Clinic owner Dempsey Spears arrested and indicted on nine counts for submitting approximately $4 million in false Medicare claims for psychotherapy services that were never provided.

Dempsey Spears Clinic (Houston, TX) — $4M Phantom Psychotherapy Medicare Fraud

Outcome: Arrested and indicted on nine counts for submitting approximately $4 million in false Medicare claims for psychotherapy services that were never provided; identity theft charges also included.

Dempsey Spears, a Houston clinic owner, operated a scheme from 2016 through 2024 in which he submitted false and fraudulent claims to Medicare for psychotherapy services that were never actually provided to patients. The eight-year scheme generated approximately $4 million in fraudulent Medicare payments for non-existent psychotherapy encounters.

In addition to the billing fraud, the indictment includes identity theft charges — indicating Spears may have used stolen patient or provider identities to facilitate the fraudulent billing, a common tactic in phantom billing schemes where the perpetrator must tie false claims to real patients or real provider credentials.

A federal grand jury in Houston returned a nine-count indictment on September 23, 2025. Spears was arrested and made his initial appearance before U.S. Magistrate Judge Richard Bennett on October 1, 2025. The case is prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Texas.

Primary Source: Clinic Owner Arrested In Multimillion-Dollar Fraud Scheme Involving Non-Existent Psychotherapy Services