Overview
- French, 47, was sentenced Friday to 196 months in federal prison for orchestrating a yearslong brace‑billing scheme.
- He was ordered to pay $110,753,619 in restitution and to forfeit about $17 million seized from bank accounts and other assets.
- A jury in February convicted him of conspiracies to commit health care and wire fraud, to launder money, and to pay and receive kickbacks.
- Prosecutors said he used overseas telemarketers, sham telemedicine and straw‑owned suppliers to push unneeded orthotic braces and bill Medicare and CHAMPVA, a VA health plan for veterans’ families, with some calls altered to fake patient consent.
- HHS‑OIG, the FBI and VA OIG investigated the case, and DOJ framed the outcome as part of its new Fraud Division and its Health Care Fraud Strike Force focus on large‑scale benefit fraud.