Lester Stockett, 52, of Medellin, Colombia, the owner and chief executive officer (CEO) of a telemedicine company, pleaded guilty for his role in one of the largest healthcare fraud schemes ever investigated by the FBI and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General (HHS-OIG) and prosecuted by the Department of Justice, which resulted in charges in April 2019 against 24 defendants. Stockett was the owner of Video Doctor USA (Video Doctor) and Telemed Health Group LLC (AffordADoc) (collectively, the Video Doctor Network), and was the CEO of AffordADoc. Stockett and others transferred the brace orders to co-conspirator brace suppliers to support more than $424 million in false and fraudulent claims to Medicare that were submitted by brace suppliers, he admitted. Medicare paid these brace suppliers in excess of $200 million for these claims. Stockett admitted that he and other executives and employees of the Video Doctor Network were aware that it was a violation of the Anti-Kickback Statute for the Video Doctor Network or its owners or investors to receive money, directly or indirectly, from patient recruiters, purported marketers or marketing organizations, brace suppliers or pharmacies. Stockett and his co-conspirators concealed the illegal kickbacks and bribes by causing them to be paid indirectly through nominee companies and bank accounts, opened by Stockett and others in nominee names both in the United States and in foreign countries, including in the Dominican Republic, Stockett admitted. Stockett further admitted that he and others hid the existence of the foreign companies and bank accounts by making, or causing to be made, false statements to financial institutions and falsely reporting to the IRS and others that they and others had no influence over foreign bank accounts.
