Former NFL running back Clinton Portis will serve prison time for healthcare fraud.
Portis was sentenced to six months in prison today for a scheme to falsely claim he purchased expensive medical equipment and then submit receipts for reimbursement to the Gene Upshaw NFL Player Health Reimbursement Account Plan, which helps retired NFL players pay for healthcare costs.
U.S. District Judge Karen K. Caldwell said at the sentencing hearing that although Portis pleaded guilty, he has not owned up to what he did, according to the Lexington Herald-Leader.
Washington Football Team owners Dan and Tanya Snyder wrote a letter to Caldwell on Portis’s behalf, urging leniency.
“Clinton’s generosity is legendary, but so is his trust in others, which sometimes proves misplaced,” the Snyders wrote in. “It has been hard over the years to see Clinton taken advantage of by those who have abused his trust. We were shocked when Clinton was indicted in this case. Not because Clinton got wrapped up in something where others did not have his best interest in mind, but because Clinton is the opposite of a criminal.”
Portis is one of 15 former NFL players charged in the fraud case, and the 10th sentenced. Former Saints receiver Joe Horn quickly pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with the investigation, and he was not sentenced to prison time. The others -- Correll Buckhalter, John Eubanks, Etric Pruitt, James Butler, Ceandris Brown, Carlos Rogers, Anthony Montgomery, Darrell Reid and Frederick Bennett -- have received sentences ranging from home confinement to a year and a half in prison.