A federal jury in Fort Lauderdale on Thursday convicted a Florida nursing assistant for his role in an $11.4 million health care fraud scheme that sent thousands of medically unnecessary orthotic braces to Medicare beneficiaries across the country.
Christian “Chris” Cruz, 45, of Pompano Beach, was found guilty of participating in a conspiracy to defraud Medicare by submitting false claims for orthotic braces that beneficiaries neither requested nor needed, according to court records and evidence presented at trial.
Prosecutors said Cruz owned and operated a Florida-based durable medical equipment supplier that billed Medicare millions of dollars for the braces. To support the claims, Cruz and a co-conspirator paid illegal kickbacks and bribes to obtain signed doctors’ orders, which were then used to ship braces to hundreds of beneficiaries nationwide.
“Defendant Chris Cruz blatantly lied to Medicare in order to steal over $11 million from hard-working taxpayers,” said Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.
“Nursing Assistant Chris Cruz devised a scheme to enrich himself by defrauding Medicare to the tune of millions of dollars,” said Assistant Special Agent in Charge Chris Caldwell of the FBI Miami Field Office.
Federal authorities also said Cruz falsely represented himself as the sole owner of the company during the Medicare enrollment process, concealing the involvement of a co-owner who is a convicted felon. Medicare would not have approved the company’s enrollment had it known of the co-conspirator’s role, prosecutors said. That individual has been charged but remains at large.
Investigators testified that Cruz personally received several hundred thousand dollars from the scheme, which he frequently withdrew in cash from multiple bank branches in South Florida, often in amounts just below the $10,000 reporting threshold.
“Healthcare fraud is not a paperwork offense—it is a crime that steals from seniors and undermines confidence in our healthcare system,” said U.S. Attorney Jason A. Reding Quiñones for the Southern District of Florida. “This defendant was a licensed nurse who chose greed over duty, exploiting Medicare beneficiaries through a deliberate $11.4 million fraud scheme. The jury’s verdict makes clear that medical professionals who abuse their positions of trust for personal gain will face serious consequences.”
“This brazen scheme stole $11.4 million from Medicare and betrayed taxpayer trust,” said Acting Deputy Inspector General for Investigations Scott J. Lampert of HHS-OIG.
The jury convicted Cruz of one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and wire fraud, four counts of health care fraud, one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States and to make false statements related to health care matters, and three counts of structuring financial transactions to evade reporting requirements.
Cruz is scheduled to be sentenced on April 13. He faces a statutory maximum sentence of 125 years in prison, though a federal judge will determine the final sentence after considering federal sentencing guidelines and other factors.
