Former US college sports star spearheads $200 million fraud scheme

Date published
May 2026

Relevant impacts:  Human Impact, Government Outcomes Impact, Financial Impact, Business Impact

Former US college football star Joel Rufus French, once signed to the NFL team the Green Bay Packers, has been convicted for involvement in a $200 million scheme to defraud US Medicare and the Civilian Health and Medical Program of the Department of Veterans Affairs

Mr French defrauded the US government by fabricating orders for orthotic braces that patients did not want or need and by selling patient information. Court documents indicated that Mr French worked with overseas call centres to pressure elderly Americans to provide personal information and agree to unneeded braces, altered phone recordings to fabricate evidence and engaged fraudulent practitioners for the appropriate documents. He then supplied braces through 8 different medical device companies that he hid his ownership of, which allowed him to hide his involvement at every stage of the process.

Mr French's conviction offers 2 valuable insights for Australian Government agencies. The first is the dedication and the resources that committed fraudsters are willing to employ to defraud and steal from government programs. Mr French employed multiple strategies and organisations to spearhead his scheme and accumulate $200 million in fraudulent gains and was also willing to launder money to try and cover his actions. The second insight is that fraud is a crime that can be committed by anyone, regardless of background or status. Despite Mr French's comparative prestige, he was willing to engage in comprehensive criminal activity for personal benefit, at the expense of vulnerable Americans.

Mr French was sentenced to 16 years in prison after a 6-day jury trial, has been ordered to pay $110,753,619 in restitution and to forfeit $17 million in seized assets.

Access the source

Related fraudster personas

The Fabricator

The Fabricator invents or produces something that is false to dishonestly gain personal benefits.
ICON 029: Fabricator persona

The Organised

The Organised are groups which use a combination of methods in planned, coordinated and sophisticated ways to dishonestly gain benefits.
ICON 033: Organised persona

The Concealer

The Concealer hides their actions from being seen or known about to dishonestly gain personal benefits.
ICON 032: Concealer persona

The Coercer

The Coercer influences, manipulates or bribes another person to act in a desired way to dishonestly gain personal benefits.
ICON 030: Coercer persona

The Deceiver

The Deceiver makes others believe something that is not true to dishonestly gain personal benefits.
ICON 027: Deceiver persona

Related countermeasures

Governance, accountability and oversight

Establish governance, accountability and oversight of processes by using delegations and requiring committees and project boards to oversee critical decisions and risk. Good governance, accountability and oversight increases transparency and reduces the opportunity for fraud.

Managerial, independent or expert oversight

Make sure a manager, independent person or expert oversees actions and decisions. Involving multiple people in actions and decisions increases transparency and reduces the opportunity for fraud.

Sufficient resourcing

Adequately resourced prevention and compliance areas enable entities to perform effective countermeasures.

Collect accurate and relevant data

Whole-of-Government policies require us to have a high level of confidence in data when providing government services and payments. Create policies, rules, processes and systems to collect accurate and relevant data to help: • process claims • make decisions • check and verify data • analyse data to detect fraud • investigate potential fraud • define new indicators of fraud.

Authenticate identity

Authenticate customer or third-party identities during each interaction to confirm the person owns the identity record they are trying to access.

Random allocation

Randomly allocate requests or claims to staff for processing. This removes the option for staff to select which claims to process.

Verify information

Verify any requests or claim information you receive with an independent and credible source.

Protect data from loss

Personal and government information is highly sought after by fraudsters and organised criminals. The way data is collected and stored can also change the scale and impact of a potential breach. To better protect personal information, the minimal data required for a transaction should be collected, used and retained. Make sure sensitive or official information cannot leave your entity's network without authority or detection.

System testing

Conduct system testing to identify vulnerabilities prior to release. Untested systems can allow vulnerabilities to be released when the system goes live.

Quality assurance checks

Conduct quality assurance activities to confirm that processes are being followed correctly and to a high standard and/or that material or goods are what they are claimed to be. Quality assurance checks not only improve processing standards, they can also detect potentially fraudulent activity and are a significant deterrent to fraud.

Exception reporting

Establish exception reports to identify activities that are different from the standard, normal, or expected process and should be further investigated.

Audits or reviews

Internal or external audits or reviews evaluate the process, purpose and outcome of activities. Clients, public officials or contractors can take advantage of weaknesses in government programs and systems to commit fraud, act corruptly, and avoid exposure.

Investigate fraud

 Investigate fraud in line with the Australian Government Investigation Standards (AGIS).

Submit a case study

We'd like to hear from you if you have a case study to share.

Submit your case study