Florida Men Sentenced in $34.8M Medicare Orthotic-Brace Fraud Conspiracy
ANALYSIS · September 4, 2026 (sentencing announced)
Slug: medicare-fraud-348m-sentencing
Package note: one ANALYSIS; DOJ OPA press release as primary judgment/announcement source. Dollar figure is billed / conspiracy amount per DOJ — not automatically CMS loss. Restitution figure from defense sentencing materials treated as filing discussion, not verified entered judgment.
Primary sources
- Primary (DOJ OPA, Friday, September 4, 2026): Florida Men Sentenced to Prison for $34.8M Health Care Fraud Scheme Targeting Medicare Beneficiaries (Press Release Number: 26-1025)
- Defense sentencing materials (secondary / filings context only): PACERMonitor docket excerpt for USA v. Kenneth Charles Kessler III, flsdce-25-60188 — defense sentencing memo discussed restitution of $17,617,464 to CMS as a statutory restitution amount in filings. Not treated here as a verified final judgment restitution order.
What the sentencing / case does
Facts of judgment and plea as stated in the DOJ Office of Public Affairs release:
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Defendants / sentences (Sep 4, 2026 announcement)
- Kenneth Charles Kessler III, 43, of Miami, Florida — 33 months in prison.
- Michael Andrew Gomez, 43, of Miramar, Florida — 24 months in prison.
DOJ lead sentence also frames the outcome as “multiple years in prison” (aggregate framing); individual terms are 33 and 24 months. -
Pleas (May 2026) — Each pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud. Guilty pleas = admitted conspiracy; September sentencing is the judgment-of-conviction / imposition-of-sentence stage.
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Scheme mechanics (per court documents summarized by DOJ)
- Owned and operated seven Florida-based durable medical equipment (DME) supply companies.
- Billed Medicare for medically unnecessary orthotic braces.
- Paid illegal kickbacks and bribes to obtain fraudulent signed doctors’ orders.
- Shipped braces nationwide, including to beneficiaries who neither requested nor needed them, then claimed Medicare payment.
- Shuffled / shifted billing among their DME companies to evade Medicare payment suspensions. -
Dollar figures stated by DOJ
- Conspiracy / billed figure: “$34.8 million health care fraud conspiracy”; AAG Colin M. McDonald: defendants “billed Medicare $34.8 million.”
- Personal profit (DOJ): Kessler more than $1.4 million; Gomez more than $2.3 million. -
Investigators / prosecutors
- Investigated by FBI Miami and HHS-OIG.
- Prosecuted by Trial Attorneys Aisha Schafer Hylton and Owen Dunn, National Fraud Enforcement Division (NFED) Health Care Fraud Section.
- Announced with U.S. Attorney Jason A. Reding Quiñones, Southern District of Florida (and FBI Miami SAC Brett Skiles; HHS-OIG Acting Deputy IG for Investigations Miranda Bennett). -
Institutional context in the PR (not unique to this case)
- National Fraud Enforcement Division created April 7; work supports the Task Force to Eliminate Fraud chaired by Vice President J.D. Vance.
- Health Care Fraud Strike Force Program: charged more than 6,200 defendants who collectively billed federal health care programs and private insurers more than $45 billion since 2007.
Claims check
| Claim | Assessment | Receipt |
|---|---|---|
| Kessler sentenced to 33 months; Gomez to 24 months | Verified | DOJ OPA PR Sep 4, 2026 |
| “Multiple years in prison” | Framing holds; specifics are 33 and 24 months | DOJ lead uses “multiple years”; body states 33 / 24 months. Both true as headline framing vs individual terms (33 months ≈ 2.75 years; combined terms exceed two years). |
| Each pleaded guilty (May 2026) to one count conspiracy to commit health care fraud | Verified | DOJ OPA PR |
| Owned/operated seven Florida DME companies; unnecessary braces; kickbacks for fraudulent orders; nationwide shipments including unrequested braces; billing shuffled to evade suspensions | Verified as DOJ/court-document summary | DOJ OPA PR (“According to court documents…”) |
| Scheme is a “$34.8 million” fraud / they “billed Medicare $34.8 million” | Verified as billed/conspiracy figure — not automatically CMS loss | DOJ OPA title, body, and AAG McDonald quote. $34.8M = amount billed / conspiracy figure per DOJ. Do not equate to proven CMS out-of-pocket loss without judgment language. |
| Kessler profit >$1.4M; Gomez profit >$2.3M | Verified as DOJ statement | DOJ OPA PR |
| Final restitution ordered at $34.8M | Unsupported by OPA PR | OPA PR emphasizes $34.8M billed / conspiracy; does not state a restitution dollar figure. |
| CMS restitution / loss is $17,617,464 | Defense filing cites ~$17.6M CMS restitution figure — not verified here as entered judgment | Defense sentencing materials in USA v. Kenneth Charles Kessler III (flsdce-25-60188 / PACERMonitor) discussed restitution of $17,617,464 to CMS as statutory restitution amount in filings. Defense sentencing materials discussed $17.6M CMS restitution; OPA PR does not state restitution figure. Do not claim final restitution order amount unless verified from the judgment. |
| Guilty plea = conviction on the conspiracy count; sentencing locks in judgment stage | Verified in sequence | May 2026 pleas; Sep 4, 2026 sentences (DOJ OPA) |
| Case is part of / identical to the largest national DME brace takedowns | Context, not conflation | Related larger DME brace cases exist nationally; keep as pattern context. This matter is the seven-company / $34.8M billed Kessler–Gomez conspiracy as charged/sentenced. |
| NFED created April 7; Task Force chaired by VP Vance; Strike Force >6,200 defendants / >$45B billed since 2007 | Verified as DOJ PR context notes | DOJ OPA PR closing sections |
How coverage splits
Coverage is largely a straight reprint / paraphrase of the DOJ release. Little ideological fight. Claims-check value sits in billed vs loss, sentence-length framing, and situating vs the larger DME orthotic-brace fraud pattern (related larger cases exist — keep as context, not conflation).
Ground News
- Cluster / article locator: 2 South Florida men sentenced in $34.8M health care fraud conspiracy, DOJ says
Use as a coverage map; bias-mix percentages not independently scored in this pass.
Outlet frames (with links)
- NBC 6 Miami (local wire): DOJ-forward local framing — South Florida men, $34.8M conspiracy, 33 / 24 months after May pleas; reprints AAG McDonald quote on billed braces patients “didn’t need and didn’t request.” — https://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/2-south-florida-men-sentenced-in-34-8m-health-care-fraud-conspiracy-doj-says/3855184/
- Townhall (Scott McClallen): Near-verbatim rewrite of DOJ OPA text — “multiple years,” seven DME companies, kickbacks, billing shuffle, profit figures, 33 / 24 months. Conservative outlet, but content is DOJ reprint rather than partisan rebuttal. — https://townhall.com/news/scott-mcclallen/2026/09/04/two-florida-men-sentenced-in-348-million-medicare-brace-fraud-scheme-n2682530
- DOJ / administration enforcement frame: Accountability for Medicare theft; kickbacks and fake orders; NFED + Task Force to Eliminate Fraud institutional messaging in the same release.
Coverage split note: Most outlets reprint DOJ. Little Left/Right fight on facts of conviction. Analytical tension is (1) $34.8M billed vs any CMS loss / restitution figure, (2) “multiple years” headline vs 33- and 24-month terms, and (3) not conflating this sentencing with larger parallel DME brace cases.
Core tension: DOJ’s clean $34.8M billed narrative travels intact through most coverage, while sentencing-memo discussion of ~$17.6M CMS restitution and the gap between headline “multiple years” and 33/24-month terms are the main precision checks for /analysis.
Publish-ready ANALYSIS draft · Storm Wire · 2026-09-07 · for /analysis/medicare-fraud-348m-sentencing