Sophie Dufort
Introduction
Sophie Dufort is a 57-year-old resident of Gainesville, Florida, who owned a durable medical equipment (DME) company and managed several other DME companies. A Justice Department release issued on 27 October 2026 announced that a federal jury in the Middle District of Florida convicted her for her role in a fraud scheme that took advantage of the elderly and disabled and caused the submission of over $8.6 million in fraudulent claims to Medicare. The jury found her guilty of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and wire fraud, two counts of health care fraud, one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States and to offer and pay illegal kickbacks, and one count of offering and paying illegal kickbacks. Sentencing is scheduled for January 2027.
Background Information
Per court documents and trial evidence, Dufort’s businesses sat at the receiving end of a prescription pipeline: she owned one DME company and managed several others, the companies that billed Medicare for orthotic braces. The government’s evidence showed she conspired with Paula Pirone, 70, of Ocala, Florida, and others to submit fraudulent claims to Medicare based on fake doctors’ prescriptions. Those prescriptions were illegally purchased from purported marketing companies that used high-pressure, manipulative telemarketing calls to obtain Medicare beneficiaries’ information, then paid medical practitioners to sign prescriptions without contacting or evaluating patients — or stole doctors’ credentials to create forged prescriptions — and sold them to the DME companies.
The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation
Convicted; sentencing pending. A federal jury in the Middle District of Florida convicted Sophie Dufort of health care fraud, wire-fraud conspiracy and kickback charges; her sentencing hearing is scheduled for January 2027.
The scheme, as described in the release, began with telemarketing. The purported marketing companies engaged in high-pressure and manipulative calls to get Medicare beneficiaries’ information, and the recordings of those calls were meant to justify the prescriptions that followed. But when confronted with complaints that the voice on purported call recordings did not match the beneficiaries’ voice, one co-conspirator explained that “some of the calls from overseas would be faked” and used to justify a bogus prescription.
The marketing companies then paid medical practitioners to sign prescriptions for orthotic braces without contacting or evaluating the patients, or stole doctors’ credentials to create forged prescriptions, and sold those prescriptions to Dufort’s and her co-conspirators’ DME companies. Dufort and her co-conspirators shipped braces to Medicare beneficiaries and billed Medicare for millions of dollars in claims, even though the beneficiaries did not want or need the braces and no doctor had examined them to determine whether they did. As one medical expert testified at trial, use of these combinations of braces could be “very dangerous” for the elderly Medicare population.
When people complained and wanted to return the braces, “they would just tell [them] to just get rid of them or . . . just pass them down,” according to the release, so that Dufort and her co-conspirators would not have to pay Medicare back. In total, the scheme caused the submission of over $8.6 million in fraudulent claims to Medicare, and the jury’s verdict held Dufort responsible for her ownership and management role in the companies that profited from it.
Public Reaction and Consequences
The documented response has been institutional. The conviction was announced by Middle District of Florida U.S. Attorney Gregory W. Kehoe and Assistant Attorney General Colin M. McDonald of the Justice Department’s National Fraud Enforcement Division. The case was investigated by the Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG) and the FBI. The release also places the prosecution in a broader enforcement push: the Justice Department announced the creation of its Fraud Division on April 7, describing it as focused on those who commit fraud against the American people, and its Health Care Fraud Strike Force Program has charged more than 6,200 defendants who collectively billed more than $45 billion since 2007. For Dufort, the concrete consequence is the felony conviction record itself, on counts carrying a potential sentence of decades.
Current Status
Dufort stands convicted and awaits sentencing. She faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison for conspiracy to commit health care fraud and wire fraud, 10 years in prison for each health care fraud count and kickback count, and 5 years in prison for conspiracy to defraud the United States and to offer and pay illegal kickbacks. A sentencing hearing is scheduled in January 2027, and a federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney William Hamilton for the Middle District of Florida and Trial Attorney Jody King of the Fraud Division’s Health Care Fraud Section.
Impact on Their Career/Life
Dufort’s career in the durable medical equipment industry — owning one company and managing several others — is now the subject of a federal fraud conviction rather than a business history. The jury found that the companies she owned and managed received and billed from forged or bought prescriptions, targeting elderly and disabled Medicare beneficiaries who never wanted the braces shipped to them. With maximum terms of 20 years on the conspiracy count and 10 years per health care fraud and kickback count, the January 2027 sentencing will determine how much of her future is spent in prison, and the conviction permanently attaches her name to an $8.6 million fraud that a medical expert testified could be “very dangerous” for the elderly.
Sources
- U.S. Attorney’s Office, Middle District of Florida, “Gainesville Woman Convicted in $8.6M Medicare Fraud Scheme” — source