After a decade on the run, the CubanAriel Núñez Finals He finally faced American justice, which sentenced him to prison for his participation in aMiami network that defrauded Medicare of nearly $17 million dollars.
A Miami court this Friday sentenced Núñez tothree years in prison followed by another three years of supervised release for his role in a massive conspiracy to commit health care fraud and wire fraud through South Florida pharmacies, a report said.statement of the Southern District of Florida of the US Department of Justice.
By order of the judge, Núñez, 58, must also repay $1,910,222 dollars.
From January 2011 to September 2014, Núñez was involved in a network of 10 pharmacies that successfully submitted more than $16 million in fraudulent claims toMedicare for medications that were unnecessary and not provided to patients.
Núñez, former registered owner of Lily & Rosy Pharmacy Discount Corp, in Hialeah, conspired with two Cuban leaders of the network who are still at large,Pedro Torres andAntonio Hevia, and others to defraud Medicare.
The Cuban cashed checks and withdrew cash from Lily & Rosy Pharmacy's corporate bank account, in amounts below the legal reporting limit of $10,000, to provide patient recruiters with the funds they needed for illegal bribes.
These bribes were used to obtain information about Medicare beneficiaries necessary for the co-conspirators to submit fraudulent claims, the Justice Department said.
Nunez caused Medicare to pay more than $1.9 million in fraudulent prescription drug claims at just two of the fraudulent pharmacies where he committed fraud. Of that amount, the US government tracked more than $500,000 that the defendant pocketed.
In April 2016, Núñez was charged along with 17 other people in the scam. But by then, he and four accomplices of the network had escaped to Cuba with the millions embezzled from the medical program, to avoid prosecution and “live like a king,” the prosecutors in the case said.
Many of the health care fraudsters “are Cuban citizens fleeing to Cuba, including this defendant and two fugitive leaders of this conspiracy, and they are rarely held accountable for their crimes,” the federal prosecutor wrote.Joseph Egozi in a sentencing memorandum. “As soon as they find out about the suspension of payments or a federal investigation, within hours they can take their profits abroad, protected from extradition to the United States due to the lack of diplomatic relations with Cuba.”
Núñez fled to Cuba through Mexico, with false Mexican citizenship documents.
According to Cuban court records, cited byThe New Herald, Núñez had begun laundering the proceeds of Medicare fraud in Cuba since 2015. On July 4, 2017, authorities arrested him on money laundering charges; He was subsequently found guilty of Medicare fraud in a trial and sentenced to eight years in prison in 2018, of which he only served three and a half years.
The then fugitive remained in Cuba until 2022, when he moved to Mexico with his family. On March 21, 2023, Núñez traveled to Spain, where he was arrested upon arrival pursuant to an Interpol red notice.
On November 21, he was handed over to US authorities and extradited to Miami, where he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commithealth care fraud and electronic fraud.
Four other defendants in this Medicare fraud case remain at large from justice, according to the FBI and the Office of the Inspector General of Health and Human Services, he said.The New Herald. In addition to the two leaders of the pharmacy network, Torres and Hevia, they remain fugitivesDora Robaina andMario Saúl Lay.
The FBI office in Miami estimates thatMore than 100 accused of stealing hundreds of millions of dollars from Medicare in South Florida are at large. Most of them are Cuban immigrants who fled to their native country or to Mexico, the Dominican Republic and other Spanish-speaking countries to evade justice.
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