MIAMI (AP) - A federal jury has convicted a Florida health care executive on 20 criminal counts in a $1 billion Medicare fraud scheme.

Jurors reached the verdict Friday after four days of deliberating the fate of 50-year-old Philip Esformes in one of the biggest such cases in U.S. history.

The wealthy Miami Beach businessman operated a network of nursing homes and assisted living facilities in South Florida.

Jurors found him guilty of paying kickbacks and bribes to doctors and administrators so they would refer patients to his businesses. A former Ivy League basketball coach testified Esformes bribed him to get his son into school.

The jury could not decide whether Esformes was guilty of Medicare fraud conspiracy.

Esformes has been jailed since his 2016 arrest and faces a lengthy prison sentence.

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