A federal jury convicted a former NFL player and Texas lab owner of running a $328 million scheme to defraud Medicare through unnecessary genetic tests for heart risks.
Keith J. Gray, 39, of McKinney, owned Axis Professional Labs LLC and Kingdom Health Laboratory LLC.
He paid kickbacks to marketers for referring Medicare patients’ DNA samples, personal data, and doctor-signed orders for unneeded tests, according to court records and trial evidence.
Marketers hired firms to cold-call beneficiaries and chase down their doctors to approve tests based on calls by non-medical staff, not patient exams.
To hide kickbacks, Gray used fake contracts and invoices for “marketing” hours that matched per-sample payoffs. He also disguised payments as “software” fees or nonexistent loans.
Trial evidence showed text exchanges where Gray and a co-conspirator celebrated profits.
The co-conspirator wrote: “$ent, you should have it any minute if you don’t already. Get it?”
Gray replied: “Sorry I was filling my bathtub with ones. Yes lol.”
The labs billed Medicare $328 million for tainted claims, receiving about $54 million. Gray laundered funds into luxury purchases, including a $142,000 Dodge Ram truck and a $145,000 Mercedes-Benz SUV.
Gray was found guilty of conspiracy to defraud the U.S. and to exchange health care kickbacks, five Anti-Kickback Statute violations, and three counts of money laundering. He faces up to 10 years per count, with sentencing pending based on guidelines and other factors.
Gray was a football standout at the University of Connecticut from 2004 to 2008 and served a brief stint with the Carolina Panthers before being permanently sidelined by an injury in 2009.
The investigation was a joint effort by the FBI, the Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General (HHS-OIG), the Texas Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, and the Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General.
Criminal Division Fraud Section Trial Attorneys Ethan Womble and Adam Tisdall are prosecuting.
The Fraud Section oversees health care fraud via the Health Care Fraud Strike Force Program, charging over 6,200 defendants since 2007 for billing more than $45 billion to federal programs and insurers. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and HHS-OIG also pursue provider accountability—more details at www.justice.gov/criminal-fraud/health-care-fraud-unit.
