Portis, Vanover, Caldwell charged in fraud scheme
WASHINGTON Clinton Portis, who owns the most 100-yard rushing games in Miami Hurricanes history, was the most prominent of 10 former NFL players charged in a multimillion-dollar scheme to defraud the league’s health care benefit program by submitting false claims for medical equipment, including devices used on horses, charges the Justice Department announced on Thursday.
The players were charged in two separate indictments filed in federal court in Kentucky, accusing them of conspiracy, wire fraud and healthcare fraud. Prosecutors allege they submitted nearly $4 million in phony claims, leading to payouts of about $3.4 million between June 2017 and December 2018.
Those charged include five former players on the Washington Redskins, including Portis and Carlos Rogers.
Portis, who had 14 100-yard games from 1999-2001 in Coral Gables and was on the most recent UM national-title team, was the 2002 NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year and received Pro Bowl honors for two of his nine NFL seasons.
Meanwhile, Tamarick Vanover, who was a first-team All-American kick returner for FSU in 1992, was also charged.
Four of the suspects, McCune, Rogers, John Eubanks and Ceandris Brown, were arrested Thursday morning by the FBI. Six others had agreed to surrender to authorities, the Justice Department said. They are: James Butler, Fredrick Bennett,
Etric
The Justice Department has also filed court papers in Kentucky noting that it plans to file charges against two other players as well, including Joe Horn, a fourtime Pro Bowl wide receiver for the New Orleans Saints, and former Florida Gator Donald “Reche” Caldwell.
Prosecutors allege the players targeted the Gene Upshaw NFL Player Health Reimbursement Account Plan, which was established as part of a collective bargaining agreement in 2006. It provides taxfree reimbursement of out-of-pocket medical care expenses that were not covered by insurance and that were incurred by former players, their spouses and dependents.
The players claimed to have purchased hyperbaric oxygen chambers, ultrasound machines and electromagnetic therapy devices that were designed to be used on horses, he said.
Prosecutors say the group’s alleged ringleaders, Robert McCune and Correll Buckhalter — who they allege broke off to create his own similar ring — would recruit former players by offering to submit fake claims to the health care plan. The ringleaders would then demand thousands of dollars in kickbacks for each fake claim, prosecutors allege.
The suspects are accused of fabricating letters from health care providers about using the medical equipment, fabricating prescriptions that were purportedly signed by healthcare providers and creating fake invoices from medical equipment companies in an effort to prove the equipment was purchased, according to court documents. In reality, they had never purchased or received the medical equipment, prosecutors said.
After the phony claims were submitted, the former players would receive reimbursement checks and pay a kickback to the ringleaders and recruiters, the indictments charge.
Pruitt, Vanover, Portis and Buckhalter.