Jury convicts former NFL player Keith J Gray in $328 million Medicare fraud scheme involving kickbacks

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Former UConn football standout and Texas laboratory owner Keith J. Gray was convicted Thursday for his role in a wide-ranging genetic testing fraud scheme, the Justice Department announced Friday.

According to investigators, the cardiovascular testing scheme generated up to $328 million in fraudulent claims. Gray, who never appeared in a regular season NFL game, owns Axis Professional Labs and Kingdom Health Laboratory.

He was convicted of conspiracy to defraud the United States and to pay and receive health care kickbacks, five counts of violating the anti-kickback statute. Gray also faces three counts of money laundering, a news release from the DOJ confirmed.

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Texas lab owner and former NFL player Keith J. Gray was convicted of conspiracy to defraud the United States and to pay and receive health care kickbacks. Gray faces five counts of violating the anti-kickback statute and three counts of money laundering. (Wesley Hitt/Getty Images)

Prosecutors said Gray knowingly billed Medicare for "medically unnecessary genetic tests designed to evaluate the risk of various cardiovascular diseases and conditions." According to officials, Gray provided kickbacks in return for referrals of DNA samples and executed test orders authorizing the procedures.

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Marketers would seek out Medicare beneficiaries and "doctor chase" to uncover the identity of the beneficiaries' primary care physicians. Prosecutors said that once an individual’s identity was obtained, a doctor was believed to have been pressured