Medicare fraud bought Delray man yachts, Porsches, Rolexes. Now he's bound for prison

With vast wealth that allowed him to buy yachts in Luxembourg and Monaco and roam the streets in Bentleys and Porsches while wearing Rolex watches that cost as much as $45,000, Marc Sporn lived a life of luxury in Delray Beach.

On Thursday, the once high-flying businessman was sentenced to 14 years in prison after admitting he built his financial empire by defrauding Medicare out of as much as $20 million and failing to pay roughly $4 million in income taxes.

U.S. District Judge Donald Middlebrooks ordered the 59-year-old Sporn to make restitution to Medicare and the Internal Revenue Service. He allowed Sporn to remain free on bond until Jan. 23, when he must report to federal prison.

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Sales of Marc Sporn's luxury items start payback to IRS, Medicare

In court papers, his attorney said Sporn has already begun making amends.

He has already paid the IRS the millions it is owed, wrote attorney Oliver Benton Curtis III. Further, he recently gave the government the nearly $131,000 he made when he sold his 2020 white Bentley convertible.

He is in the process of selling other cars, including another Bentley, three Mercedes and a 1965 Porsche, along with expensive watches, diamond necklaces and bracelets he bought with his ill-gotten gains, Curtis said.

Since his arrest in February, Sporn has helped federal prosecutors identify others involved in the far-flung scheme. Also, rather than contest the allegations, in April he pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and one count of tax evasion.

"Mr. Sporn unequivocally accepts full responsibility for his past transgressions," Curtis said.

Bogus prescriptions, unneeded devices, millions in kickbacks

Through a web of telemedicine and telemarketing companies, Sporn lured Medicare beneficiaries into getting medically unnecessary prescriptions, genetic tests and orthopedic devices, federal prosecutors said in court papers.

In exchange for getting them customers, Sporn was paid kickbacks by pharmacies, laboratories and companies that produce topical creams, knee braces and other medical devices or offer testing services.

He also would sell bogus prescriptions, ordered by doctors who worked for his telemedicine companies, to people working for the unscrupulous companies.

The companies would then fraudulently bill Medicare for the medically unnecessary devices, tests and prescriptions, prosecutions said. They would use the proceeds to pay Sporn kickbacks. The illicit scheme operated from January 2017 to April 2021, prosecutors said.

Jane Musgrave covers federal and civil courts and occasionally ventures into criminal trials in state court. Contact her at [email protected].