‘Bag man’ pleads to massive Medicare laundering scam, might turn on fugitive Cuban brother

The Miami Herald

By Jay Weaver

www.cubaenmiami.com

When Cuban immigrant Eduardo Perez de Morales arrived a decade ago in Miami, he could not have imagined the good life that awaited him.

He helped his older brother operate a lucrative remittance company, and then diversified into fine art and other business ventures himself. He and his fiancée began breeding more than a dozen Andalusian horses at his future mother-in-law’s Miami-Dade home.

But just a couple of months before he was to be married at the legendary Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables this summer, the 27-year-old U.S. citizen was busted for being his big brother’s “bag man,” authorities say. Perez, who once tooled around in a Maserati, faces up to six years in prison at his sentencing in January after pleading guilty last month to conspiring with his now-fugitive brother.

They are accused of shifting $238 million in stolen taxpayer-funded Medicare proceeds through shell companies in Canada and then into Cuba’s secret banking system. The byzantine scheme, described as a “massive money laundering operation” by a federal prosecutor, is unprecedented because it marks the first U.S. case connecting South Florida’s Medicare rackets to Cuba’s national bank.

“Eduardo Perez de Morales served as the middle man,” Assistant U.S. Attorney H. Ron Davidson wrote in a factual statement signed by the defendant in his plea agreement. “He knowingly delivered large amounts of cash to [Medicare fraud offenders] whom the defendant knew were engaging in illegal activities.”

Needless to say, Eduardo Perez’s swank July wedding — paid for by his prospective mother-in-law, who made a $25,000 down payment to the Biltmore — was canceled. That’s because, after repeated requests, Perez’s defense lawyers could not persuade federal judges to let him out on bond after his arrest in May because he was viewed as a “flight risk” to his native Cuba, where his 50-year-old brother, Jorge Emilio Perez de Morales Sante, may still reside.

“We’re talking about $238 million in fraudulent transfers, which is a staggering amount of money,” Magistrate Judge Lurana Snow said at a bond hearing earlier this year. “This defendant has frequent foreign travel, strong ties to Cuba, and every incentive to flee based on the magnitude of the fraud.

“I don’t know where his brother is, but it’s certainly not beyond the realm of possibility that this defendant might have an ability to join the brother.”

Although the U.S. Attorney’s Office has said there is no evidence showing the Castro government’s involvement, Davidson has repeatedly highlighted the Cuba connection established through the scheme’s alleged mastermind, Perez’s older brother, Jorge Perez.

Jorge Perez, a half-brother, is accused of directing the money-laundering operation through his Cuba-licensed remittance company, Caribbean Transfers, from 2005 to 2011. He owns a seaside home in Havana but could be in Mexico, the Dominican Republic or Spain, according to the FBI. Davidson called Jorge Perez’s remittance company, which closed after his indictment in 2012, an offshore Western Union.

Caribbean Transfers provided clean cash — amassed from Cuban exiles sending money to relatives on the island — to corrupt healthcare operators in Florida, Michigan, Tennessee and New York, according to an indictment.

Jorge Perez’s role was uncovered after a convicted Naples check-cashing store owner, Oscar L. Sanchez, fingered him as the man who bankrolled his Florida business and other remittance agencies. The prosecutor said those stateside businesses cashed checks or wired money for Medicare-fraud offenders — then transferred their dirty dollars through Jorge Perez’s shell companies in Canada via Trinidad to Cuba.

At first, investigators estimated that Sanchez laundered more than $30 million on behalf of 70 corrupt Medicare-licensed businesses. But the estimated total grew almost eightfold, as they discovered that Caribbean Transfers financed other check-cashing and remittance businesses involved in the alleged money-laundering scheme.

The money could have been disbursed as remittances to Cuban families or to others living on the island. “The location of hundreds of millions of dollars is unknown, and a vast fortune is likely sitting in a Communist country,” Davidson wrote in court papers.

Because the FBI has been unable to locate Jorge Perez, the younger brother’s former defense attorney suggested in federal court that he was being indicted solely to lure the accused fugitive ringleader to the United States.

Eduardo Perez’s original attorney, Douglas Williams, called the case “a zealous indictment of a younger brother that may to some extent be part of a calculation ... to suggest to his older brother that ... he’s going to be creating problems for baby brother. ... That’s what this case is all about.”

Now the baby brother, with his plea agreement to cooperate with U.S. Attorney’s Office, could turn on his older brother. Eduardo Perez’s deal holds him responsible for laundering only between $1 million and $2.5 million, a range that would limit his prison time to a maximum six years. He had faced up to 20 years in prison on the single money-laundering conspiracy plea.

But as part of the deal, Eduardo Perez has agreed to testify before a grand jury or at trial, if the prosecutor asks. That means that if his older brother, Jorge Perez, is ever captured and brought to court in Miami, the younger brother could be a key witness against him.

Eduardo Perez’s current defense attorney, Gustavo Lage, said his testimony is a possibility, but noted that the deal does not specifically require his taking the witness stand against the older brother.

“The cooperation agreement is standard boilerplate language, so that may or may not come to pass depending on what happens between now and even after his sentencing [in January],” Lage said Friday. “So far, no request has been made.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/crime/article4329041.html#storylink=cpy

Interpol busca a 27 cubanos prófugos de la justicia

y cuando seran incluidos en estas listas por crimenes de lesa humanidad  fidel y raul castros, asi como algunos de sus secuaces?

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Café Fuerte

Luis Enrique Benítez, Madelín Machado y Roberto Crespo son tres de los 27 cubanos circulados por Interpol.

Por Ivette Leyva Martínez

Veintisiete cubanos son buscados por la policía internacional, Interpol, a pedido de las autoridades de Estados Unidos, Panamá, Ecuador, República Dominicana y Cuba.

La mayoría de los fugitivos -un total de 20- han sido circulados por las autoridades estadounidenses por delitos relacionados con fraude al sistema de salud, financiado por el gobierno federal. Entre ellos figuran dos de tres los hermanos Benítez, que estafaron $110 millones de dólares al Medicare, y la única mujer de los 27, Madelín Bárbara Machado, también buscada por fraude al Medicare y lavado de dinero.

Las autoridades de República Dominicana buscan a dos cubanos fugitivos de la justicia en el país;  Ecuador y Panamá han circulado a dos cubanos cada uno.

El tema de los cubanos prófugos de la justicia internacional afloró a comienzos de julio en la Comisión de Asuntos Constitucionales y Jurídicos del Parlamento cubano, la cual se reunió previamente a la sesión plenaria de los diputados. En esa ocasión se discutió acerca de los delitos más frecuentes que enfrentan las autoridades, varios de ellos vinculados a intentos de extracción ilegal y contrabando de bienes patrimoniales culturales del país.

Reportado por Cuba

El único ciudadano que Cuba ha reportado a Interpol es Mario Betancourt Caraballoso, de 53 años, natural de Camagüey, y buscado por los delitos de “estafa continuada, falsificación de documentos bancarios y de comercio con carácter continuado y cohecho”.

En un hecho inusual, la Gaceta Oficial publicó una citación oficial ante la justicia para Betancourt y otras dos personas en el 2012. El hombre habría sido director de una compañía con sede en Europa.

A mediados del 2013, Interpol capturó en República Dominicana y envió hacia La Habana a dos prófugos de la justicia cubana: Lázaro López Pereira, de 48 años, requerido bajo la acusación de falsificación de documentos y tráfico de personas; y Reinaldo Torres Hernández, de 53 años, quien fue condenado a ocho años de cárcel en el 2011, pero logró obtener su libertad condicional y escapó al extranjero. Torres Hernández, ex funcionario de Cubana de Aviación, fue sentenciado en la causa del empresario chileno Marcel Luis Marambio, presidente de la firma de viajes turísticos Sol y Son, por delitos de corrupción.

La información de los fugitivos se circula con la Interpol cuando se desconoce el paradero específico de la persona requerida por la justicia.

Interpol es la mayor organización de policía internacional, con 190 países miembros, y ayuda a todas las organizaciones, autoridades y servicios cuya misión es prevenir o combatir la delincuencia alrededor del mundo.

A continuación la lista de los fugitivos cubanos circulados por Interpol.
BUSCADOS POR ESTADOS UNIDOS
1-Roberto Crespo, 42 años, 1.88 m de estatura
Delito: Posesión de pornografía infantil
2-Abel Aguilar Otaño, 41 años, 1.83 m de estatura
Delitos: Conspiración para poseer con intención de distribuir y cultivar 100 o más
plantas de marihuana y conspiración para lavar dinero.
3-Pablo Sanu-Yassel, 77 años, 1.70 m de estatura
Delitos: Asociación para defraudar a Medicare y cometer fraude y robo de identidad agravado
4-John Carlos Torres, 49 años, 1.68 m de estatura
Delitos: Conspiración para distribuir y poseer con intención de distribuir más de un kilogramo de heroína.
5-Nelson Alejandro Pérez, 73 años, 1.63 m de estatura
Promover apuestas ilícitas. Corrupción empresarial.
6-Ricardo Ledo, 47 años, 1.68 m de estatura
Delitos: Conspiración para acceder fraudulentamente a dispositivos electrónicos [no se especifica de qué tipo], uso o tráfico de 15 o más dispositivos falsificados y no autorizados, robo y robo de identidad
7-Angel Ricardo Mendoza, 52 años, 1.77 m de estatura
Delitos: Posesión y almacenamiento de productos robados, conspiración para guardar productos robados, peculado de empleado bancarios, y robo de un envío interestatal.
8-Joan Noalles, 36 años, 1.68 m de estatura
Delitos: Asociación para cometer fraude de servicios médicos y fraude a los servicios médicos.
Robo de identidad agravado y asociación para cometer lavado de dinero.
9-Javier Leonardo Bolaños, 48 años, 1.85 metros
Delitos: Conspiración para cometer fraude de atención médica, fraude a los servicios médicos, conspiración para lavar dinero.
10-José Manuel Benítez, 50 años, 1.80 m de estatura
Delitos: Conspiración para defraudar a EEUU, presentación de reclamaciones falsas, pago de sobornos, y conspiración para cometer fraude de servicios médicos y conspiración para lavar dinero.
11-Luis Enrique Benítez, 48 anos, 1.77 m de estatura
Delitos: Conspiración para defraudar a EEUU, presentación de reclamaciones falsas, pago de sobornos, y conspiración para cometer fraude de servicios médicos y conspiración para lavar dinero.
12-Jorge Emilio Pérez de Morales Sante, 50 años, 1.83 m de estatura
Ciudadano cubano y dominicano
Delito: Conspiración para lavar dinero
13-Gustavo Adolfo Smith, 49 años, 1.86 m de estatura
Delitos: Asociación para defraudar a los Estados Unidos, presentación de reclamaciones falsas,
fraude de atención médica, asociación para cometer lavado de dinero y lavado de dinero.
14-Armando Fuentes Díaz, 42 años, 1.75 m de estatura
Delitos: Fraude al sistema de salud y abandonar la escena de un accidente donde hubo heridos.
15-Sixto Montes Sánchez, 35 años, 1.73 m de estatura
Delito: Fraude al sistema de salud
16-Rodolfo Aguila, 52 años, 1.68 m de estatura
Delitos: Conspiración para cometer fraude al sistema de salud y fraude al sistema de salud.
17-Madelín Bárbara Machado, 40 años, 1.65 m de estatura
Delitos: Fraude al sistema de salud y lavado de dinero
18-José García Suárez, 50 años, 1.80 m de estatura
Delitos: Conspiración para defraudar al Medicare y cometer fraudes al sistema de salud, fraudes al sistema de salud y robo agravado de identidad.
19-Julio Bonachea, 53 años, 1.72 m de estatura
Delitos: Intento de asesinato con un arma, agresión agravada con un arma de fuego, robo y asalto armado, robo, y escape.
20-Domingo Santana, 69 años, 1.63 m de estatura
Delitos: Conspiración para defraudar a EEUU, causar presentación de falsos reclamos y recibir soborno, conspiración para cometer fraude al sistema de salud, solicitar y recibir sobornos.
 BUSCADOS POR REPÚBLICA DOMINICANA

1-Jesús Dayán Chirino Martin, 27 años, cubano-dominicano
Se busca para cumplir una sentencia penal por delitos no especificados
2-Javier Castroda Pérez, 47 años, cubano-dominicano
Se busca para cumplir una sentencia penal por delitos no especificados
BUSCADOS POR ECUADOR

1-Abelardo Trelles Campos, 36 años, 1.68 m de estatura
Delito: Evasión (fuga)
2-Luis Armando Betancourt Solís, 25 años, 1.67 m de estatura
Delito: Evasión (fuga)
BUSCADOS POR PANAMÁ

1-Manuel Alejandro García Pauna, 47 años
Delitos: Falsedad de Documentos en General
2-Raúl Ramos Ojeda, 68 años, 1.77 m de estatura
Delitos: Falsificación de documentos, fraude y piratería
BUSCADO POR CUBA

Mario Betancourt Caraballoso, de Camagüey, Cuba, 53 años

Miami man charged in Medicare scam among most wanted

SFGate

oig.hhs.gov

MIAMI (AP) — A Miami man has been added to federal health officials' list of most wanted fugitives.

Sandy De La Fe was indicted last year on charges of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and health care fraud. Investigators say De La Fe owned a Miami pharmacy and participated in a prescription drug fraud scheme that bilked Medicare out of millions of dollars.

According to the indictment, De La Fe's co-conspirators paid patients to obtain prescriptions drugs. The false prescriptions, some of which were worth more than $1,000 a piece, were billed to Medicare Part D, even though the drugs were not medically necessary or not given to Medicare beneficiaries.

Authorities said Medicare paid roughly $2.8 million in false claims.

Investigators believe De La Fe may be hiding in Cuba.

New arrest in case of money laundering to Cuba

MiamiHerald.com

A case that started out alleging $70 million in Medicare fraud now puts the figure at nearly $240 million.

Jorge Emilio Perez de Morales

By Jay Weaver And Juan O. Tamayo

A Miami man has been arrested in an unprecedented money-laundering case that alleges some part of $238 million gained from Medicare fraud was secretly pumped into the Cuban banking system.
Eduardo Perez de Morales, 26, was arrested by FBI agents Monday on one charge of conspiring with his fugitive brother, Jorge Emilio Perez de Morales, who owned an offshore remittance company, Caribbean Transfers.
The company is suspected of bankrolling a Florida check-cashing business that prosecutors say cashed checks for Medicare fraud offenders and transferred the dirty dollars through Canada to Cuba.
Jorge Emilio Perez de Morales, who owns a seaside home in Havana, is wanted by the FBI and was last reported to be living in Cuba. Charged in 2012, he also could be in the Dominican Republic, Mexico or Spain, authorities said.
The revised indictment now charging his brother alleges that as much as $238 million in stolen Medicare proceeds were laundered in the scheme, but it does not say how much was believed to have ended up in Cuba’s national bank. The indictment further alleges that the Perez brothers laundered some of those dollars through Caribbean Transfers’ bank accounts in Canada and other locations.
The initial indictment, which made national headlines, alleged that $70 million in tainted Medicare profits were laundered by 70 healthcare operators through the Naples check-cashing business of Oscar L. Sanchez, who has pleaded guilty and is serving a 4 ½-year prison sentence.
Prosecutor Ron Davidson has alleged that about half of that amount was transferred through Canada into Cuba, and described Caribbean Transfers as a sort of offshore Western Union. The company, which closed its doors in 2012, claimed it specialized in remittances to Cuba, the Dominican Republic and other countries.
Caribbean Transfers, meanwhile, has claimed that it did nothing wrong but acknowledged that money from the Medicare fraud had “contaminated” its legitimate remittances to the island.
A 1,200-word statement posted Monday on the company’s website attacked the newspapers el Nuevo Herald and the Miami Herald and the blogs Diario de Cuba and Cuba al Descubierto for their reports about the company’s affairs.
“This media campaign with irrational lies creates an irreparable prejudice in the community from which a jury is supposed to be chosen to judge this case,” it said. It added that the campaign “prepares the way for a sure conviction” of Jorge Perez de Morales.
The statement repeated its previous argument that the real blame for the case lies with the Miami banks that accepted Medicare payments for fraudulent billings, and a Miami remittance company that sent money to Cuban families through Caribbean Transfers.
Caribbean Transfers has not identified the remittance company, but sources close to the investigation say it was La Bamba, which also cashed checks. La Bamba owner Juan René Caro is serving 18 years in prison for making false reports of money transfers.
Caribbean Transfers said it does not operate in the United States, but added that the money from the Miami remittance company “contaminated” its own legal transfers of money to the island.
“Our company does not steal, does not defraud and does not move the money of fraudsters to Cuba. What we do is to transfer the money of families to Cuba,” the statement said. “You can ask the more than 150,000 clients who have received our service of remittances to Cuba if at any time they have not received the assistance that is sent to them.”
The statement said that the documentation needed to prove that the accusations against Jorge Perez de Morales are false is being prepared and that it will be presented “before the proper authorities” when it is ready.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/05/13/4115310/new-arrest-in-case-of-money-laundering.html#storylink=cpy

Caribbean Transfers admite que el fraude del Medicare 'terminó contaminando' sus cuentas

Diario de Cuba

Dinero defraudado al seguro de salud norteamericano Medicare "terminó contaminando" las cuentas de Caribbean Transfers, según admitió este lunes la propia compañía.

La empresa insistió en que "los bancos de Miami" eran los que "manejaban las 70 cuentas" de las compañías defraudadoras del Medicare.

Tras descalificar al autor de la investigación publicada en DIARIO DE CUBA, con alusiones personales, el comunicado pide que se pregunte a los bancos "por qué enviaron" el dinero, "que ni queríamos ni necesitábamos y que terminó contaminando las cuentas de Caribbean Transfers".

La empresa, a través de un blog habilitado para defenderse del marasmo judicial en el que se encuentra, niega que el expropietario Jorge Emilio Pérez de Morales Sante sea un "fugitivo" de la justicia estadounidense.

Pérez de Morales Sante está acusado de "conspiración para lavar dinero" y actualmente está en búsqueda y captura por Interpol. Se enfrenta a una pena máxima de 20 años de cárcel.

"La primera mentira es llamarlo fugitivo (...) No se puede escapar de Estados Unidos porque no es de allí, nunca ha vivido allí, y tampoco ha visitado ese país durante el periodo en que se dice ocurrieron los hechos", dijo 

Un documento judicial de Florida, de octubre de 2012, confirma que Pérez de Morales Sante tiene estatus de "fugitivo".

Según Caribbean Transfers, "los medios de Miami manipulan a la audiencia y a los lectores creándoles la impresión de que nuestro ejecutivo fue enviado por las autoridades del gobierno cubano a estafar a los seguros médicos y luego envió a Cuba los dividendos de dicha estafa".

"Todas son mentiras mal intencionadas, preparando el camino hacia una condena segura", especula.

Dice la compañía que el reportaje publicado por DDC este lunes "menciona muchas compañías que operan legalmente en sus países y mucha documentación, pero ninguna indicando que esas empresas son propiedad de Caribbean Transfers".

"¿Cuál es el delito de estas empresas? ¿Ayudar a las familias en Cuba enviándoles medicinas, comida y dinero?", se pregunta.

Caribbean Transfers, según autoridades federales, fue usada para lavar unos 30 millones de dólares estafados al Medicare. La compañía opera actualmente con el nombre de 123envialo y tiene como socio logístico a una empresa del Gobierno cubano.

Caribbean Transfers sigue operativa a través de una sociedad pantalla

Diario de Cuba/  Manuel Zayas

Jorge Emilio Pérez de Morales Santé, buscado por la Interpol. (AMERICATEVE)

A pesar de una orden internacional de búsqueda y captura en su contra, el empresario de origen cubano Jorge Emilio Pérez de Morales Santé ha logrado mantener a flote su compañía de remesas Caribbean Transfers, que según autoridades federales fue usada para lavar unos 30 millones de dólares estafados al Medicare, el seguro nacional de salud de Estados Unidos. La compañía opera actualmente con el nombre de 123envialo y tiene como socio logístico a una empresa del Gobierno cubano.

Documentos obtenidos por DIARIO DE CUBA muestran la estrategia seguida por Caribbean Transfers para mantenerse operativa luego de que el 11 de septiembre de 2012 se presentaran cargos contra Pérez de Morales y otros dos implicados en una conspiración para lavar dinero estafado al Medicare. La compañía, registrada en las Islas Vírgenes Británicas, comenzó a operar bajo el nombre de otra sociedad, 123envialo Ltd, inscrita por Caribbean Transfers años atrás en ese mismo paraíso fiscal.

Documentos internos de 123envialo Ltd señalan como la dirección fiscal de la empresa la siguiente: The Ellen Slkelton Building, Road Town, Tortola, British Virgin Islands, que a su vez figura como la antigua dirección de Caribbean Transfers Ltd.

A mediados de octubre de 2012, Caribbean Transfers comunicó a sus usuarios en su página web la interrupción de las remesas a Cuba y la intención de retomarlas un mes después, lo  que efectivamente ocurrió. La empresa envió entonces a sus clientes un mensaje electrónico en la que avisaba de los cambios: "Por favor, tenga en cuenta que aunque usamos un sitio nuevo, el servicio y el staff son los mismos".

Además de las remesas a Cuba desde el sitio www.123envialo.com, la compañía empezó a ofrecer un servicio de supermercado y recarga de celulares en Cuba. Su contraparte logística es la Financiera CIMEX, una institución financiera no bancaria del Gobierno cubano, encargada de efectuar las recargas de las tarjetas de débito de Caribbean Transfers, y de cursar las órdenes de envío de alimentos a su destinatarios en la Isla.

Otros negocios activos

Caribbean Transfers llegó a tener agentes representantes en Canadá, Estados Unidos, México, República Dominicana, Chile, España y Suiza, y registros fiscales en las Islas Vírgenes Británicas y Bahamas. La mayoría de sus agentes siguen operativos.

A través de cuentas de compañías fantasmas en Canadá, Caribbean Transfers recibió dinero estafado al Medicare, que era remitido a cuentas de la entidad en países del Caribe y terminaba en el sistema bancario cubano, bajo control estatal. El diario El Nuevo Herald ha mencionado a compañías intermediarias en esta operación de lavado de activos, entre las que se encuentran Communications Sophie, Magnus Aviation Logistic y Monetaria Holding Group, todas establecidas en Canadá.

Actualmente, la antigua Caribbean Transfers sigue trabajando en Canadá a través de su agente autorizado Communications Sophie Inc, pero que ya no opera como empresa canadiense, sino de Bahamas. Su  presidenta es la cubana Digna María Alonso Pérez y el administrador Manuel Ortega Suárez, con oficinas en 7-5825 RUE Sherbrooke E, en Montreal.

En Chile, el agente autorizado de Caribbean Transfers, Comercial DiCaribbean, llegó a ser multado por incumplir ciertas normas de transparencia financiera.

En 2012, la Unidad de Análisis Financiero del Gobierno de Chile dictaminó que Comercial DiCaribbean no contaba con procedimientos de verificación de las relaciones que los clientes "puedan tener con países o territorios no cooperantes o paraísos fiscales; o con los Talibanes o la organización Al-Qaeda". Actualmente, Comercial DiCaribbean no estaría enviando remesas a Cuba, según un mensaje en su página web.

Jorge Emilio Pérez de Morales Santé tiene además negocios en España con el actor cubano Jorge Perugorría, mientras que conserva un poder notarial vigente para operar con total libertad en Panamá en la empresa Caribbean Transfers SA, registrada en ese país en enero de 2011 por Irma Silka Araúz y Olivia Ismenia Araúz. 

Como uno de los presidentes de la empresa panameña figuró el español Luis Vicente García del Vado, el primer administrador de la empresa Santa Fe Art Productions, registrada en Bilbao y que tiene hoy a Pérez de Morales Santé como su titular.

Silka Araúz es presidenta de la Comisión de Derecho Migratorio del Colegio Nacional de Abogados de Panamá, y dueña de la empresa Nesiti SA, especializada en viajes a Cuba.

Caribbean Transfers ha estado además representada en Suiza por Caribbean Family Service Sagl, una empresa que fue registrada en 2009 por Ana Lourdes Pérez de Morales Santé, hermana del prófugo.

¿Estará en Cuba? Acusado de fraude al Medicare desaparece en ‘viaje’ de pesca en Cayo Hueso

ElNuevoHerald.com

BEATRICE DUPUY y JAY WEAVER

Un hombre de Miami ha desaparecido luego de un viaje de pesca en los Cayos de Florida —o posiblemente huyó a Cuba para escapar acusaciones pendientes por cometer fraude al Medicare.
La Guardia Costera de Estados Unidos dijo el jueves que continúa la búsqueda de Robert A. García-Esquerro, quien desapareciera luego de salir de la Marina de Cayo Hueso el sábado por la mañana a bordo del Miss Juliette, un bote de 28 pies, de consola central blanca y una franja amarilla.
Se cree que el individuo de 43 años de edad, se encontraba solo, dijo el suboficial de la Guardia Costera de los Estados Unidos, Grupo de Cayo Hueso, Mark Barney.
“Estamos intentando todo lo que podemos para localizarlo”, dijo Barney. “El porqué de que esté desaparecido, toma segundo plano ante la importancia de la búsqueda y rescate”.
La esposa de García reportó que García-Esquerro debía regresar el sábado en la noche de lo que él dijo era un viaje de pesca. Los guardacostas empezaron su búsqueda al día siguiente. El tiempo cerca de Cayo Hueso durante el primer fin de semana de la temporada de mero estuvo desagradable con ráfagas de viento de hasta 20 nudos y condiciones marítimas difíciles lejos de la playa.
Después de varios días de no lograr localizar el pequeño bote o a su capitán, los oficiales decidieron notificar a los medios de comunicación el jueves acerca de la desaparición de García-Esquerro. Barney dijo que la búsqueda se había enfocado más recientemente en un área de entre 10 y 15 millas al sur de Marathon.
Luego de que oficiales federales revelaran que sobre García-Esquerro también pesa una orden de arresto por cargos de cometer fraude en Miami, hubo dudas acerca de si estaba desaparecido o si no quería ser encontrado.
El Miami Herald confirmó el jueves que García-Esquerro había sido acusado de fraude al Medicare bajo una acusación sellada retornada por un gran jurado federal a principios de este año. Sin embargo, bajo esas circunstancias, los cargos pendientes permanecerían confidenciales. No está claro cómo —o si García-Esquerro habría sabido que enfrentaba una orden de arresto.
Si él huyó a Cuba, eso no sería inusual. Durante la última década, docenas de personas buscadas por acusaciones de fraude al sistema de salud en Miami han escapado de los tribunales por medio de regresar a la isla, gobernada por un régimen comunista.
García-Esquerro trabajó para varias clínicas de salud mental en Miami-Dade, incluyendo la de su padre, Latin Quarter, la cual operaba en Flagler Street durante la década anterior. Latin Quarter, que cerró en el 2010, era una de las clínicas de psicoterapia con licencia de Medicare de más ingresos de la nación, presentando cada año reclamaciones por más de $10 millones, según documentos.
Su padre, Robert F. García-Esquerro, es un abogado cubanoamericano expulsado del colegio de abogados, convicto de lavado de dinero y fraude bancario en 1993, según documentos de los tribunales federales de Miami. Fue sentenciado a dos años de cárcel. Luego de ser puesto en libertad, el padre abrió numerosos negocios, de salud y de otro tipo, según documentos.
La Guardia Costera pide a todo el que tenga información sobre la desaparición de García-Esquerro que llame al 305-415-6800.

Read more here: http://www.elnuevoherald.com/2014/05/09/1744223/estara-en-cuba-acusado-de-fraude.html#storylink=cpy

Cuban fugitive charged in $100 million Medicare scam caught at Mexican border

www.fbi.gov

MiamiHerald.com

By Jay Weaver

Nearly a decade ago, opening a phony HIV clinic to rip off Medicare was no problem: To pull it off, the Miami ringleaders would simply recruit immigrants as straw owners to provide cover for them, authorities say.
The “straws” would come over, pose as corporate officers to protect the real owners’ identities, then often go back to Cuba.
One of them, Juan Carralero, allegedly did just that — but he got busted by the FBI earlier this month after he tried to return while crossing the Mexico-California border in late January. Carralero, 60, who is being transferred from San Diego, faces a 2009 indictment charging him with assisting a Miami-based HIV-clinic racket that aimed to bilk $100 million from the taxpayer-funded Medicare program.
The leader of the massive medical scam in Miami-Dade and other parts of the Southeast admitted that he recruited three Cubans “with the understanding that the ‘straw' owners’ would flee to Cuba to avoid law enforcement detection or capture,” according to court records.
Michel De Jesus Huarte pleaded guilty in 2009 to fraud charges and was sentenced to 22 years in prison. His accused recruits — Carralero, Orlin Tamayo-Quinones and Madelin Barbara Machado — were suspected of having fled to Cuba, according to the FBI.
Huarte's accused business partner, Ramon Fonseca, is believed to be in Venezuela.
Since 2008, Carralero and more than 30 other defendants have been captured by the FBI and Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General, with the pace of arrests beginning to pick up in 2013.
There are still another 150 fugitives from outstanding Medicare fraud cases in South Florida, most of them Cuban-born immigrants who fled to Cuba, Mexico, the Dominican Republic and other Spanish-speaking countries to evade federal trials. View more of the fugitives in The Miami Herald’s database.
With the exception of Cuba, several foreign countries with U.S. extradition treaties have assisted federal authorities with making arrests and returning fugitives to the United States. But usually, the fugitives get caught when they attempt to re-enter the United States.
The HIV-clinic scheme run by Huarte started in Miami but expanded to Georgia, Louisiana, North Carolina and South Carolina by using empty storefronts and post office boxes, according to an indictment.
The 10-person racket, which operated from 2005 to 2009, stood apart from others in Miami-Dade at the time. It exploited not only Medicare but also private insurers that administered the government entitlement program under the Medicare Advantage plan. Overall, the ring collected about $30 million in fraudulent payments from 36 sham clinics spread across five states.
Court records show that Carralero was listed as the CEO, registered agent and secretary for two of those clinics, Comprehensive Medical and Best Care, in Georgia.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/02/24/3957751/cuban-fugitive-charged-in-100.html#storylink=cpy

Cuban migrant arrested at sea for Medicare fraud, money laundering

bizjournals

Brian Bandell

Hector Hernandez, who fled the U.S. after he was indicted on charges of Medicare fraud and money laundering, was arrested while sailing from Cuba to Florida, federal prosecutors said.

Hernandez, who reportedly absconded in July 2009, allegedly had Miami-based Complete Medical Center submit $3.1 million in false claims for durable medical equipment for products that were never prescribed by doctors or provided to Medicare beneficiaries, prosecutors said.

RELATED CONTENT: Medicare fraud prosecutions at all-time high

Medicare paid $1.4 million of the bad claims the company submitted, prosecutors added.

That money could go a long way in Cuba, but Hernandez still had the itch to come to U.S. shores. He was arrested Jan. 6 aboard a vessel transporting Cuban immigrants to Key West.

Dozens of Medicare fraud suspects are believed to have fled to Cuba to avoid prosecution, as the Cuban government rarely extradites those accused of such crimes to the U.S., authorities say.

Russian Diplomats Found Socialist Paradise in U.S.

breitbart

By Charles Hurt 

Investigators in New York and politicians here in America’s capital were shocked to learn last week that 50 Russian diplomats had defrauded the U.S. out of some $1.5 million as part of a Medicaid scam.

“Diplomacy should be about extending hands, not picking pockets in the host country,” said the clearly disappointed U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, whose office made the accusations. “The charges expose shameful and systemic corruption among Russian diplomats in New York.”

But you know what is even more shameful? An even greater example of systematic corruption?

That our government leaders are somehow surprised by this. I mean, what do they expect?

The Soviet Union collapsed years ago because, to quote Margaret Thatcher, they eventually ran out of other people’s money. So, where do Russians have to go for their social programs now? They come here.

New York City may be reviled by terrorists as the pinnacle of capitalism, but the truth is the city — like the rest of the country — has increasingly become a cradle of socialism. And Russians know good socialism when they see it.

So they get posted here and get right down to the business of procreating. Because here in America, if you get yourself pregnant, it isn’t your responsibility. It’s the taxpayers’ and they will pick up the tab.

All you have to do is work up some documents that say you make some paltry amount of money and saunter on down to your local department of free stuff and apply for other people to pay for your pregnancy, birth, and infant care.

The part that really threw our leaders for a loop was that the Russian diplomats — obviously our good friends since they wanted to live here in America — had conspired with their bosses in the Russian government to lie about the diplomats’ income so they could be eligible for welfare.

How on earth is this surprising? I mean, they are Russians. They are, at heart, socialists. In order to be a socialist, first and foremost you must be able to lie. Not only must you be able to lie, but you must believe the lies you tell. Otherwise, socialism collapses.

Which gets us to the final point, which only a heartless capitalist would think to ask. And that is, why is it that we are now sharing our American socialism with the Russians?

Don’t our leaders realize the more people we let in to spend other people’s money, the faster we run out of other people’s money? At which point we will be forced to return to capitalism. Or, maybe that just and honest system we see flourishing over there in Russia these days with all the monstrously wealthy Russian oligarchs who live in castles in the south of France.

If only the people could get their hands on all that oligarchy money, they could have all the babies they wanted to. For free!

FBI tracking down Medicare fraud fugitives from South Florida

MiamiHerald.com

By Jay Weaver

Luis Benitez, 47

Stole $84M

In Miami’s very deep sea of Medicare fraud, Carmen Gonzalez was a minnow.

So when federal agents recently nabbed her after five years on the lam, it didn’t exactly make a splash. But her arrest was the latest in an under-the-radar round-up of fugitive scammers who have branded Miami with the dubious title of the nation’s capital of healthcare corruption.

Gonzalez had played a supporting role in one of the region’s biggest, baddest Medicare rip-offs. She first worked as a cleaning lady, and then as a nurse who paid kickbacks to patients, for the notorious Benitez brothers — three sharks who ran 11 Miami-Dade clinics that swindled a staggering $84 million from the taxpayer-funded program, authorities say.

In the spring of 2008, Gonzalez and her father, Enrique, who also worked for the Benitez brothers, fled Miami after they were separately charged. The brothers — Carlos, Luis and Jose — also left Miami soon after they were indicted that May.

Where did they all go? Cuba — No. 1 among Latin American destinations of choice for South Florida’s Medicare fraud fugitives. Together, they stole hundreds of millions of dollars by filing billions in false claims for everything from medical equipment to HIV-therapy infusion drugs.

Gonzalez and some 30 other defendants have been captured over the last half-dozen years, with the pace of arrests beginning to pick up this year. There are still another 150 fugitives from outstanding Medicare fraud cases in South Florida, most of them Cuban-born immigrants who fled to Cuba, Mexico, the Dominican Republic and other Spanish-speaking countries to evade federal trials.

With the exception of Cuba, several foreign countries with U.S. extradition treaties have assisted federal authorities with making arrests and returning fugitives to the United States.

Though progress has been plodding, agents have collared 10 fugitives this year alone, compared to a previous pace of one every couple of months, said Randall Culp, the FBI special agent who supervises healthcare fraud investigations in South Florida.

“We’ve been whittling down the number on a case-by-case basis,” Culp said. “Agents are persistent in trying to locate the fugitives and eventually law enforcement catches up with them.”

“Sometimes we just get lucky.”

In September, for example, FBI agents caught up with Gonzalez, a cousin of the Benitez brothers, after she had sneaked back into this country through the Mexican border. She made the mistake of reapplying for a Florida driver’s license while living in the Fort Myers area with relatives.

In mid-October, she found herself dressed in an orange inmate jumpsuit, standing in the courtroom of U.S. District Judge Federico Moreno — the very judge she had blindsided five years earlier when she jumped bail, fleeing the country after the judge had granted her a $50,000 bail when she asked to visit Disney World for her son’s birthday. The Orlando trip turned out to be a ruse.

“Where did you go? Why didn’t you show up in court?” Moreno asked Gonzalez, before she pleaded guilty to a bond-jumping charge last month. “I went to Cuba,” answered Gonzalez, who now goes on trial for Medicare fraud in December.

Gonzalez’s defense attorney, Joel DeFabio, said she “panicked” in May 2008 when she fled with her son and husband.

“She found that life in Cuba was hard, especially for her son,” said DeFabio. “She saw no future in Cuba and wanted to give her son a better life, so she returned to the United States.”

At the time of her initial arrest, Justice Department prosecutors had warned that Gonzalez — charged in an $11 million Medicare fraud scheme at one of the Benitez brothers’ clinics, St. Jude Rehab Center, and suspected of assisting eight of their other HIV-therapy clinics in the Miami area —was a flight risk. They also noted that her father, also charged as a bookkeeper and patient recruiter at two Benitez brothers’ clinics, had just fled the country.

Moreno, the court’s chief judge, had himself just issued a memo in 2008 warning his colleagues not to set low bonds for Medicare fraud defendants, citing a rising increase in fugitives.

So the judge was not amused when Gonzalez forfeited a $7,500 bond down payment, and didn’t show up for her next hearing that June. The judge lamented that Cuban immigrants were coming to the United States, gaining lawful residency and stealing from the Medicare system — and then returning to their native country with ill-gotten gains.

“It seems to me that our thinking has to change — that someone from Cuba can flee back to Cuba just like someone from Mexico,” Moreno told Gonzalez’s attorney, DeFabio, at the time. “I don’t know what your client’s situation is, but money goes a lot farther in Cuba.”

Despite those cautionary words, the pattern of South Florida’s Medicare offenders fleeing to Cuba, Mexico and other Latin American countries continued to climb until judges in the last few years began rejecting bond requests before trial.

The FBI has maintained a list of at least 90 South Florida Medicare fraud fugitives identified by name, compiled by Special Agent Bryan Piper. The bureau, assisted by Health and Human Services-Office of Inspector General, also has a list of an additional 90 defendants who have been charged by sealed indictment, but also are suspected of having fled the region. As a result, they are unaware they are wanted in Miami, and agents don’t want to tip them off.

So far, about 30 fugitives have been busted. Culp said that most South Florida fugitives typically get caught while they are on the lam in foreign nations, or when they return to this country through Miami International Airport.

An example: In 2009, Alcides Garcia, wanted for his role in a $10.7 million medical equipment ring, went to a shipping company in the Canary Islands to have his personal belongings sent from Miami to the Spanish island off the northwestern coast of Africa.

Garcia kept saying he was Mexican, but his heavy Cuban accent was a dead giveaway.

So, the shipping company owner Googled Garcia’s name and up popped a Miami Herald/El Nuevo story published in January 2009 that described Garcia as a Cuban-born fugitive wanted on Medicare fraud charges in South Florida. The story, which carried a mug shot of Garcia, confirmed his identity.

The owner called the FBI in Miami with an anonymous tip, and the Spanish National Police did a background check and arrested him on a provisional federal warrant at a hotel in Madrid. Garcia, 49, who had used his real name but a false Mexican passport, was eventually sentenced to eight years in prison.

The bureau also has had success dealing with other foreign countries.

Last February, for example, Colombian authorities extradited a woman who had walked out of her 2006 healthcare fraud trial in Miami just before the jury convicted her of operating a $5 million HIV-therapy racket.

In 2012, the FBI caught up with Magda Luz Lavin after Colombian authorities received a complaint about her from the victims of a business scam in her native country, who had heard she was wanted back in Miami on healthcare fraud. She was arrested that June in Medellin and later extradited from Bogota to Miami. Lavin, 55, was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison.

Last year, the FBI also tracked down Gonzalez’s father with cooperation from other South American authorities. Based on a tip, the FBI learned that he was traveling from Bolivia to Cuba, with a stop in Peru in 2011. The bureau asked Peruvian authorities to arrest him that October. He remained in jail until he was extradited in July 2012 to Miami.

Enrique Gonzalez, who had initially emigrated from Cuba in 2000, pleaded guilty to healthcare fraud and paying kickbacks to patients in a $26 million scam at two of the Benitez brothers’ HIV-therapy clinics. Gonzalez, 68, was sentenced to five years in prison.

His employers — Carlos, Jose and Luis Benitez — fled Miami after they were indicted in May 2008. The brothers got lucky, because they left while their indictments were still under seal. They used Cuban passports to travel from Miami to the Dominican Republic, then to Cuba.

The three brothers were charged with bilking the U.S. government’s health insurance program by billing $119 million in false claims for HIV-infusion treatments at 11 Miami-Dade clinics. The brothers pulled off the scam by hiring crooked doctors with Medicare numbers, hiring Cuban immigrants to register as clinic owners and paying $150-per-visit kickbacks to a network of Miami-Dade men with the AIDS virus who had valuable Medicare cards. About 20 defendants, including Carmen Gonzalez and her father, have been swept up in the Benitez brothers’ probe.

During the past decade, HIV-therapy exploded into the most spectacular swindle in Medicare history, with Health and Human Services, known for its lax oversight, paying out billions of dollars on phony claims for obsolete drug treatments that were mostly not provided to patients. The scam spun so out of control that Medicare-licensed clinics in South Florida billed more for this bogus therapy — more than the rest of the country combined.

For the Benitez brothers, the HIV-therapy scheme was a windfall: Medicare paid their clinics about $84 million between 2001 and 2004, according to their indictment.

The Benitezes, who came to this country in 1995 and became U.S. citizens five years later, have now found a safe haven in Cuba, according to sources familiar with their status. The FBI cannot pursue them or any other fugitives in Cuba because the United States does not have normal relations with the communist island nation.

But the brothers lost most of the property they had acquired in the Dominican Republic before they fled criminal prosecution in Miami. Federal authorities worked with the Dominican Republic to seize their extensive assets in the resort area of Bavaro, including a Pirates of the Caribbean-styled theme park.

Other assets included tourist hotels, a Robinson R44 Raven helicopter, apartment complexes, luxury homes, supermarkets and a rental car agency, all registered under shell companies or straw names. In 2011, Dominican authorities and the U.S. government announced a joint agreement to share seized Benitez properties and frozen bank accounts, totaling an estimated $37.5 million in forfeited assets. So far, the feds have recovered $14 million.

The Benitez brothers are not the only big fish still out there.

Another major fugitive: Jorge Emilio Perez, 49, the owner of an offshore remittance company called Caribbean Transfers. Perez was charged last year with financing a complex money-laundering ring that moved more than $30 million in stolen Medicare proceeds from South Florida through Canada into Cuba’s banking system — with the help of a check-cashing business operator, Oscar L. Sanchez, who pleaded guilty and was sentenced to four and a half years in prison.

Prosecutors described Caribbean Transfers as a sort of “Western Union” for money remittances. The company’s website says it specializes in remittance services to Cuba, the Dominican Republic and other countries.

The FBI suspects Caribbean Transfers’ owner is in the Dominican Republic.

The FBI’s Culp vowed that the bureau, which works with the Justice Department, Homeland Security and Interpol, will eventually track down Medicare offenders with outstanding arrest warrants.

Said Culp: “Fugitives may run, but they cannot hide.”

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/11/02/v-fullstory/3728532/fbi-tracking-down-medicare-fraud.html#storylink=cpy

EXPLORE THE DATABASE

Arrestado dueño de Cubana de Televisión en Miami por fraude al Medicare

cafefuerte

Por Ivette Leyva Martínez

El empresario Roberto F. Marrero, dueño de la singular estación de cable Cubana de Televisión, fue arrestado este martes como parte de una redada nacional que incluyó a 89 acusados por fraude al Medicare en ocho ciudades de Estados Unidos.

Marrero y su esposa Sandra Fernández Viera figuran como propietarios de Trust Care Health Services, un negocio de atención médica a domicilio para ancianos, con el que habrían desfalcado $20 millones de dólares del programa federal de salud.

El matrimonio figura en una lista de 24 presuntos estafadores del Medicare en el área de Miami. Ambos enfrentan cargos de conspiración para cometer fraude en servicios de salud, y conspiración para recibir y pagar sobornos.

Las fraudulentas operaciones financieras habrían sufragado el sueño para establecer una estación televisiva que Marrero promovía como el eslogan de "Algo grande está pasando".

Numerosos artistas cubanos trabajaron en Cubana de Televisión, entre ellos Germán Barrios, Mirtha Medina, Alfredito Rodríguez, Fidel Pérez Michel y Rosana Montenegro.

Cubana de Televisión trasmite por la frecuencia digital 25.1 (aire), el canal 84 de Comcast y el 194 de Atlantic.

Aventuras y buena paga

Pérez Michel, un actor muy conocido por el público cubano de las décadas del 70 y 80, laboró algunas temporadas en Cubana de Televisión.

"Hice versiones de las novelas Doña Bárbara, Enrique Lagardere y la aventura El Jaguar, en las que el propio Marrero también actuaba", dijo el actor a CaféFuerte. "Pero luego esas producciones nunca se terminaban".

Otros ex empleados de Cubana de Televisión se quejaron de irregularidades en el funcionamiento laboral.

"Nadie sabía de donde salía el dinero para esas producciones, además de que no se terminaban al final, [Marrero] decía que le había dado pérdidas", dijo a CaféFuerte una actriz que prefirió no ser identificada. "Se pagaba superbien, aunque hubo casos de gente a la que le emitieron un cheque sin fondo. Pero uno tiene que resolver y eso era trabajo".

Algunos ex empleados también notaron que Marrero cerraba la productora después que terminaba la temporada de impuestos y la reabría al cabo de unos meses. Se pagaba en cheques o efectivo.

Marrero viajaba con frecuencia a Cuba y en ocasiones comentó sobre la posibilidad de ir a grabar en la isla, algo que nunca se concretó.

El edificio, ubicado en el 2190 SW 8th St, en La Pequeña Habana, permanecía cerrado el martes por la noche.

Fanático de la actuación

Estomatólogo de profesión, Marrero llegó a Estados Unidos en 1979. Su vocación por el mundo de la actuación y la farándula lo heredó de su padre, Francisco Marrero, un comediante de la televisión cubana que popularizó el personaje de Tinguaro. Antes de convertirse en empresario, actuó en varias telenovelas en español junto a figuras como Andrés García, Lucía Méndez, Adela Noriega y Eduardo Yáñez.

Roberto Marrero, empresario y actor.

Luego comenzó a inmiscuirse como protagonista de las producciones y las series que patrocinaba en Cubana de Televisión.

De acuerdo con los documentos presentados en el tribunal, Marrero invirtió el dinero en la construcción de un estudio de televisión en el barrio de Allapatah, y en compras de lujosos vehículos, incluyendo dos Lamborghinis, un Ferrari y un Bentley.

Fundada en el 2000, Cubana de Televisión empleó a conocidas figuras del mundo artístico, recreó antiguos espacios de aventuras y dramatizados que tuvieron éxito en años recientes en Cuba, y puso en pantalla otros programas populares de la televisión de la isla.

De acuerdo con la página web de Cubana de Televisión, algunos títulos de sus programas son Lo que pasa hoy, Esquina Habanera, Ritmos de Cuba,  La Devoradora, Aventuras, Mikin Drive, Casino de La Alegría, Noche Cubana, Chinatown, La Magia de los 60’s, Aquí esta Mirtha Medina y Su Noche con Alfredo, conducido por el cantante Alfredo Rodríguez.

Conocidos cantantes como Carlos Manuel, Isaac Delgado y Manolín, actores, músicos y humoristas populares en Miami eran presencia frecuente en los espacios de la estación.

Dinero escondido

De acuerdo con la fiscalía, Care Health Services, Inc. (Care Trust), la empresa de Marrero y su esposa, pagó comisiones ilegales y sobornos a los reclutadores de pacientes para obtener beneficiarios de Medicare, y luego presentaron más de $20 millones de dólares en reclamaciones fraudulentas, principalmente por la atención especializada a unos 700 pacientes diabéticos, así como terapia física y ocupacional. La compañía funcionó entre el 2007 y el 2010.

Una tercera persona, Enrique Rodríguez, también es nombrada en la acusación como un reclutador que sobornaba pacientes para obtener sus cuentas de Medicare.

De acuerdo con el documento, no está esclarecido dónde los acusados lograron ocultar $15 millones de dólares que Trust Care recibió de fondos federales en pago por los servicios falsamente prestados. Las autoridades federales apenas han podido localizar una cantidad mínima de esos activos.

El matrimonio fue presentado el martes en un tribunal federal de Miami. La fiscalía pedirá que no se les otorgue fianza bajo el argumento de que podrían escapar del país.

Marrero está representado por el prestigioso abogado criminalista José Quiñón. Fernández Viera será defendida por Leonard Sands.

De ser hallados culpables, los acusados enfrentan hasta 10 años de cárcel por los cargos de fraude y cinco años por cada cargo de soborno.

La acusación contra la pareja Marrero-Fernández Viera forma parte de un supuesto desfalco general de $223 millones de dólares al Medicare, perpetrado por diversos profesionales e instituciones de salud en Miami, Tampa, Houston, Baton Rouge, Los Angeles, Detroit, Chicago y Nueva York.

El anuncio fue hecho en Washington por el Fiscal General Eric Holder, en compañía de la Secretaria de Salud, Kathleen Sebelius.