Herbert Leon Kimble, a 60-year-old from Chicago who ran a Medicare orthotic-brace fraud from the Philippines, has been sentenced to 20 years in federal prison. U.S. District Judge Joseph F. Anderson Jr. also ordered him to pay more than $199 million in restitution to Medicare and to forfeit more than $195 million, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of South Carolina said in a release dated Oct. 26.
The 240-month sentence comes with three years of supervised release. Kimble first pleaded guilty in 2019 to conspiracy to defraud the United States, then skipped court in 2024, ended up on the FBI’s Most Wanted Fraudsters list and was arrested in the Philippines. A new plea agreement covers both the original conspiracy charge and the failure-to-appear counts.
The people the scheme was built around were Medicare beneficiaries. Prosecutors say recruiters found them through deceptive advertising, and call centers and sham telemedicine companies then produced prescriptions for braces that patients did not need. Anyone on Medicare who ever received a brace they did not ask for, or who sees one on a statement, has a reason to look at what Medicare was billed in their name.
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How did the brace scheme work?
According to the release, the operation ran through offshore call centers and sham telemedicine companies. Doctors and other medical professionals rarely spoke with the patients and typically signed preselected brace orders. Kimble then sold patient information and the signed orders to durable medical equipment companies, which paid kickbacks disguised as ordinary business payments.
Prosecutors say he directed it all from the Philippines, coordinating how patients were found and how prescriptions were produced. Medicare was billed more than $365 million in fraudulent claims and paid more than $199 million of them, and the release says Kimble personally took in more than $195 million. He used some of that money to buy a luxury condo at the Shangri-La hotel in the Philippines, Townhall reported.
What did prosecutors and agents say?
“Kimble orchestrated one of the largest international healthcare fraud schemes in our nation’s history,” said U.S. Attorney Bryan Stirling. Colin M. McDonald, the Justice Department’s Assistant Attorney General for the National Fraud Enforcement Division, said Kimble “targeted vulnerable Medicare beneficiaries, pocketed millions, and then fled the country rather than face justice.”
Richard Gaskins of IRS Criminal Investigation’s Charlotte Field Office said “Kimble’s case proves you cannot outrun justice.” Kelly Blackmon, the HHS Office of Inspector General special agent in charge, said the case shows that fraud, deception and kickbacks against federal health programs will be punished. The FBI, HHS-OIG and IRS Criminal Investigation investigated, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Samantha Usher prosecuted.
What should Medicare members look for on their own statements?
Medicare tells members to compare the dates and services on their own calendar with the Medicare statements they receive, and to check provider receipts for mistakes. A free Medicare.gov account lets people view Original Medicare claims as soon as they are processed.
The same page says not to give a Medicare card, Medicare number, Social Security card or Social Security number to anyone except a doctor or others who should have it, and that Medicare will never call to sell anything or visit a home. Suspected fraud can be reported by calling 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227) or through the form on the HHS Office of Inspector General site.
None of that requires a beneficiary to agree to anything. Prosecutors say the doctors’ orders were preselected and signed without a real consultation, which is why the statement in the mailbox is the first place a stranger’s billing shows up.
Could someone use your Medicare number the way Kimble’s recruiters did?
The scheme that billed Medicare more than $365 million was built on patient information gathered through advertising and call centers. Medicare’s own guidance says a Medicare number belongs with a doctor and almost no one else, and the same goes for the logins and credit files a scammer would reach for next.
Scam-Proof Your Accounts in a Weekend gives ten moves in the order that protects the most money first, in about four hours. It covers how to freeze your credit at all three bureaus, free by federal law, and how to lock your bank logins with two-step login, alerts and a verbal password. The Kimble case is about Medicare billing, so this is the wider step: closing the ways scammers get into money once they have your details.
This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
David M. Keller is a finance writer based in Columbus, Ohio, covering personal finance and consumer-focused economic topics. He earned his degree in journalism from Ohio University and began his career reporting on local business and economic trends for a regional media outlet. Since then, he has contributed to a variety of online publications, focusing on clear, practical coverage of topics such as cost of living, debt, and everyday financial decision-making.
