A Columbia judge sentenced Herbert Kimble to 20 years in a Medicare brace scheme and for failing to appear.

Monday's 20-year term is the sentence on the guilty pleas. Prosecutors asked for that number, and the defense asked for 15. What does not line up is the money. The U.S. attorney's office describes more than $365 million in false claims, more than $199 million paid by Medicare, and more than $195 million in profit and forfeiture. The State describes a $1 billion scheme and a profit figure of more than $155 million. The SC Daily Gazette describes $1.2 billion.

The U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of South Carolina said United States District Judge Joseph F. Anderson Jr. sentenced Herbert Leon Kimble, 60, of Chicago, on Monday, Oct. 26, 2026, to 240 months in federal prison for conspiracy to defraud the United States and failure to appear. The office said there is no parole in the federal system and that the prison term is followed by three years of court-ordered supervision. It said he was ordered to pay Medicare more than $199 million in restitution and to forfeit more than $195 million in ill-gotten gains. WLTX reported that Justice Department account, including the 20-year term, the supervision, the absence of parole, the restitution, and the forfeiture. The State reported the hearing was at the federal courthouse in Columbia and called the judge Joe Anderson. The SC Daily Gazette also reported a 20-year sentence from U.S. District Judge Joseph Anderson on Monday.

The U.S. attorney's office said Kimble helped run a nationwide scheme that used offshore call centers and sham telemedicine companies to generate medically unnecessary prescriptions for orthotic braces. It said the operation recruited Medicare beneficiaries through deceptive advertising and sold their information, with signed doctors' orders, to durable medical equipment companies for illegal kickbacks disguised as legitimate payments. It said the medical professionals rarely conducted real consultations and signed preselected brace orders. It said he acted as a central architect from the Philippines, caused more than $365 million in fraudulent Medicare claims, of which Medicare reimbursed more than $199 million, and personally profited more than $195 million, including a luxury condominium at the Shangri-La hotel in the Philippines. WLTX reported those same figures. Inside that release, IRS Criminal Investigation Assistant Special Agent in Charge Richard Gaskins called it a "billion-dollar healthcare fraud scheme." Those are two descriptions in one announcement. The claims figure and the billion-dollar line are not the same number.

The State and the SC Daily Gazette printed still other totals. The State called him the mastermind of a $1 billion Medicare fraud scheme, with key parts carried out in South Carolina, and reported he agreed in an August plea agreement to make $199 million in restitution and is forfeiting a $5 million bond he posted in 2019. The State reported Assistant U.S. Attorney Samantha Usher told the judge Kimble profited more than $155 million. The Gazette reported his company swindled $1.2 billion from taxpayers, that more than 80 people have been charged, and that Judge Anderson said the more than $199 million Kimble must pay Medicare is the amount investigators believe he earned. The Gazette also reported Usher said the 20-year term was the longest available under the new plea agreement. A profit of more than $195 million, a profit of more than $155 million, and a restitution figure described as earnings are three accounts. This story does not pick one.

The path from the 2019 plea to Monday's sentence is also told differently at the edges. The U.S. attorney's office said Kimble pleaded guilty in 2019 to a conspiracy against the United States under 18 U.S.C. § 371, failed to appear for multiple proceedings in 2024, was placed on the FBI's Most Wanted Fraudsters list, and was apprehended in the Philippines days later. It said he was indicted on three counts of failure to appear and entered a new plea covering the original charges and that indictment. WLTX reported that account. The State reported he failed to appear for three Columbia proceedings in 2024, was apprehended in June in the Philippines, and was deported, and that officials said his placement as No. 2 on the FBI's Most Wanted List caused Philippine authorities to arrest him. The Gazette reported Usher said agents arrested him in a casino in June 2026, days after he was placed on the most-wanted fraudsters list. The Gazette reported a 2019 deal that would have let him serve probation and pay $40 million. The State reported the 2019 agreement capped his sentence at five years if he cooperated. Both papers reported he cooperated and then fled. The Gazette reported defense attorney Jim Griffin said Kimble had repaid $9 million toward restitution and $5 million on the bond, and that a $10 million investment with a concert promoter came back as nothing.

The hearing itself was a fight over 15 years or 20. The State reported Usher and prosecutor Winston Holliday asked for 240 months, and that Griffin asked for 15 years, citing the early cooperation and what the paper called humanitarian efforts. The State reported Anderson was unmoved, said the cooperation was diminished by nearly two years as a fugitive, and dismissed the charitable work as donations made with stolen money. The State quoted Usher: "He was the architect, the engine, and the fuel. Kimble was the scheme." The Gazette quoted U.S. Attorney Bryan Stirling outside court: "He was the architect; he was the engine; and he was the fuel that preyed upon elderly, disabled and the infirm." The State, quoting a similar line from the U.S. attorney, spelled the surname Sterling. The Justice Department release spells it Stirling. The State reported Kimble, in an orange jumpsuit lettered LCDC and shackled at the hands and feet, told Anderson, "There is never a good reason to run from the law." The State reported defense lawyers wrote that 15 years is already longer than the sentence imposed on all but two defendants in the investigation, and that Usher told reporters more than 80 defendants in more than 21 federal districts have been convicted in connection with the scheme. The Gazette's figure was more than 80 people charged. Monday's order is the sentence on the guilty pleas. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.