Cuban sentenced in Miami for defrauding Medicare of 17 million and having managed to escape to Cuba

Cuban Ariel Núñez Finalet, owner of a Hialeah pharmacy, sentenced in Miami who defrauded Medicare of around $17 million, collected El Nuevo Herald.

The 58-year-old man had fled to Cuba with other people from the same network who participated in the scam, obviously with the aim of evading justice.

Núñez managed to flee to the communist island with false documents, under a Mexican identity. Once in Cuba, he bought several properties, luxury cars, and traveled to Russia on several occasions.

However, an Interpol red notice led Cuban authorities to arrest him in 2017 on money laundering charges linked to his criminal activities in South Florida.

In the Caribbean country he was sentenced to eight years in prison, but released in 2021 on presumed parole. It was not until he traveled to Spain in 2023 that the Spanish authorities did their job properly and extradited him to the United States.

This man is not the only one in this online fraud scheme; there are two pharmacy leaders who are still fugitives from American justice.

The man pleaded guilty last January to conspiracy to defraud U.S. health care providers, saying he played a key role in the scheme by using local pharmacies to file false claims with Medicare.

With this fraud, he managed to obtain more than $500,000 for the scam. Prosecutors explained that Nunez withdrew cash from the bank account of the Lily and Rosy pharmacy in Hialeah, and used the money to bribe patient recruiters and Medicare beneficiaries.

According to Joseph Egozi, a federal prosecutor, many of these fraudsters flee to Cuba, knowing that the regime's authorities will not extradite them to the United States because of the difficulties in diplomatic relations.

Statistics have revealed that about 100 defendants remain awaiting justice in Florida, most of them Cuban emigrants who defrauded Medicare, and then managed to escape to the Island or to other countries.