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10 ex-NFL players charged with defrauding health care program

WASHINGTON (AP) — Ten former NFL players were charged in a multimillion-dollar scheme to defraud the league’s health care benefit program by submitting false claims for medical equipment, including devices used on horses, the Justice Department said Thursday.

The players were charged in
two separate indictments filed in federal court in Kentucky, accusing
them of conspiracy, wire fraud and healthcare fraud. Prosecutors allege
they submitted nearly $4 million in phony claims, leading to payouts of
about $3.4 million between June 2017 and December 2018.

Those charged include five former players on the Washington Redskins, including Clinton Portis and Carlos Rogers.

Prosecutors
allege the players targeted the Gene Upshaw NFL Player Health
Reimbursement Account Plan, which was established as part of a
collective bargaining agreement in 2006. It provides tax-free
reimbursement of out-of-pocket medical care expenses that were not
covered by insurance and that were incurred by former players, their
spouses and dependents.

“As outlined in the indictments, a group
of former players brazenly defrauded the plan by seeking reimbursements
for expensive medical equipment that they never purchased,” said
Assistant Attorney General Brian Benczkowski, who leads the Justice
Department’s criminal division.

The players claimed to have
purchased hyperbaric oxygen chambers, ultrasound machines and
electromagnetic therapy devices that were designed to be used on horses,
he said.

Prosecutors say the group’s alleged ringleaders, Robert McCune and Correll Buckhalter — who they allege broke off to create his own similar ring — would recruit former players by offering to submit fake claims to the health care plan. The ringleaders would then demand thousands of dollars in kickbacks for each fake claim, prosecutors allege.

The suspects are accused of fabricating letters from
health care providers about using the medical equipment, fabricating
prescriptions that were purportedly signed by healthcare providers and
creating fake invoices from medical equipment companies in an effort to
prove the equipment was purchased, according to court documents. In
reality, they had never purchased or received the medical equipment,
prosecutors said.

Investigators believe the defendants had forged
the prescriptions and authorization letters and uncovered no evidence
that any doctors were complicit in the scheme, Benczkowski said.

After
the phony claims were submitted, the former players would receive
reimbursement checks and pay a kickback to the ringleaders and
recruiters, the indictments charge.

Prosecutors moved to bring
charges, in part because the scheme put the health care plan’s
tax-exempt status at risk, which could’ve forced other former players
using the plan legitimately to pay more, Benczkowski said.

Four of
the suspects, McCune, Rogers, John Eubanks and Ceandris Brown, were
arrested Thursday morning by the FBI. Six others had agreed to surrender
to authorities, the Justice Department said. They are: James Butler,
Fredrick Bennett, Etric Pruitt, Tamarick Vanover, Portis and Buckhalter.

The
Justice Department has also filed court papers in Kentucky noting that
it plans to file charges against two other players as well, including
Joe Horn, a four-time Pro Bowl wide receiver for the New Orleans Saints,
and Donald “Reche” Caldwell.

The investigation was continuing,
but because the plan involves only former players prosecutors do not
expect any current NFL players to face charges, Benczkowski said.