Feds: Medicare millions moved to Cuba through Canada, Trinidad and Mexico

Posted on Monday, 11.05.12

Feds: Medicare millions moved to Cuba through Canada, Trinidad and Mexico

Federal court records reveal that a Florida money-laundering network
moved Medicare millions to Cuba through Canada, Trinidad and, now, Mexico.
BY JAY WEAVER
jweaver@MiamiHerald.com

A South Florida money-laundering network secretly transferred more than
$30 million in illegal Medicare profits through a remittance firm with
shell companies in not only Canada and Trinidad, but also in Mexico,
according to court records filed Monday.

Evidence of the widening network into Mexico surfaced in the federal
plea agreement of a one-time Miami medical equipment provider who
pleaded guilty Friday to his role in the money-laudering conspiracy.

Kirian Vega, 35, who owned Ozain Pharmacy in another person's name,
billed more than $600,000 in false claims to the taxpayer-funded
Medicare program and received about $400,000.

According to the plea agreement, Vega admitted he used a Florida
check-cashing store to launder $124,000 of the tainted proceeds in 2009
through the shell companies of the offshore remittance company,
Caribbean Transfers.

Court documents show that money was wired to Turismo dos Polos in
Mexico, which transferred a portion — $45,000 — to another shell
company, Communications Sophie, in Trinidad. That money was then sent to
an unidentified travel agency in Cuba, records show.

Last month, Caribbean Transfers was accused in an indictment of
financing the complex money-laundering ring that moved millions in
stolen Medicare money, mostly from South Florida, through shell
companies in Canada and Trinidad and finally into Cuba's banking system.

That revelation came to light in the case of a now-convicted
check-cashing store owner who was first believed to be at the center of
the federal case. It marked the first time that investigators traced
tainted Medicare proceeds to Cuba's state-controlled bank.

Caribbean Transfers appears to have played the dominant role in the
unprecedented money-laundering scheme.

In October, prosecutors filed conspiracy charges against the founder of
the Caribbean-based company, Jorge Emilio Perez, who is believed to be
hiding in the Dominican Republic.

Also charged: Vega and Felipe Ruiz, 38, one-time operator of two Miami
medical equipment businesses under others' names. Ruiz was charged with
laundering at least $1.2 million through the check-cashing store and
remittance company.

The information about Caribbean Transfers, which prosecutors say is
licensed by the Cuban government, was disclosed during Ruiz's bond
hearing last month. Ruiz, a Cuban-born U.S. citizen, was denied bail
because a judge found he might flee to Cuba or another country.

In June, the U.S. attorney's office in Miami made national headlines
when prosecutors charged Oscar L. Sanchez, owner of the Naples
check-cashing store, with conspiring to launder tens of millions of
Medicare dollars via Canada and Trinidad into Cuba's national bank.

By late August, Sanchez, 47, had pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate
with authorities and repay the U.S. government $10 million, consisting
primarily of residential investment properties he acquired with his wife
in Southwest Florida.

The U.S. attorney's office has said it has no evidence that the Cuban
government was part of the laundering scheme, and Cuban officials have
denied any involvement.

Sanchez, also a Cuban-born U.S. citizen, was indicted on the single
conspiracy charge of playing a pivotal role in laundering the profits of
70 South Florida medical companies that falsely billed Medicare for
$374.4 million and were paid $70.7 million.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/11/05/3083478/feds-medicare-millions-moved-to.html