FILE-In this photo illustration, the Medicare logo is seen displayed on a smartphone screen. (Photo Illustration by Thomas Fuller/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
A 60-year-old man was sentenced to 20 years in prison in a $365 million Medicare scheme.
Herbert Leon Kimble will serve prison time for conspiracy to defraud the United States and failure to appear.
Kimble was also ordered to forfeit over $195 million in money and property, and he was ordered to pay the Medicare program more than $199 million in restitution, according to a release from the U.S. Attorney's Office, District of South Carolina.
Man sentenced in Medicare scheme
Dig deeper:
Herbert Leon Kimble was the mastermind of a fraud scheme that utilized offshore call centers and fake telemedicine organizations to produce medically unnecessary prescriptions for orthotic braces.
Kimble recruited vulnerable Medicare recipients through fake marketing and then sold their information with signed doctors’ orders to DME organizations in exchange for illegal payoffs, disguised as legitimate business payments.
RELATED: ‘Operation Thunder Hole’ takes down woman, 'Colombian Lover' in $13M fraud scheme
According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, District of South Carolina, the medical professionals involved in the scam didn’t perform real consultation and only signed preselected brace orders to enhance Medicare restitution.
Kimble also arranged the acquisition of medical patients and prescriptions and supplied them to DME companies that billed Medicare millions of dollars in false claims, which led to $365 million in the fake claims, which Medicare reimbursed more than $199 million.
Kimble personally profited over $195 million from the scheme and the money to purchase a luxury condo at the Shangri-La hotel in the Philippines.
Officials said Kimble pleaded guilty in 2019 to a broad conspiracy against the United States but later failed to appear for multiple court proceedings in 2024, resulting in a bench warrant being issued.
He was placed on the FBI's Most Wanted Fraudsters list and was captured in the Philippines. Kimble was returned to the United States, where he was indicted on three counts of failure to appear, and he entered a new plea agreement involving both the original charges and the new indictment.
The Source: Information for this story was provided by a release from the U.S. Attorney's Office, District of South Carolina. This story was reported from Washington, D.C.