In Boston, Steven Richardson, a 40-year-old resident of Parkland, Florida, and owner of Expansion Media and Hybrid Management Group, is set to plead guilty to charges related to orchestrating a $110 million fraud scheme targeting Medicare through medically unnecessary durable medical equipment (DME), including orthotics like back and knee braces. The announcement was made by acting United States Attorney Joshua S. Levy, alongside several federal agency representatives.
Between March 2016 and January 2023, Richardson’s companies allegedly collaborated with telemarketing firms to exploit Medicare beneficiaries by generating orders for DME, which were largely unnecessary. These telemarketing companies targeted Medicare beneficiaries, generating leads and paying Richardson’s companies on a per-order basis to secure orders for DME.
The scheme involved medical staffing companies, including one located in Massachusetts, to find medical professionals willing to review and sign off on prepopulated orders without any direct interaction with the patients. These records inaccurately suggested that legitimate medical examinations had taken place. Richardson is accused of then supplying these signed orders to the telemarketing companies, which in turn sold the orders to DME suppliers. These suppliers would then submit claims to Medicare based on false documentation and illegal kickbacks, fully aware that the DME they were claiming for was medically unnecessary.