ATLANTA — John Oxendine, the former Georgia Insurance Commissioner, has formally relinquished his law license as he serves time in federal prison. This decision follows his guilty plea to conspiring to commit health care fraud.
On Tuesday, the Georgia Supreme Court accepted Oxendine’s voluntary surrender, which effectively bars him from practicing law within the state indefinitely.
In July, U.S. District Judge Steve Jones sentenced the 62-year-old Oxendine to three and a half years of incarceration. He is currently serving his sentence at a minimum security federal facility located in Pensacola, Florida, with a projected release date set for September 2027.
During the legal proceedings, Oxendine acknowledged that he had pressured doctors employed by Dr. Jeffrey Gallups to conduct unnecessary medical tests on patients, which were then billed to insurance providers. Prosecutors revealed that he also orchestrated a scheme to obtain $260,000 in kickbacks from the medical testing firm Next Health through his consulting business, diverting the majority of these funds to Gallups.
In addition to his criminal activities, Oxendine made a charitable donation of $150,000 and paid $70,000 in legal fees on behalf of Gallups, retaining $40,000 for himself, according to prosecutors.
The court ordered Oxendine to pay a fine of $25,000 and mandated that he, alongside Gallups, should contribute to a restitution payment totaling $760,000. Gallups had already entered a guilty plea for health care fraud prior to any formal indictment.
Oxendine previously ran for the position of governor in 2010 but was unsuccessful in the Republican primary. In 2009, the Georgia Ethics Commission commenced an investigation into his campaign finances, accusing him of misusing campaign donations to purchase a residence, lease vehicles, and enroll in a club. This case was settled in 2022 when Oxendine agreed to forfeit the remaining balance of $128,000 in his campaign funds without admitting any wrongdoing.
Additionally, he faced allegations of accepting a $120,000 bundled contribution—the equivalent of ten times the allowable limit—from two insurance firms during his campaign for governor. However, a judge determined that state officials had delayed too long in pursuing these allegations against him.