WASHINGTON - Ten former NFL players were charged in a multimillion-dollar scheme to defraud the league's health care benefit program by submitting false claims for medical equipment, including devices used on horses, the U.S. Department of Justice said Thursday.
The players were charged in two separate indictments filed in federal court in Kentucky, accusing them of conspiracy, wire fraud and healthcare fraud. Prosecutors allege they submitted nearly $4 million in phony claims, leading to payouts of about $3.4 million from June 2017 to December 2018.
Those charged include four former Washington Redskins: cornerbacks John Eubanks and Carlos Rogers, linebacker Robert McCune and running back Clinton Portis, whose lawyer Mark Dycio said his client "had no knowledge that his participation in what he believed to be an NFL-sanctioned medical reimbursement insurance program was illegal."
Prosecutors allege the former players targeted the Gene Upshaw NFL Player Health Reimbursement Account Plan, which was established as part of a collective bargaining agreement in 2006. It provides tax-free reimbursement of out-of-pocket medical care expenses that were not covered by insurance and that were incurred by former players, their spouses and dependents.
"As outlined in the indictments, a group of former players brazenly defrauded the plan by seeking reimbursements for expensive medical equipment that they never purchased," said Brian Benczkowski, an assistant attorney general who leads the Justice Department's criminal division.
The players claimed to have purchased hyperbaric oxygen chambers, ultrasound machines and electromagnetic therapy devices that were designed to be used on horses, he explained.
Prosecutors said the group's alleged ringleaders, McCune and Cornell Buckhalter - they allege the former Philadelphia Eagles and Denver Broncos running back broke off to create his own similar ring - would recruit former players by offering to submit fake claims to the health care plan. The ringleaders would then demand thousands of dollars in kickbacks for each fake claim, prosecutors allege.
The suspects are accused of fabricating letters from health care providers about using the medical equipment, fabricating prescriptions that were purportedly signed by healthcare providers and creating fake invoices from medical equipment companies in an effort to prove the equipment was purchased, according to court documents. In reality, they had never purchased or received the medical equipment, prosecutors said.
Investigators believe the defendants forged the prescriptions and authorization letters; they uncovered no evidence any doctors were complicit in the scheme, Benczkowski said. After the phony claims were submitted, the former players would receive reimbursement checks and pay a kickback to the ringleaders and recruiters, the indictments charge.
Prosecutors moved to bring charges in part because the scheme put the health care plan's tax-exempt status at risk, which could have forced other former players using the plan legitimately to pay more, Benczkowski said.
Arrested Thursday morning were Eubanks, McCune, Rogers and Ceandris Brown, a former safety who spent most of his six-plus seasons in the NFL with the Houston Texans. The Justice Department said six other suspects had agreed to surrender to authorities: Buckhalter, Portis, former Texans defensive back Fredrick Bennett, former Giants and Rams safety James Butler, former Falcons and Seahawks safety Etric Pruitt and former Chiefs kick returner Tamarick Vanover.
The Justice Department has also filed court papers in Kentucky noting it plans to charge two other former players: Joe Horn, a four-time Pro Bowl wide receiver for the New Orleans Saints, and Donald "Reche" Caldwell, who played receiver for the Chargers, the Patriots and the Redskins.
The investigation was continuing, but Benczkowski said prosecutors do not expect any current NFL players to face charges because the plan involves only former players.