One former football star is going to be behind bars for over a decade.
Joel Rufus French was sentenced to 196 months in prison for his role in defrauding Medicare and the Civilian Health and Medical Program of the Department of Veterans Affairs out of $197 million, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Friday.
French will also have to pay $110,753,619 in restitution and give up the nearly $17 million the government took from his bank accounts and other assets on his ledger.
The former tight end, who was a unanimous All-American in 1998 with Ole Miss, was convicted in February in a six-day trial on charges of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and conspiracy to offer, pay, solicit and receive kickbacks.
action during a game against the Auburn Tigers
at the Hemingway…
Identity theft is the “foundational” fraud upon which many other crimes are built. It involves the unauthorized acquisition and use of a person’s personal identifying information (PII), such as an ID number, Social Security number, or passport details.
- How it works: Fraudsters obtain PII through data breaches, mail theft, or “social engineering” (tricking people into revealing details). Once they have this data, they can open new bank accounts, apply for credit cards or loans, and even receive medical treatment under your name.
- Synthetic Identity Fraud: A sophisticated variation where criminals combine real and fabricated information to create a completely new, “synthetic” person. This is particularly difficult to detect because there is no single victim to report the suspicious activity initially.