Texas Man Sentenced to 90 Months for $59.9 Million Medicare Fraud
On March 9, 2026, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that Patrick Cassells, 65, of Fulshear, Texas, had been sentenced to 90 months in prison for his role in a $59.9 million Medicare fraud conspiracy. The sentence was imposed on March 6 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, and the department released the announcement on March 9. Through three durable medical equipment companies, Cassells caused over $59.9 million in false and fraudulent claims to Medicare, for which Medicare paid over $27 million.
According to court documents, Cassells owned and operated three durable medical equipment companies and concealed his role in one of them by falsely identifying another individual as its sole owner and manager in a Medicare enrollment application. He paid illegal kickbacks to co-conspirators who sent him signed doctors' orders and other paperwork needed to bill Medicare for orthotic braces for the knee, back, shoulder and wrist. The kickbacks were disguised by calling the doctors' orders 'leads' and the services 'marketing.' The orders were issued without doctors examining or treating the patients, and Cassells billed Medicare on the basis that the braces were medically necessary. He used the proceeds to buy personal vehicles and vehicles he intended to export to Nigeria.
Cassells pleaded guilty in June 2024 in the Southern District of Texas to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud. In addition to the prison term, he was ordered to pay $25,402,614.97 in restitution and forfeiture and to forfeit four vehicles and three properties in the Houston area.
Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department's Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Nicholas J. Ganjei for the Southern District of Texas were among the officials who announced the sentence. The case was investigated by the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General, the FBI and the Texas Attorney General's Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, and prosecuted by the Criminal Division's Fraud Section and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Texas.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：位于美国华盛顿的美国卫生与公众服务部总部休伯特·汉弗莱大楼，联邦医疗保险由该部下属机构管理（资料照片）。ajay_suresh 摄，CC BY 2.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: The Hubert H. Humphrey Building, headquarters of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, in Washington, D.C.; Medicare is administered by an agency within the department (file photo). Photo by ajay_suresh, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
