Gainesville Medical Equipment Company Owner Convicted in $8.6 Million Medicare Brace Fraud Scheme

A federal jury in the Middle District of Florida has convicted a Gainesville woman who owned and managed medical equipment companies of taking part in a scheme that billed Medicare more than $8.6 million for orthotic braces that elderly and disabled patients did not want or need, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Tuesday, Oct. 27.

Sophie Dufort, 57, was convicted of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and wire fraud, two counts of health care fraud, one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States and to offer and pay illegal kickbacks, and one count of offering and paying illegal kickbacks, according to the department. Her sentencing hearing is scheduled for January 2027.

How prosecutors say the scheme worked

According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Dufort owned one durable medical equipment company, often called a DME supplier, and managed several others. Prosecutors said she conspired with Paula Pirone, 70, of Ocala, and others to submit claims to Medicare based on fake doctors' prescriptions for orthotic braces.

The Justice Department laid out the chain this way:

• Purported marketing companies used high-pressure, manipulative telemarketing calls to collect Medicare beneficiaries' information.
• Those companies paid medical practitioners to sign brace prescriptions without contacting or evaluating the patients, or stole doctors' credentials to forge prescriptions.
• The marketing companies sold the prescriptions to the DME companies run by Dufort and her co-conspirators, which prosecutors said amounted to illegal purchases.
• The DME companies shipped braces to beneficiaries and billed Medicare, even though no doctor had examined the patients to determine whether they needed them.

When complaints came in that the voice on purported call recordings did not match the beneficiary's voice, one co-conspirator explained that "some of the calls from overseas would be faked" and used to justify a bogus prescription, the department said.

Patients who complained and wanted to return the braces were told, in the words of trial evidence quoted by prosecutors, "to just get rid of them or . . . just pass them down," so the companies would not have to pay Medicare back.

Risk to patients, not just taxpayers

Prosecutors stressed that the scheme put patients at risk as well as draining Medicare. A medical expert testified at trial that using the combinations of braces involved could be "very dangerous" for the elderly Medicare population, according to the department.

Federal officials routinely urge seniors to review their Medicare statements for equipment they did not order and to be wary of unsolicited calls offering free braces or supplies.

What she faces at sentencing

The maximum penalties for each type of count are set by statute. A federal district judge will determine the actual sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other factors.

The Justice Department release did not describe the status of the case against Pirone, who is named as a co-conspirator.

Who brought the case

Assistant Attorney General Colin M. McDonald of the Justice Department's National Fraud Enforcement Division and Gregory W. Kehoe, U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Florida, announced the verdict. The Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General and the FBI investigated. The Middle District of Florida, where the case was tried, covers 35 counties stretching from Jacksonville through Ocala, Orlando and Tampa to Fort Myers. Trial Attorney Jody King of the Fraud Division's Health Care Fraud Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney William Hamilton are prosecuting.

The department noted that it created its Fraud Division on April 7 and tied the case to President Donald Trump's Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, a government-wide effort chaired by Vice President J.D. Vance targeting fraud, waste and abuse in federal benefit programs.

Why Florida is at the center of Medicare fraud

Florida has one of the country's largest Medicare populations, with more than 5 million residents enrolled, and it has long been a focus of federal health care fraud enforcement. The Justice Department's Health Care Fraud Strike Force Program, now made up of nine strike forces in federal districts across the country, has charged more than 6,200 defendants who collectively billed federal health care programs and private insurers more than $45 billion since 2007, the department said.

Florida defendants are a regular presence in national crackdowns. In the 2026 National Health Care Fraud Takedown announced in June, which charged 455 people nationwide in schemes involving more than $6.5 billion in alleged false claims, 36 defendants were from Florida, WUSF reported. Of the federal cases, 12 came out of the Southern District, six from the Middle District and one from the Northern District, according to WUSF. Florida cases in that sweep included three Tampa-area health care workers accused in a $118 million Medicare fraud involving unnecessary wound care and skin grafts, and a Miami man accused of directing a $3.76 billion scheme that billed Medicare, Medicaid and other insurers for phantom medical supplies. Those defendants have not been convicted.

Brace schemes like the one in Dufort's case are a recurring pattern in those prosecutions: telemarketers harvest seniors' Medicare information, a paid or impersonated prescriber signs off without seeing the patient, and a supplier bills for the equipment. The model drew national attention in April 2019, when federal agencies announced Operation Brace Yourself, which charged 24 people in a telemedicine and brace scheme that indictments said caused more than $1.2 billion in losses.

What's next

Dufort is scheduled to be sentenced in federal court in January 2027. Until then, the conviction stands as a jury verdict, and she may challenge it through post-trial motions or an appeal after sentencing.

Medicare beneficiaries who receive braces or other equipment they did not order, or who get unsolicited calls offering free medical equipment, can report it to the HHS Office of Inspector General hotline at 1-800-HHS-TIPS or to Medicare at 1-800-MEDICARE.