Three Broward County men are headed to federal prison after prosecutors said they turned medically unnecessary orthotic braces into a multimillion-dollar Medicare cash machine. Marco Scamarone, 34, of Tamarac, was sentenced to 70 months in prison; Jose Mendez, 34, of Coral Springs, received 78 months; and Renee Vazquez, 33, of Tamarac, was ordered to serve 60 months. Prosecutors say their companies pushed roughly $6.9 million in bogus claims through Medicare and washed more than $2.2 million of the proceeds through shell entities.
Federal release outlines alleged scheme
According to a Department of Justice press release, the defendants owned and ran Braces and Orthotics LLC and Stone Oak Durable Medical Equipment LLC. Prosecutors say that between January 2022 and February 2023 those companies submitted about $6.9 million in fraudulent Medicare claims. The release describes a conspiracy that relied on illegal kickbacks and bribes to an offshore marketing company in exchange for patient referrals and bogus doctors’ orders. Federal officials also allege the three used shell companies to launder more than $2.2 million in criminal proceeds.
How prosecutors say they ran it
Local reporting by WPEC/CBS12 notes that court filings describe an offshore call center in the Philippines and a web of marketing outfits that supplied beneficiary data and physicians’ orders. Investigators allege Scamarone and Mendez tried to hide their control of the businesses by using nominal owners, and say the group shuffled money through cash withdrawals and shell companies to obscure where it came from. All three men pleaded guilty in December 2025 to conspiracy to commit money laundering, according to the station’s coverage.
Sentencing and financial penalties
The Department of Justice says the court did not stop at prison time. Scamarone and Mendez were each ordered to forfeit $2,217,840.35 and to pay $3,016,324.20 in restitution. Vazquez was ordered to forfeit $1,723,773.18 and to pay $2,249,392.09 in restitution. Prosecutors say the judge also barred all three from taking part in federal health care programs, effectively cutting them off from the system they were accused of exploiting.
Who investigated and prosecuted
Local reporting by Coral Springs News says the case drew in multiple watchdog agencies, including the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General, the FBI’s Miami Field Office, and the U.S. Department of Labor Office of Inspector General. Trial Attorney Claire Horrell of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Alexander Pogozelski of the Southern District of Florida handled the prosecution, according to the outlet. Prosecutors pointed to the case as part of a broader push to choke off fraud tied to durable medical equipment.
Broader context
Legal and industry coverage indicates this case is one tile in a much larger mosaic of enforcement against telemarketing-driven durable medical equipment schemes that lean on sham telemedicine consults, straw owners, and aggressive marketing networks to churn out fraudulent claims. Recent legal roundups, including a digest from Mondaq, highlight a steady stream of takedowns and convictions. Regulators, those reports note, are increasingly zeroing in on the marketers and billing networks that fuel these operations, not just the suppliers that ultimately submit the claims.
