12 Charged in $15-Million Medicare Fraud
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MIAMI — A dozen people, including five doctors, were charged Thursday with cheating Medicare out of $15 million by creating fictitious patients and billing for services.
The former administrator of the Coral Gables-based Mederi home health care agency, 59-year-old Susan Regueiro, was in custody and others were being sought.
Regueiro and co-defendant Leopoldo “Polo” Perez created a large network of fictitious cases and kept a secret partial ownership, prosecutors said. The company made Medicare claims it knew to be fictitious and funneled the money back to the defendants, the government claimed.
The defendants were charged by a grand jury with 102 counts of conspiracy, fraud and money laundering. The money-laundering charges carry a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.
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