Gainesville Woman Convicted in $8.6M Medicare Fraud

A federal jury convicted Gainesville, Florida, medical equipment business owner Sophie Dufort in a scheme that submitted more than $8.6 million in fraudulent Medicare claims for orthotic braces. Prosecutors said Dufort and her co-conspirators used deceptive telemarketing to obtain beneficiaries’ information, then relied on prescriptions signed without patient evaluations or forged with stolen doctors’ credentials. The companies shipped braces that beneficiaries often had not requested or needed, and billed Medicare; some patients who tried to return the equipment were told to discard or pass it along. A medical expert warned that certain brace combinations could be dangerous for older patients. Dufort was convicted of health care and wire fraud, conspiracy, and illegal kickback offenses, and is scheduled to be sentenced in January 2027.