United States of America v. Jesse Foote

Newark, New Jersey, criminal defense lawyer represented the Defendant charged with multimillion-dollar durable medical equipment (DME) health care fraud and kickback scheme.

From December 2017 to March 2021, Jesse Foote, 60, of Fairfield, Connecticut, conspired with overseas telemarking call centers, DME suppliers, telemedicine companies, and doctors to submit fraudulent claims to health care benefit programs, including Medicare and TRICARE, through a circular scheme of kickbacks and bribes. Foote controlled a marketing company through which he purchased patient “leads” from overseas telemarking companies. The leads consisted of information about Medicare and other beneficiaries and pre-written doctors’ orders for DME. The telemarketing call centers targeted Medicare beneficiaries and others with health insurance to persuade them to accept DME, including orthotic braces, without regard to medical necessity. Foote paid bribes and kickbacks to telemedicine companies, which in turn paid bribes and kickbacks to doctors, to obtain doctors’ orders for DME based on the leads. The doctors often approved the DME orders without having any contact with the beneficiary and without making a bona fide assessment that the DME was medically necessary. Foote then sold the signed doctors’ orders to others with whom he had kickback arrangements. The doctors’ orders were ultimately submitted to DME suppliers, including DME suppliers controlled by Foote, which submitted fraudulent claims for reimbursement to health care benefit programs including Medicare, TRICARE, and private insurance companies.

In total, Foote and his co-conspirators caused the submission of false and fraudulent claims to health care benefit programs totaling more than $7.8 million for DME.

Senior Counsel Lamparello credited special agents of the FBI, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Stefanie Roddy in Newark, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Naomi Gruchacz, and U.S. Department of Defense, Office of Inspector General, Defense Criminal Investigative Service, Northeast Field Office, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Christopher M. Silvestro, with the investigation.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Katherine M. Romano, Chief of the General Crimes Unit in Newark.

The Defendant elected to plead guilty and was sentenced to 30 months in prison. In addition to the prison term, Judge Salas sentenced Foote to three years of supervised release and ordered him to pay $7,878,991.56 in restitution.