Three dozen people from Florida were among 455 individuals charged in a $6.5 billion health care fraud and insurance scheme during a two-week federal enforcement operation, authorities announced.
Florida cases included a cardiologist accused of billing insurers for medically unnecessary screening tests for college athletes; three Tampa-area healthcare workers in a $118 million Medicare fraud involving unnecessary wound care and skin grafts; and a Miami man who directed a $3.76 billion scheme that billed Medicare, Medicaid and other insurers for phantom medical supplies.
"Today's cases allege more than the theft of taxpayer dollars. Many allege the theft of human dignity," Assistant Attorney General Colin McDonald said at a news conference Tuesday announcing this year's crackdown, which covers cases charged or unsealed since June 8. "Our sick, needy and elderly placing their faith in the gift of medicine were neglected, ignored and used for personal profit."
Healthcare fraud has been a long-running priority for the Department of Justice, and news conferences announcing roundups and crackdowns have been common across the years. The Trump administration has made a point of emphasizing enforcement, including through the appointment of McDonald to help oversee prosecutions built from multiple specialized task forces.
"Healthcare fraud steals from taxpayers, exploits vulnerable patients, and puts lives at risk," U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said. "Today's historic enforcement action sends a clear message: If you use our healthcare system to enrich yourself at the expense of patients or the American people, we will find you, we will prosecute you, and we will hold you accountable."
Overall, Florida had 36 people listed as defendants by the DOJ. They included 26 federal cases and 10 in state courts. Of the federal investigations, 12 were out of the Southern District, six in the Middle District, one in the Northern District and seven in other jurisdictions.
Falsified student-athlete screenings
Ninety of those arrested were physicians, including Texas cardiologist Dr. Jason Finkelstein, 53, who faces charges of healthcare fraud and conspiracy worth $89 million in what prosecutors describe as a yearslong scheme that preyed on the fears of athletes that they could die on playing fields or courts of sudden cardiac arrest.
Finkelstein was accused of billing insurers for medically unnecessary cardiovascular screening tests for the student-athletes and then rubber-stamping the results as normal without personally reviewing them.
The Department of Justice said Finkelstein sometimes approved test results within seconds, despite knowing some athletes had possible cardiac abnormalities.
The alleged fraud ran between 2019 and the end of last year and, prosecutors said, involved Finkelstein and a pair of unidentified co-conspirators at a Boca Raton-based cardiovascular testing and treatment practice where he served as medical director.
Officials said the scheme had multiple components, with Finkelstein and his company using what the indictment said were deceptive marketing tactics to encourage and offer free heart screens for students who did not need them.
Finkelstein's co-conspirators, one from Broward County and the other from Palm Beach County, blasted emails to athletic trainers at colleges stating that the tests could identify any life-threatening condition that could prevent the students from playing, and also offered kickbacks and other inducements to school officials to refer potential patients for testing, according to the indictment.
Insurance companies do not cover blanket cardiovascular testing but instead require a prior finding of a medical necessity. To avert that roadblock, prosecutors said, Finkelstein submitted to insurers phony diagnoses of conditions, such as hypertension, that the athletes did not have.
His company relied on sonographers who lacked the credentials to travel to college campuses to perform the tests, and because Finkelstein was licensed in the 48 contiguous states, he and his company were able to submit claims for patients across the country, the indictment said.
In 2024, according to the indictment, he signed off on approximately 63 test result images of one patient just 11 seconds after accessing them. The test results actually revealed a significantly enlarged heart and the teenage patient later died on the basketball court, officials said.
"There is no way they could miss that, except they didn't care," said Dr. Mehmet Oz, a cardiothoracic surgeon and head of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. "This is not a diagnostic company. It's a predatory scheme dressed up in medical clothing and we're going to treat it as such."
Medicare and Medicaid cons
Federal prosecutors said Sarasota nurse practitioner Leigh Tesar led one of the largest schemes in the takedown, billing Medicare more than $118 million for wound care and skin allografts that investigators say were unnecessary, ineligible for payment or never provided.
Investigators said Tesar targeted Medicare patients, including some whose wounds were infected, unlikely to heal or did not require the expensive grafts.
Two nurses, Walter Presha Jr. of Ellenton and Koby Evans of Apollo Beach, were also charged. Prosecutors said both referred Medicare patients to Tesar for wound care and received illegal kickbacks tied to the referrals.
According to the indictment, "Tesar and others used the proceeds of the scheme to defraud to fund their lavish lifestyles, including spending over $215,000 for Tampa Bay Buccaneers tickets and a luxury box suite at Raymond James Stadium, and over $400,000 for fine art."
In an unrelated arrest, prosecutors said Muniz Rodriguez of Hialeah helped create fraudulent medical clinics that billed Medicare for more than $117 million in skin substitutes and wound care products that were never provided. Investigators said Medicare paid more than $55 million on the false claims.
The DOJ said more than $27 million was seized from bank accounts belonging to 12 clinics in South Florida. Seizure warrants and civil forfeiture complaints allege that the clinics were "bust outs" – billing Medicare for amniotic wound allografts and services that were never provided.
In another case, a Las Vegas nurse practitioner, was charged in a $906 million Medicare and TRICARE fraud scheme involving medically unnecessary amniotic wound allografts tied to illegal kickbacks and bribes.
Prosecutors allege Marizel Yukee, 49, who ran mobile wound clinics in four states, targeted elderly and hospice patients and falsified records to justify the procedures while billing for unnecessary treatments.
Authorities in the case seized about $35.2 million in assets, including $467,000 in cash, eight vehicles including a $594,000 Ferrari 296 GTS, and jewelry including an $865,000 Bulgari necklace.
Back in Florida, the DOJ said Ibrahim Hilmi of Miami operated a scheme involving fraudulent durable medical equipment companies. Prosecutors said Hilmi controlled companies that submitted Medicaid claims for billions of dollars in equipment and wound dressings that were never provided.
The DOJ said Hilmi used company bank accounts to move fraud proceeds, including millions of dollars wired overseas. The department said the companies submitted at least $3.76 billion in claims, though about $5.7 million was actually deposited into the companies' accounts.
Click here to see the full list of defendants in the 2026 takedown from the DOJ website.
Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.
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