US arrests 455 individuals, uncovers $6.5B in healthcare fraud (Photos)

The Justice Department has announced criminal charges against 455 individuals following a two-week nationwide crackdown on healthcare fraud, uncovering schemes involving over $6.5 billion in false claims from insurers.

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The crackdown, which spanned 45 US states and territories, was announced on Tuesday, June 23,  by Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, who called it “the greatest combined federal and state effort combating health care fraud in history.”

A nurse in Texas was charged with billing Medicare for $1 million for each patient to whom she applied unnecessary tissue grafts, the feds alleged.

Marizel Yukee, 49, of Las Vegas, was charged with fraudulently billing $906 million in claims for which she was paid $297 million.

She allegedly funneled the stolen funds to buy posh cars, real estate, jewelry, and even built a $4.6 million beach resort in the Philippines, prosecutors claimed.

When she was arrested, the feds seized $30 million from her bank accounts, $467,000 in cash, a $594,000 Ferrari 296 GTS, seven other luxury vehicles, an $865,000 custom Bulgari necklace, and another million worth of jewelry, officials claimed.

Separately, three Florida nurses were busted for a $118 million tissue graft scheme. Leigh Tesar allegedly spent $215,000 on a luxury box suite at the Raymond James Stadium, where the Tampa Bay Buccaneers play, according to a criminal indictment.

She also allegedly spent $400,000 on fine art, according to the court papers.

The vice president of sales at a company that sold bioengineered skin substitutes allegedly carried out an illegal kickback scheme from 2021 to 2024, paying medical providers to push their product, prosecutors claim.

Brian Rowan, 47, of Las Vegas, made over $24 million at the company and bought multimillion-dollar homes, million-dollar life insurance policies, and high-end watches and cars, including a $135,000 Maserati, the feds alleged.

The Arizona-based company was peddling amniotic wound grafts, which it purchased from tissue banks and then sold at a 2,000% markup — or $1,450 per square centimeter, the feds said, which comes out to $224.75 per square inch.

Rowan and other execs used 40% of their profits to pay out kickbacks, officials alleged.

The scheme targeted hospice patients for the skin grafts, which would be applied without the consultation of their doctors, without protecting against infections, and sometimes applying them to superficial wounds that didn’t require the grafts or to larger areas than needed, prosecutors claimed.

In total, he and his co-conspirators billed $1.2 billion for unnecessary allografts and were ultimately paid $614 million, the feds allege.

Two others, Jeffrey King and Alexandra Gehrke, have previously been sentenced to 15.5 years and 14 years, respectively, behind bars for their roles in this scheme, which netted them $97 million in cash, $21 million in life insurance policies, and four luxury cars, including a Ferrari 488 Spider convertible and three top-end Mercedes vehicles, the feds alleged.

One alleged fraudster in Illinois billed Medicaid for behavioral health services for hundreds of hours a day — despite the fact he didn’t have enough staff to justify it, the feds alleged.

Daniel Robinson, 51, of Palos Park, Illinois, allegedly billed for $67 million for counseling and therapy services that wouldn’t have been realistic even if all of the providers at his company, ODA Solutions Inc., worked 24 hours a day, according to a complaint.

His total claims were $92 million, and he received $75 million, according to the docs.

The money was diverted toward $44 million in investment accounts, $10 million to open a luxury car dealership, $4 million to buy real estate and fund home renovations, court papers allege.

He also allegedly owned a yacht named Butt Nekkid that was docked in Chicago, court papers show.

A Texas doctor allegedly carried out an $89 million medical fraud scheme that ended with a student athlete’s death, the feds alleged.

Dr. Jason Finkelstein, 53, of Fort Worth, Texas, allegedly tested the hearts of student athletes at campuses around the country, submitting $89 million in claims under his two companies, Cardiovascular Testing Services PA and Cardiovascular Healthcare Associates PA, the feds claimed.

Yet Finkelstein made up bogus conditions to justify the cardiac testing of the students and signed off on the results after only reviewing them for seconds, prosecutors claimed.

In October 2024, he allegedly claimed one student’s results were “normal” even though the tests showed the student potentially had heart problems.

The student died 24 days later of cardiac arrest during practice with his basketball team, the feds alleged.

Even after Finkelstein was told of the student’s death, he continued to rubber-stamp test results, prosecutors claimed.

A Florida man allegedly ran two bogus medical supply companies and fraudulently billed Medicaid and Medicare for $3.76 billion, court papers allege.

Ibrahim Hilmi, 58, of Miami, billed for medical equipment and wound dressing that his companies, ABRH Car Inc. and Sunshine Senior Solutions LLC, never provided, court papers alleged.

Most of the money he billed for was never paid to him, but he did receive $5.7 million in his companies’ accounts, according to a criminal indictment.

And within weeks, that money was transferred to Hong Kong and Indonesia, the court papers allege.

When Hilmi started getting negative reviews accusing him of health care fraud, he fled the country and kept the racket going by getting others to run his business accounts, the indictment alleges.

He was arrested in Kyrenia, Cyprus, and brought to Florida for his first court appearance in the case Monday, prosecutors said.