A South Florida businessman who built a mini-empire of medical-supply companies is headed to federal prison for a lengthy sentence. On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Donald Graham sentenced Michael Kochen to 17 years in prison after a jury determined that he and a telemarketing accomplice ran a scheme that billed Medicare for around $35 million. The judge also ordered Kochen to reimburse around $19 million.
Kochen wasn’t the only one leaving. Sandro Herek, who ran the telemarketing and telemedicine sides of the organization and provided patients to Kochen, received a term of slightly more than seven years in prison. Both men have been ordered to surrender to federal custody by August 9, 2026.
Prosecutors claimed Kochen ran a network of medical supply companies in North Miami under the CLADD Group LLC brand, targeting Medicare Advantage beneficiaries for orthotic braces and other durable medical equipment. As reported by the Miami Herald, the companies billed Medicare for thousands of braces that physicians frequently approved without taking a close look at the people they were supposed to be treating.
According to federal authorities, the business strategy relied mainly on aggressive contact centers that pushed braces to seniors while collecting personal and insurance information. Telemedicine providers then issued prescriptions, frequently after superficial or nonexistent evaluations, and sent the documentation back to Kochen’s enterprises, which converted the scripts into claims.
According to a press statement from the US Department of Justice, the jury determined that the defendants filed over $34 million in false claims and collected more than $17 million from Medicare Advantage plans. In other words, the plan generated genuine money as well as phony papers.
Kochen’s 17-year sentence was still less than what federal prosecutors desired. They urged Judge Graham to impose a 20-year sentence, describing Kochen and his father, Marcello Kochen, as “professional fraudsters.” However, the court stated that sentencing in similar South Florida health care fraud cases has been inconsistent, so he chose to use the government’s guideline computations.
According to the Miami Herald, defense attorneys attempted to change the story by claiming that Kochen managed a legitimate medical supplier that delivered equipment to patients rather than a pure paper mill.
Kochen’s conviction sheet is long. Jurors found him guilty of conspiracy to commit health care and wire fraud, six different charges of health care fraud, a conspiracy to pay and receive health care kickbacks, and three counts of kickback payments.
Herek was found guilty of conspiracy to commit health care and wire fraud, one count of health care fraud, and many kickback-related offenses relating to the referral pipeline that supplied Kochen’s enterprises. The particular allegations and statutory fines are detailed in a release from the United States Department of Justice.
Both men are set to report to federal detention on August 9, 2026, to begin the jail sentences that would conclude this long-running case. On the financial side, courts will now focus on recovering taxpayer dollars through restitution and any assets that can be forfeited.
Prosecutors have indicated that they intend to keep the pressure on, pursuing collection efforts to recoup the money Medicare Advantage plans paid out on fraudulent claims and resolving lingering forfeiture problems related to the case.
Another significant Medicare fraud conviction resulting in double digit prison sentence in South Florida comes as no surprise. The area has historically been a hotbed for health-care scams, and this case grabbed local attention when the jury returned guilty findings in December.
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