Florida men sentenced in $34.8 million Medicare brace fraud scheme

Two Florida men have been sentenced to federal prison for participating in a $34.8 million Medicare fraud scheme involving medically unnecessary orthotic braces, including braces sent to beneficiaries who neither requested nor needed them, the Justice Department announced.

Kenneth Charles Kessler III, 43, of Miami, and Michael Andrew Gomez, 43, of Miramar, owned and operated seven durable medical equipment companies based in Florida, according to court documents. Through those companies, prosecutors said, the pair submitted millions of dollars in false claims to Medicare for medically unnecessary braces.

Court documents show Kessler and Gomez paid illegal kickbacks and bribes to obtain fraudulent signed doctors’ orders, which they used to ship braces to Medicare beneficiaries across the country, including people who neither requested nor needed the equipment. They then submitted claims to Medicare for the braces. The two also shifted fraudulent billing among their companies to evade Medicare payment suspensions, prosecutors said.

Kessler profited more than $1.4 million from the scheme, while Gomez profited more than $2.3 million, according to the Justice Department. Kessler was sentenced to 33 months in prison, and Gomez received a 24-month sentence. Both men pleaded guilty in May 2026 to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud.

“These fraudsters billed Medicare $34.8 million for braces that patients didn’t need and didn’t request — and now they’re paying the price,” said Assistant Attorney General Colin M. McDonald of the Justice Department’s National Fraud Enforcement Division. McDonald said the defendants paid kickbacks for fake doctors’ orders, shifted billing among several companies to avoid payment suspensions and pocketed millions of dollars belonging to American taxpayers.

“Medicare is not a blank check for fraudsters,” said U.S. Attorney Jason A. Reding Quiñones for the Southern District of Florida, adding that the sentences reinforce the message that those who steal from federal health care programs will be found, prosecuted and held accountable.

The FBI and the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General investigated the case. The announcement also credited FBI Miami Field Office Special Agent in Charge Brett Skiles and HHS-OIG Acting Deputy Inspector General for Investigations Miranda Bennett. Trial Attorneys Aisha Schafer Hylton and Owen Dunn of the National Fraud Enforcement Division’s Health Care Fraud Section prosecuted the case.

The Justice Department also noted that it created the National Fraud Enforcement Division on April 7. The department said its broader efforts to combat fraud support President Trump’s Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, chaired by Vice President J.D. Vance. Since 2007, the department’s Health Care Fraud Strike Force Program has charged more than 6,200 defendants who collectively billed federal health care programs and private insurers more than $45 billion, according to the release.