Aside from the fact that he got caught and might spend the rest of his life locked up, Cristopher “Chris” Cruz, 45, of Pompano Beach, Florida, a licensed nursing assistant, managed to build a layer cake of healthcare and related fraud around the average DME scam.
His world came crashing down in January 2026 when he was convicted for his role in the $11.4 million conspiracy.
For that, you and I can be grateful for the comparative ease at which we can learn three important lessons about healthcare-related fraud in under a few minutes.
Cruz held himself out as the sole owner of a DME supplier. However, he had a partner, a co-conspirator, a convicted felon whose ownership interest was not disclosed when Cruz enrolled the company as a Medicare supplier. Had he disclosed the co-owner, Medicare would have rejected the application.
Cruz and his co-conspirator, who by the way, is on the run, paid illegal kickbacks and bribes to obtain signed doctors’ orders, which they used to ship orthotic braces to Medicare beneficiaries across the country, individuals who neither requested nor required the braces.
Cruz withdrew cash from the fraudulent scheme from his personal bank account, but did so by “structuring”, breaking a withdrawal of $10,000 or more that would otherwise trigger bank reporting into smaller transactions. He did this by withdrawing cash on consecutive days at different bank branches in amounts just under the threshold.
Cruz was convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and wire fraud, four counts of health care fraud, one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States and to make false statements relating to health care matters, and three counts of structuring. He’s scheduled to be sentenced on April 13 and faces a maximum penalty of 125 years in prison.
For you, the lessons are pretty clear:
- When enrolling as Medicare provider or a supplier, tell the truth. Everything that flows from a fraudulent application will be seen as fraud.
- There’s a market for signed doctors’ orders for fraudulent DME. Every single one of those orders started with a doctor who was willing to sign. Don’t let that be you.
- Whether it’s funds from fraud or funds from farming, don’t break up withdrawals of cash with an intent to avoid the bank reporting threshold of $10,000. And in fact, it works the same way in reverse, i.e., breaking up deposits of cash. Intent is key. Without it, it’s not illegal. But the fact that you acted with intent can be inferred from the activity itself. The crime, “structuring”, can lead to years in federal prison, fines, civil monetary penalties, and asset forfeiture.
Stay tuned. There’s always more fraud to unpack next Friday.
