District Judge Virginia M. Hernandez Covington has sentenced Lino Mallari Gutierrez, a/k/a “Joe Gutierrez,” (59, Palm City) to 17 years and 6 months in federal prison and ordered him to pay more than $5.6 million in restitution for his role in a scheme to defraud Medicare. Gutierrez and his co-conspirators submitted over $10.8 million in fraudulent claims for durable medical equipment (DME) that Medicare beneficiaries did not want or need and that were procured through the payment of kickbacks. According to court documents and testimony, over a six-month period from October 2018 to April 2019, Gutierrez conspired with others to steal millions of dollars from Medicare by creating sham companies that shipped braces to Medicare beneficiaries —some of whom co-conspirators identified through telemarketing and others whose personal identifying information conspirators stole to submit fraudulent Medicare claims. Gutierrez and his conspirators paid kickbacks to other companies in exchange for signed doctors’ orders. These companies used overseas call centers to solicit patients and fraudulent telemedicine companies to procure fake prescriptions for braces for Medicare beneficiaries. As part of the conspiracy, Gutierrez, a licensed broker, also filed false records with his employer and a private regulatory organization of brokers to conceal his involvement in the DME companies.