Cuban sentenced to three years in prison for defrauding Medicare – 2024-04-03 16:39:40
2024-04-03 16:39:40
A Cuban identified as Ariel Núñez was arrested after spending a decade as a fugitive for having defrauded Medicare of almost 17 million dollars.
Last Friday, the Antillean was sentenced to three years of deprivation of liberty in prison, plus another three of supervised release for being part of a conspiracy with the aim of committing the immense fraud.
The statement issued by local authorities details that Núñez, 58, spent from January 2011 to September 2014 involved in a network of a dozen pharmacies that submitted more than $16 million in claims to Medicare.
Fugitive Cuban national extradited from Spain and sentenced to 36 months’ imprisonment for health care fraud conspiracy@FBIMiamiFL and @OIGatHHS Miami investigated the case.
— US Attorney SDFL (@USAO_SDFL) March 29, 2024
It turned out that this subject committed the crime with the help of two other Cubans, identified as Pedro Torres and Antonio Hevia, who have not yet been captured by security agencies.
Authorities added that Núñez came to cash checks and withdraw cash from the bank account of a pharmacy called Lily & Rosy, in which he was registered.
“Two of the fraudulent pharmacies alone where Núñez committed fraud caused Medicare to pay more than $1.9 million in fraudulent prescription drug claims, of which the Government traced more than $500,000 to Núñez personally.”reads the information.
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When he was discovered and charged in 2016, the subject had already escaped to Cuba, where he remained for several years until moving to Mexico in 2022.
Later, in March of last year, he traveled to Spain, where he was finally arrested by that nation’s security agencies.
On November 21, 2023, the Cuban was extradited to the United States, where he will have to pay for his crime.
In addition to his prison sentence, the judge ordered the individual to pay an amount of $1,910,222 as restitution for his frauds.
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