Tampa resident Monty Ray Grow, 45, is staring down federal charges after being indicted in the Southern District of Florida for orchestrating a massive Tricare health care fraud scheme that netted $20 million in illicit kickbacks. The indictment unsealed this week lays bare a calculated operation that exploited military families’ health benefits through fake prescriptions, cash laundering, and illegal drug sales.
Grow is charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States, health care fraud, receiving and paying illegal kickbacks, money laundering, and causing the misbranding of drugs—allegations spanning September 2014 to June 2015. According to prosecutors, he funneled patients covered by Tricare—a program serving active-duty military, retirees, and dependents—through a compounding pharmacy in Broward County in exchange for kickbacks, all while bypassing required medical evaluations.
The scheme relied on telemedicine companies that issued compounded medication prescriptions without ever laying eyes on the patients. These prescriptions, the indictment alleges, had no basis in medical necessity. The fake orders were then used to bill Tricare, defrauding the federal program and diverting taxpayer funds into Grow’s pockets and his co-conspirators’ accounts.
Investigators say Grow laundered millions through high-end real estate, luxury vehicles, and securities—tangible spoils from a fraud that preyed on the very system meant to protect U.S. service members and their families. Federal agents seized financial records and transaction trails linking the proceeds directly to Grow’s lifestyle upgrades, building a paper trail prosecutors now plan to weaponize in court.
The takedown was led by a coalition of federal watchdogs: the Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS), HHS-OIG, FDA’s Office of Criminal Investigations, and the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command’s Major Procurement Fraud Unit. U.S. Attorney Wifredo A. Ferrer praised the collaboration, calling the case a strike against those who profit from military health care fraud.
Grow remains presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kevin J. Larsen and Jon Juenger. Court documents are available via the Southern District of Florida’s public docket at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov.
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Key Facts
- State: Florida
- Agency: DOJ USAO
- Category: Fraud & Financial Crimes
- Source: Official Source ↗
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