{"id":886291,"date":"2026-05-09T04:33:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T04:33:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/886291\/"},"modified":"2026-05-09T04:33:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T04:33:18","slug":"ex-nfler-joel-rufus-french-gets-16-years-in-prison-for-nearly-200-million-in-medicare-fraud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/886291\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-NFLer Joel Rufus French gets 16 years in prison for nearly $200 million in Medicare fraud"},"content":{"rendered":"

One former football star is going to be behind bars for over a decade. <\/p>\n

Joel Rufus French was sentenced to 196 months in prison for his role in defrauding Medicare and the Civilian Health and Medical Program of the Department of Veterans Affairs out of $197 million, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Friday<\/a>. <\/p>\n

French will also have to pay $110,753,619 in restitution and give up the nearly $17 million the government took from his bank accounts and other assets on his ledger. <\/p>\n

The former tight end, who was a unanimous All-American in 1998 with Ole Miss, was convicted in February in a six-day trial on charges of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and conspiracy to offer, pay, solicit and receive kickbacks.<\/p>\n

\"Tight end Rufus French of the Mississippi Rebels in
action during a game against the Auburn Tigers
at the Hemingway Stadium in Oxford, Mississippi. Getty Images<\/p>\n

The DOJ said evidence at trial showed how French worked with foreign telemarketer call centers that targeted elderly Americans, pushing them to accept \u201cunnecessary\u201d orthotic braces. <\/p>\n

Through the scheme, French was also able to obtain health insurance and personal information from these people.<\/p>\n

The DOJ also said French paid kickbacks to \u201csham telemedicine companies\u201d to get signed doctors\u2019 orders from medical professionals who never examined and sometimes never saw patients. <\/p>\n

According to the release, French then sold these doctors\u2019 orders to marketers and the medical supply companies. Those places then submitted claims to Medicare. <\/p>\n

The DOJ added that call centers also altered recordings to make it seem as if patients agreed to braces when they had not done so.<\/p>\n

\"TightTight end Rufus French of the Mississippi Rebels looks on
during the game against the SMU Mustangs at the Cotton Bowl in
Dallas, Texas. Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cFueled by lies, bribes, and overseas telemarketers, this corrupt scheme preyed on senior citizens and disabled veterans to flood the country with unnecessary medical devices \u2014 and then billed the taxpayer for it,\u201d Assistant Attorney General Colin M. McDonald of the Justice Department\u2019s National Fraud Enforcement Division said. \u201cToday\u2019s sentence makes clear that if you target America\u2019s elderly, sick, or vulnerable \u2014 and rob America\u2019s purse doing so \u2014 you will be targeted and brought to justice.\u201d<\/p>\n

French played at Ole Miss from 1996-98 and was a two-time All-SEC first team member in his final two years. <\/p>\n

He went undrafted but signed with the Seahawks, spending 1999 and 2000 with them before his release in \u201901. <\/p>\n

He moved on to the Packers in \u201902 but was cut during training camp.<\/p>\n

His son, Charleston French, is a running back on Bill Belichick\u2019s North Carolina team.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One former football star is going to be behind bars for over a decade. Joel Rufus French was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":886292,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1142,331,7,42187,345,119519,1565,6,261,9],"class_list":["post-886291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-athlete-arrests","tag-college-football","tag-football","tag-fraud","tag-green-bay-packers","tag-medicare","tag-mississippi-rebels","tag-nfl","tag-seattle-seahawks","tag-sports"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116542755373898699","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/886291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=886291"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/886291\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/886292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=886291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=886291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=886291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}