Former three-time All-SEC Florida quarterback Shane Matthews, a current Gainesville resident, radio personality and assistant high school football coach, has been sentenced to three months in prison for his minor role in a healthcare fraud conspiracy orchestrated by another former UF player, linebacker Monty Grow.
Matthews, 47, was sentenced in a south Florida court last week after pleading guilty on Aug. 17, 2017, to one count of causing a drug to be misbranded.
On Monday, a federal jury unanimously convicted Grow of healthcare fraud conspiracy for bilking $20 million from the TRICARE program for military members, veterans and their families.
He was also convicted of conspiring to receive and pay kickbacks for referring hundreds of military beneficiaries to Pompano Beach-based pharmacy Patient Care America. He also was convicted of money laundering.
Grow, who faces up to 20 years in prison, was taken into custody immediately. His sentencing hearing is April 16.
In a 49-count indictment, Grow was accused of hiring an independent marketing team, including Matthews, in the conspiracy to fleece the TRICARE program.
Matthews, a former head coach at Nease and the offensive coordinator at Gainesville High, where his son Luke is a star quarterback, was paid $440,000 for lining up sales representatives who secured TRICARE patients for the pharmacy.
According to court filings, the federal government has a forfeiture against Matthews for $439,765. He’s set to report to a federal facility as close to Gainesville as possible. He must surrender on or before noon on June 1.
He’ll be on some kind of electronic “home detention” monitoring for three months and has to do 50 hours of community service, plus pay a fine of $100.
At Matthews’ sentencing hearing, several letters were submitted in his defense, including one from his former wife, Stephanie Weldon, the mother of Matthews’ two children.
“Your honor, please consider Shane’s history as a man and a father in sentencing him for his part in this terrible situation he unknowingly became involved in,” Weldon wrote. “He is not a bad person; he got involved in a very bad situation.
“Shane is a very trusting person and would not have considered the possibility Monty was dragging him into something so sinister and wrong.”
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