A former NFL player has been sentenced to more than 16 years in federal prison after a jury found he orchestrated a nearly $200 million fraud scheme targeting elderly Americans and the families of disabled or deceased military veterans.
Joel Rufus French, 47, received a 196-month prison sentence on May 8 following his February 2026 conviction in the Middle District of Florida. The federal judge also ordered him to pay $110,753,619 in restitution and forfeit approximately $17 million from seized bank accounts and other assets.
The scheme involved sham medical orders for orthotic braces that patients did not want or need. French operated overseas telemarketing call centers to pressure vulnerable individuals into sharing personal and health insurance information. In some cases, call recordings were altered to depict consent when it was not present.
French was the beneficial owner of eight durable medical equipment companies that billed Medicare and CHAMPVA—the Department of Veterans Affairs healthcare program for qualifying spouses and children of disabled or deceased veterans. Prosecutors revealed he paid kickbacks to sham telemedicine companies to obtain signed medical orders from doctors and nurse practitioners who had never examined the patients, often without ever speaking with them.
The fraud was further compounded by French’s use of straw owners and false documents to conceal his connection to the companies. Evidence also showed he laundered about $225,000 in cash, including over $10,000 placed in a bag and driven to Orlando to pay accomplices who sold patient and insurance information.
The U.S. Department of Justice stated that French’s actions reflect the deliberate targeting of people for whom the federal government has a duty to protect. His sentence and restitution order underscore the scale of the theft from taxpayer-funded health programs.