Two people from Miami-Dade County have been found guilty in a massive Medicare fraud scheme. They plotted to submit $93 million in claims for medical services that were not rendered, using lists of stolen identities of patients, even after some of them had died, investigators say.
Karel Felipe, 42, of Miami Shores, and Tamara Quicutis, 54, of Hialeah, were convicted Tuesday in Miami federal court of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and wire fraud, and conspiracy to commit money laundering, records show. They are scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 4.
A third defendant, Jesus Trujillo, 52, of Miami, pleaded guilty on Sept. 25 to one count of conspiring to commit health care fraud and wire fraud and one count of conspiring to commit money laundering. He was accused of overseeing a group in charge of recruiting Cubans to serve as purported owners of home healthcare companies at the center of the scheme, according to a U.S. Department of Justice news release. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 21.
The trio faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison on each conspiracy charge.
According to a federal indictment, Felipe, Quicutis and five other co-conspirators, all residents of Miami-Dade, submitted false bills to Medicare on behalf of three home healthcare companies — Care, Nu-Wave and Tri-County — that operated in Michigan from October 2016 to May 2019. Those three companies received Medicare payments totaling $53.3 million, according to the indictment.
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