A Texas man was sentenced Friday to 90 months in prison for a $59.9 million conspiracy to pay kickbacks and submit claims for medically unnecessary durable medical equipment to Medicare.
Court documents say that Patrick Cassells, 65, of Fulshear, Texas, owned and operated three DME companies and concealed his role in one of those companies by falsely identifying another individual as the sole owner and manager in a Medicare enrollment application.
Cassells allegedly paid illegal kickbacks to co-conspirators who sent him signed doctors’ orders and other paperwork necessary to bill Medicare for orthotic braces such as knee, back, shoulder and wrist braces.
The kickbacks were disguised by referring to the doctors’ orders as “leads” and the services provided as “marketing.”
Based on these orders, which were issued without doctors examining or treating the patients, Cassells submitted claims to Medicare that falsely represented that the braces were medically necessary. Through the three companies, Cassells caused over $59.9 million in false and fraudulent claims to Medicare, for which Medicare paid over $27 million.
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Cassells used the fraud proceeds to purchase personal vehicles and vehicles that he intended to export to Nigeria.
In June 2024, Cassells pleaded guilty in the Southern District of Texas to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud.
In addition to the prison sentence, Cassells was ordered to pay $25,402,614.97 in restitution and forfeiture, and to forfeit four vehicles and three properties in the Houston area.
#BREAKING Patrick Cassells will spend the next 7.5 years in prison and pay more than $25 million in restitution after submitting almost $60 million in fraudulent claims to Medicare.
— FBI Houston (@FBIHouston) March 6, 2026
He used proceeds from this fraud scheme to purchase personal vehicles as well as cars he intended… pic.twitter.com/uUFPdLKtCx
In February, a fraud task force led by Vice President J.D. Vance announced a nationwide six-month moratorium on Medicare enrollment for durable medical equipment suppliers because of rampant Medicare fraud.
Since then, multiple people have been charged, convicted, or sentenced for DME Medicare fraud.
In Georgia, a man was ordered to repay $27.9 million for alleged telemedicine equipment fraud. In Mississippi, two men owned three DME companies and allegedly bilked taxpayers out of $19 million in unnecessary equipment billed to Medicare.
Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; U.S. Attorney Nicholas J. Ganjei for the Southern District of Texas; Special Agent in Charge Jason Meadows of the Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Inspector General’s (HHS-OIG) Dallas Region; Special Agent in Charge Douglas Williams of the FBI’s Houston Field Office; and Chief William Marlow of the Texas Attorney General’s Office, Medicaid Fraud Control Unit made the announcement.
HHS-OIG, FBI, and the Texas Medicaid Fraud Control Unit investigated the case.
Acting Assistant Chief Catherine Wagner and Trial Attorney Adam Tisdall of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Kristine Rollinson for the Southern District of Texas prosecuted the case.
The Fraud Section leads the Criminal Division’s efforts to combat health care fraud through the Health Care Fraud Strike Force Program. Since March 2007, this program, currently comprised of eight strike forces operating in federal districts across the country, has charged more than 6,200 defendants who collectively billed federal health care programs and private insurers more than $45 billion.
