Robert McCune, a former National Football League (NFL) player has pleaded guilty.
42-year-old McCune of Riverdale, Georgia has been sentenced to five years of life in prison for organizing a nationwide scheme to defraud a health care benefit program for retired NFL players.
McCune has submitted false and fraudulent claims to the Plan on his own behalf and on behalf of dozens of other former NFL players. Between June 5, 2017, and April 12, 2018, he submitted 68 claims for 51 other players. The claims typically sought reimbursement of $40,000 or more for expensive medical equipment such as hyperbaric oxygen chambers, ultrasound machines, and electromagnetic therapy devices.
Further, none of the medical equipment described in the claims was ever purchased or received. In total, McCune and his co-conspirators submitted approximately $2.9 million in fraudulent claims to the Plan according to his court documents.
McCune was a fifth-round pick by Washington in the 2005 NFL Draft. He played a total of eight games with Cleveland and Baltimore between 2005 and 2008. Prior to his NFL career, McCune was a two-time all-Conference USA linebacker at the University of Louisville.
Pruitt played at Southern Miss and two seasons in the NFL. He played for the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl XL in 2005.
But since he is the orchestrator of the crime, thirteen other defendants have been sentenced for their participation in the nationwide scheme:
John Eubanks, 38, of Cleveland, Mississippi, was sentenced to 18 months in prison;
Tamarick Vanover, 47, of Tallahassee, Florida, and Ceandris Brown, 39, of Iowa Colony, Texas, were each sentenced to a year and a day in prison;
Correll Buckhalter, 43, of Colleyville, Texas, was sentenced to 10 months in prison, followed by 300 days’ home detention;
Clinton Portis, 40, of Fort Mill, South Carolina, was sentenced to six months in prison, followed by 180 days’ home detention;
Etric Pruitt, 40, of Theodore, Alabama, was sentenced to three months in prison, followed by 180 days’ home detention;
James Butler, 39, of Atlanta, Georgia, was sentenced to two months in prison, followed by 180 days’ home detention;
Carlos Rogers, 40, of Alpharetta, Georgia, was sentenced to 180 days’ home detention and 400 hours of community service;
Anthony Montgomery, 37, of Cleveland, Ohio; Antwan Odom, 40, of Irvington, Alabama; Darrell Reid, 39, of Farmingdale, New Jersey; and Fredrick Bennett, 38, of Port Wentworth, Georgia, were each sentenced to 180 days’ home detention and 240 hours of community service; and
Joe Horn, 50, of Columbia, South Carolina, was sentenced to 200 hours of community service.
Infosecurity reported:
If anything, healthcare fraud is an even bigger problem today than at the time of McCune’s wrongdoing, thanks to the COVID crisis.
The US authorities opened a record number of cases in 2020: out of 900 new investigations that year, 580 were related to healthcare fraud, according to the DoJ.
The growth of telemedicine during the pandemic has been a major driver of cybercrime, as it’s easier to fake consultations and prescriptions when patients don’t need to be physically present in clinics.
Sources: Breaking 911, Info Security
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