Kirksville Man Sentenced for Selling Old Prosthetic Legs as New

A man accused of selling old prosthetic legs to customers as new legs has been sentenced to more than a year in prison.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that 53-year-old Theodore Deininger was sentenced Wednesday to 15 months in prison and ordered to repay $150,000. He had pleaded guilty to four counts of health care fraud as part of a plea agreement.

Prosecutors say Deininger bought prosthetic legs online from 2007 to 2014 and then modified them and sold them to customers as if they were new through his company First Choice Orthotics & Prosthetics. According to the plea agreement, Medicare and Medicaid paid between $23,000 and $44,000 for each prosthetic leg.

First Choice Orthotics & Prosthetics has offices in Kirksville, Hannibal, Trenton and Moberly in Missouri and Bloomfield and Keokuk in Iowa.