Former Gaytor football player sentenced to 22 years in prison for healthcare fraud...
Former NFL, UF player Monty Grow gets 22 years in prison for fraud
The Associated Press
A former
NFL and University of Florida football player has been sentenced to nearly 22 years in prison for a health care fraud scheme that prosecutors say bilked the federal government out of about $20 million.
Federal court records show that 46-year-old Monty Grow was sentenced Monday and ordered to pay about $18 million in restitution.
Grow was convicted earlier this year on 17 counts of health care fraud and money laundering in a kickback scheme from Patient Care America, a South Florida compounding pharmacy.
Prosecutors say Grow got millions in illegal payments for recruiting patients who were covered by the Tricare health insurance program for the U.S. Department of Defense, which services veterans.
From 2014 to 2015, Grow and his network of hired sales representatives referred hundreds of
TRICARE patients to PCA, a Broward County pharmacy, according to Grow's indictment.
"Evidence at trial established that Grow targeted Tricare beneficiaries and induced them to order expensive drugs they did not need by paying them either directly for their own prescriptions or indirectly for those of their family and friends," a Department of Justice news release said.
Also named as part of Grow’s scheme, among others, was his former University of Florida teammate, 47-year-old
Shane Matthews, who was paid $440,000 to connect Grow’s reps with TRICARE patients.
Matthews, who also played for several NFL teams during his 14-year career, was sentenced earlier in February to three months in prison for his role.
Grow played two NFL seasons with the
Jacksonville Jaguars and
Kansas City Chiefs. From 1989 until 1993 he was a linebacker for the Florida Gators.