In a case that ripped the mask off a colossal healthcare fraud scheme, an Arizona man was convicted Tuesday by a Florida federal jury of orchestrating a sprawling $1.4 billion Medicare scam using a shadowy web of telehealth transactions, fake prescriptions, and unnecessary medical devices.
After just three hours of deliberation, jurors in Miami federal court returned a unanimous verdict against Gary Cox, a resident of Maricopa County, Arizona, finding him guilty on six criminal counts linked to a yearslong conspiracy involving an online platform dubbed “DMERx.”
The Digital Engine of Deceit: DMERx
The DMERx system wasn’t a legitimate telehealth tool—it was, as prosecutors described, the digital heartbeat of an organized criminal syndicate. Designed to connect complicit doctors, pharmacies, telemarketers, and medical equipment suppliers, the platform helped funnel fraudulent prescriptions for orthotic braces and other unnecessary devices directly into the Medicare system.
Cox was convicted of:
