Former NFL Player and College Standout Keith Gray Convicted in $328M Medicare Fraud Scheme in Texas

Keith Gray, who briefly played for the Carolina Panthers in 2009, was convicted for his role in a $328 million Medicare fraud scheme, authorities said. A federal jury in Dallas convicted the 39-year-old former NFL player and University of Connecticut student athlete for orchestrating “a scheme to bill Medicare for medically unnecessary genetic tests designed to evaluate the risk of various cardiovascular diseases and conditions,” according to a U.S. Department of Justice news release. As the owner and operator of two clinical laboratories, Gray, of McKinney, Texas, offered and “paid kickbacks to marketers in exchange for their referral of Medicare beneficiaries’ DNA samples, personally identifiable information (including Medicare numbers) and signed test orders from medical providers authorizing the medically unnecessary genetic tests,” prosecutors said, citing the evidence at trial. Through his companies — Axis Professional Labs LLC and Kingdom Health Laboratory LLC — Gray billed Medicare about $328 million and netted a $54 million profit, according to authorities. Prosecutors said in the release that Gray laundered some of the proceeds to buy luxury vehicles, including a Dodge Ram truck valued at more than $142,000 and a Mercedes-Benz SUV worth more than $145,000. A jury found the retired athlete guilty of conspiracy to defraud the United States and to pay and receive health care kickbacks, five counts of violating the Anti-Kickback Statute and three counts of money laundering. He will be sentenced at a later date and faces a maximum penalty of 10 years prison time on each count. Born in Allen, Texas, Gray attended high school in Worcester, Mass . In 2007, Gray started all 13 games at center for the UConn Huskies. His NFL career started when he briefly joined the Carolina Panthers as an undrafted free agent, according to TMZ . The player then signed on to the Indianapolis Colts practice squad. Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. In an interview on an industry podcast in 2021 , Gray, then CEO of Dallas-based healthcare management company Parameno Health, revealed that he wanted to have a career plan following football. He explained that led to his decision to obtain a bachelor’s degree in actuarial science and mathematics at UConn, after his parents told him not to get a communications degree. “When I went into the math building, the head of the actuarial program saw me with my football sweats and he said, ‘Hey, what are you doing in here?’ I was like, 'I’m going to sign up to get a math degree.' ‘Well, what about actuarial finance?’ I was like, 'I don’t know what that is,' " Gray recalled. "And so when he told me he sounded great, he said, 'Actuaries have almost a 0% unemployment rate. They make really good money. So when you’re done playing football, you can still make good money.’ All right, let’s do this.”