$20M TRICARE fraud scheme landed Pascagoula football legend in prison. Here are the details.

Pascagoula High School and Florida football legend Shane Matthews is in a Miami federal prison after being sentenced to three months for his role in a healthcare fraud scheme.

The former NFL quarterback was sentenced in February for his involvement in a $20 million health care fraud conspiracy orchestrated by a former Florida teammate, Monty Grow.

Grow was sentenced to 22 years in prison in April in a fraud conspiracy to take millions of dollars from TRICARE, the healthcare program for military members, veterans and their families, according to the Miami Herald. He is serving his sentence at the Federal Detention Center in Miami with a release date of Feb. 12, 2037.

Matthews is incarcerated at FCI Miami — one of 1,318 total inmates at the low-security prison. He is scheduled to be released Aug. 8. Officials would not say exactly when Matthews arrived at FCI Miami.

Grow was accused in a 49-count indictment of hiring an independent marketing team — which included Matthews — in the conspiracy to bilk millions of dollars from the TRICARE program, according to the Miami Herald.

Matthews, who claims he was duped into joining the conspiracy by Grow, was paid $440,000 for lining up sales representatives who then delivered TRICARE patients for a South Florida compounding pharmacy — Patient Care America.

Matthews said in a statement in February that said he believed he was taking a “legitimate part-time job” when he went to work for Grow in a marketing firm by the name of MGTEN.

He said he immediately began to cooperate with authorities when they approached him in the spring of 2016 and told him that MGTEN was a fraudulent operation. He said he “offered to give back every cent of my compensation.”

Matthews played at Pascagoula from 1986-87, leading the Panthers to the 1987 Class 5A state championship. He became a star quarterback for Steve Spurrier at Florida from 1990-92, earning All-SEC honors all three seasons. He was a Heisman Trophy finalist in 1991 and played for six NFL teams over the course of 14 seasons. Matthews played for the Chicago Bears, Carolina Panthers, Washington Redskins, Miami Dolphins, Cincinnati Bengals and Buffalo Bills.

Grow played defensive back at Florida from 1990-93 and had brief stints in the NFL with the Kansas City Chiefs and the Jacksonville Jaguars.

This story was originally published July 9, 2018 at 12:29 PM.