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Two Miami residents have been formally charged by a federal grand jury with participating in a scheme that allegedly enabled the theft and sale of confidential information belonging to over 6,000 Medicare beneficiaries to fuel fraudulent schemes against the federal health program.
According to reported by the U.S. Department of Justice, the accused are Kenia Marrero, 46, identified as the alleged organizer of the operation, and Joan Navarro Bruguet, 51, who worked for a network of medical service providers in South Florida.
Authorities claim that for over three years, Navarro Bruguet exploited his access to confidential medical records to obtain personal information from patients, including names, dates of birth, and Medicare identification numbers.
According to court documents, the defendant photographed the data directly from his work computer screen using a personal cell phone and then sent the images to Marrero via an encrypted messaging application.
The investigation indicates that Marrero paid around 500 dollars for each list of approximately 100 patients and then resold the information to third parties involved in Medicare fraud for amounts that could reach 7,000 dollars per list.
Prosecutors claim that the stolen data was ultimately used in various fraudulent schemes, including one related to durable medical equipment that allegedly submitted more than five million dollars in false claims to the federal program.
The accusation also claims that more than $460,000 from those operations were deposited in accounts linked to companies used to carry out the fraud.
One of the elements that caught the attention of the investigators was a recorded conversation from January of this year. According to the allegations, during an in-person meeting, Marrero advised an employee involved in the case to deny any involvement and to avoid discussing the matter via text messages.
The case also involves Juan Carlos Cardella, identified by the authorities as one of the participants in the network and who has previously been sentenced for related offenses.
Marrero faces multiple federal charges, including conspiracy, healthcare fraud, aggravated identity theft, and money laundering. Navarro Bruguet, for his part, was charged with conspiracy to buy, sell, and distribute Medicare beneficiary identifiers.
If found guilty, both could face prison sentences. In Marrero's case, the potential sentence could increase significantly due to the number of charges brought by the prosecution.
The investigation was conducted by agents from the Office of Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services and by the FBI in Miami, while the case is being prosecuted by the Federal Prosecutor's Office for the Southern District of Florida.
The accusations come against a backdrop of increasing scrutiny over Medicare fraud in South Florida, a region that federal authorities have identified for years as one of the main hotspots for such crimes in the United States.
Only in 2025, the Department of Justice filed charges against hundreds of individuals nationwide for schemes involving fraudulent claims against the healthcare system, reflecting the extent of a problem that costs American taxpayers billions of dollars each year.
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