Richard G. Frohling, Acting United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, announced that on May 29, 2025, US District Judge Joseph P. Stadtmueller sentenced Michael G.V. Comino to 22 months’ imprisonment for conspiracy to pay and receive healthcare kickbacks in violation of the Anti-Kickback Statute. Comino was also ordered to pay over $2 million in restitution to Medicare. According to court records, Comino and his co-defendant owned Kestrel Medical LLC, a company that supplied durable medical equipment, such as orthotic devices, including braces for ankles, knees, backs, and shoulders.
Beginning in August 2019, Comino began providing “leads” or signed doctors’ orders to Kestrel in exchange for kickback payments to two companies he owned. Comino became a fifty percent owner of Kestrel in approximately February 2020, after which he continued to offer and pay kickbacks for signed doctors’ orders. Comino and his co-defendant concealed the nature of the kickback payments by paying invoices for marketing hours. As a result of the conspiracy, Medicare paid over $2 million to Kestrel. Comino personally received hundreds of thousands of dollars from Kestrel in 2019 and 2020.