{"id":128094,"date":"2026-01-22T18:22:06","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T18:22:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/128094\/"},"modified":"2026-01-22T18:22:06","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T18:22:06","slug":"jury-convicts-broward-man-after-federal-trial-for-11-4m-medicare-fraud-with-felon-on-the-run","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/128094\/","title":{"rendered":"Jury convicts Broward man after federal trial for $11.4M Medicare fraud with felon on the run"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph\">FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.  \u2014 A Broward County man \u201cblatantly lied\u201d to the federal government to \u201cfuel\u201d his \u201cown greed\u201d while trying to steal more than $11.4 million, according to federal prosecutors who announced his conviction on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Christian \u201cChris\u201d Cruz, 45, of Pompano Beach, a nursing assistant, owned and operated <a href=\"https:\/\/search.sunbiz.org\/Inquiry\/CorporationSearch\/SearchResultDetail?inquirytype=OfficerRegisteredAgentName&amp;directionType=Initial&amp;searchNameOrder=CRUZCHRIS%20L200002964604&amp;aggregateId=flal-l20000296460-643f76f6-fa4b-413a-9165-a6256d2dc847&amp;searchTerm=Cruz%20Chris&amp;listNameOrder=CRUZCHRIS%20G821341\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/search.sunbiz.org\/Inquiry\/CorporationSearch\/SearchResultDetail?inquirytype=OfficerRegisteredAgentName&amp;directionType=Initial&amp;searchNameOrder=CRUZCHRIS%20L200002964604&amp;aggregateId=flal-l20000296460-643f76f6-fa4b-413a-9165-a6256d2dc847&amp;searchTerm=Cruz%20Chris&amp;listNameOrder=CRUZCHRIS%20G821341\">Brace Yourself MD LLC<\/a>, a Fort Lauderdale-based durable medical equipment supplier, according to state and federal records. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Cruz \u201cdevised a scheme to enrich himself by defrauding Medicare,\u201d FBI Miami Assistant Special Agent in Charge Chris Caldwell said in a statement. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Cruz and Jorge Luis Almansa &#8212; a convicted felon who is on the run &#8212; paid kickbacks and bribes to get signed doctors\u2019 orders, and send thousands of orthotic braces to Medicare beneficiaries who didn\u2019t need them, according to federal investigators and prosecutors.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Cruz and Almansa paid \u201cmarketers,\u201d who used telemedicine companies, to get the orders, without the prescribing doctor ever seeing the patient, and in some cases, used \u201cthe electronic signature of a beneficiary\u2019s own doctor without that doctor\u2019s permission,\u201d according to prosecutors.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Medicare paid more than $3.7 million of the $11.4 million in fraudulent claims, according to court records. Several public consumer complaints with the Better Business Bureau remained online on Thursday. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cI am filing this complaint on behalf of my mother who received braces that she did not order!! Braces for both wrists and legs were sent to my mother in October &#8230; cannot use since she is confined to a wheelchair,\u201d a user wrote on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbb.org\/us\/fl\/ft-lauderdale\/profile\/durable-medical-equipment\/brace-yourself-md-llc-0633-92024240\/complaints\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.bbb.org\/us\/fl\/ft-lauderdale\/profile\/durable-medical-equipment\/brace-yourself-md-llc-0633-92024240\/complaints\">the BBB\u2019s company profile page<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">A federal jury found Cruz guilty of nine charges: 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. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Cruz\u2019s sentencing is on April 13. Investigators with the Health and Human Services\u2019 Office of the Inspector General also investigated the case.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph b-article-body__copyright\">Copyright 2026 by WPLG Local10.com &#8211; All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. \u2014 A Broward County man \u201cblatantly lied\u201d to the federal government to \u201cfuel\u201d his \u201cown&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7344,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[249,251,250],"class_list":{"0":"post-128094","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fort-lauderdale","8":"tag-fort-lauderdale","9":"tag-fort-lauderdale-headlines","10":"tag-fort-lauderdale-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128094","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=128094"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128094\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=128094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=128094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=128094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}