Two executives were each sentenced to 20 years in prison after being convicted for their roles in a years-long scheme to steal from the Affordable Care Act (ACA) programme.
The defendants, the president of an insurance brokerage firm and the CEO of a marketing company, preyed on tens of thousands of vulnerable consumers to improperly enrol them into fully subsidised ACA plans, for which the defendants earned millions of dollars in commission payments from insurance companies.
According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Cory Lloyd, 47, of Stuart, Florida, and Steven Strong, 43, of Mansfield, Texas, engaged in an extensive fraud scheme that sought over $233 million in fraudulent ACA plan subsidies for which the federal government paid at least $180 million.
As proven at trial, Lloyd and Strong targeted vulnerable, low-income individuals experiencing homelessness, unemployment, and mental health and substance abuse disorders, and, through “street marketers” working on their behalf, sometimes offered bribes to induce those individuals to enrol in subsidised ACA plans.
Evidence presented at trial showed that Lloyd and Strong conspired to enrol these vulnerable consumers in fully subsidised ACA plans by submitting false and fraudulent applications for individuals whose income did not meet the eligibility requirements for the subsidies.
As a result of enrolling in subsidised ACA plans for which they did not qualify, some of these consumers experienced serious disruptions in their medical care or in their prior insurance coverage under Medicaid or other programs.
These individuals were put at risk of losing access to life-saving treatments for opioid use disorders, mental health disorders and serious infectious diseases.
The evidence at trial further showed that Lloyd received commissions and other payments from an insurance company in exchange for enrolling consumers in the ACA plans. In turn, Lloyd paid commissions to Strong in exchange for consumer referrals.
To maximise these commission payments, Lloyd and Strong used misleading sales scripts and other deceptive sales techniques to convince consumers to state that they would attempt to earn the minimum income necessary to qualify for a subsidised ACA plan, even when the consumer initially stated to insurance agents that they had no income.
Lloyd and Strong also conspired to bypass the federal government’s attempts to verify income and other information and deliberately submitted thousands of applications to Medicaid for various individuals in a way that guaranteed their denial so that they could sign up these same consumers for a fully subsidised ACA plan outside of the open enrollment period and therefore maximise their commissions year-round.
Evidence presented at trial showed that the defendants exchanged text messages bragging about the money they were making and belittling the people they victimised in the process.
In one text exchange, Strong suggested to Lloyd that the pair send street marketers into hurricane shelters in Florida. Lloyd replied, “It’s a killer idea, if we could pull it off! … I want to rake the shelters! R*pe.” Strong replied, “Haha I’m not kidding,” and Lloyd confirmed, “Me either…let’s f*uck em up.”
The defendants used money from the scheme to purchase luxury homes, including a waterfront home in the Florida Keys depicted below, an 80-foot yacht and a Tesla.
Waterfront Home in the Florida Keys
In November 2025, Lloyd and Strong were both convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, three counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States.
Strong was also convicted of two counts of money laundering. Both Defendants were sentenced to a total of 20 years in prison and ordered to pay $180.6 million in restitution.
A third defendant, Dafud Iza, previously pleaded guilty to major fraud against the United States and was sentenced to 35 months in prison for his role in the scheme.
“Preying upon medically compromised consumers to rob hundreds of millions from taxpayer-funded programs is evil and unforgivable,” said Attorney General Pamela Bondi. “Fraud schemes like this rob citizens and shake faith in our institutions — today’s sentencing is the latest example of this DOJ’s commitment to fighting fraud nationwide.”
“These defendants didn’t just commit fraud; they built a business model around exploiting people at their most vulnerable,” said FBI Director Kash Patel. “They targeted vulnerable individuals in the community, manipulated federal health programs for profit, and put victims at risk of losing critical medical care so they could cash in. Stealing hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars while endangering lives is as callous as it gets. The FBI and our partners will continue to track down and hold accountable anyone who treats vulnerable Americans as a payday.”
“These defendants will rightly spend decades in prison for taking advantage of thousands of vulnerable people and stealing millions from a health care safety net designed for working families,” said Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “These defendants were sophisticated, licensed insurance brokers. They had everything and intentionally took advantage of people who had nothing. The message from these sentences is simple: those who seek to line their own pockets with taxpayer dollars, victimise our most vulnerable, and deplete federal programs will be held accountable.”
“These defendants designed a purposeful scheme to profit from human suffering, targeting individuals at their most vulnerable moments, solely for personal gain,” said Inspector General T. March Bell of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG). “Their callous greed put lives at risk, and such disregard for human dignity is unacceptable. HHS-OIG will continue to work tirelessly with our law enforcement partners to ensure that those who defraud federal health care programs and endanger public health are brought to justice.”
“Benefit fraud against public programs isn’t just a crime — it hurts real people, especially the most vulnerable,” said IRS Criminal Investigation Chief Guy Ficco. “These sentencings send a powerful message: cheating a federal program comes with serious consequences. IRS-CI and our law enforcement partners will stop at nothing to track down those who exploit these programs and bring them to justice. If you steal from the public, you will be caught — and you will pay the price.”
“These defendants didn’t just steal money — they built a $233 million fraud scheme on the backs of vulnerable people,” said U.S. Attorney Jason A. Reding Quiñones for the Southern District of Florida. “They targeted individuals struggling with homelessness, addiction, and mental health challenges, manipulated them for profit, and jeopardised their access to legitimate medical care. In the process, the federal government paid out at least $180 million in fraudulent subsidies — money stolen from the American people and a health care safety net designed for working families. That level of calculated exploitation demands serious prison time, and today’s sentences reflect the scale and cruelty of this crime.”
