who often never examined or even spoke with patients.
Prosecutors also accused him of laundering money connected to the operation, including cash payments allegedly transported from Mississippi to Orlando in bags.
The case also highlighted growing federal scrutiny around health care fraud involving durable medical equipment providers. Authorities said French and his associates billed Medicare and CHAMPVA — the federal health program serving veterans’ families — for millions of dollars in fraudulent claims over several years.
At one point, the operation was allegedly tied to more than $197 million in false billings.
French was convicted after a six-day jury trial in February on charges that included conspiracy to commit health care fraud, wire fraud, money laundering, and illegal kickbacks. The FBI, HHS-OIG, and VA OIG all participated in the investigation.
