LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Federal agencies, attorneys general and law enforcement are teaming up to crack down on healthcare fraud.
This week, the Department of Justice announced charges against hundreds of people tied to more than $6.5 billion in false claims.
WATCH | 13 Investigates' Darcy Spears breaks down the latest on the crackdown:
Nevadans facing charges include Marizel Yukee, a 49-year-old nurse practitioner who court records say ran mobile wound clinics in four states.
The indictment details illegal bribes, kickbacks and the targeting of elderly patients in a $906 million scam to defraud Medicare and the military's Tricare with medically unnecessary skin grafts.
"She was performing these skin substitute procedures on vulnerable elderly Americans in hospices and in nursing homes and then submitting those claims," U.S. Assistant Attorney General Colin McDonald said on Tuesday. "She was using human beings, American citizens, as living piggy banks, and then she took the money she got from those living piggy banks and she bought $865,000 necklaces that the department seized. She bought almost a half-million-dollar Ferrari that the department also seized."
Investigators say Yukee also used illegal profits to buy a $1 million home in Hawaii and build a $4.5 million beach resort in the Philippines.
Prosecutors claim she falsified patient files to make those procedures appear necessary under Medicare rules.
You can read the full indictment below:
In another skin graft case, Las Vegas salesman Brian Rowan — VP of sales for a wound care company — is accused of orchestrating a $1.2 billion scheme.
Federal investigators say Rowan and his co-conspirators paid hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes and kickbacks to doctors and sales reps, hiding them with fake invoices and shell companies. They say elderly and terminally ill patients were subjected to medically unnecessary treatments, inflating taxpayer-funded bills.
From 2021 to 2024, government programs and private insurers paid out more than $600 million in false claims.
Rowan allegedly pocketed $24 million and used it to buy luxury homes, cars and watches.
You can read the full indictment below:
"Five years ago, Medicare was paying out less than $1 billion every year in allografts and skin substitutes. By 2025, almost $15 billion," McDonald said. "These programs were riddled with fraud."
Since early June, the Department of Justice has charged 455 people nationwide and that number is expected to grow as the healthcare fraud investigation continues.
State attorneys general are also filing charges. Over the last week, several new cases have been filed here in Nevada.
Dayana Santander Morales, who was the manager of DC Medical Center, off of Sahara Avenue and Boulder Highway, is accused of submitting false claims to Medicaid using the ID numbers of several Medicaid patients for services that providers allegedly never gave and patients allegedly didn't receive.
Court records state the Nevada Attorney General's Office and the Medicaid Fraud Control Units requested records from Morales and DC Medical Center. However, Morales was unable to produce documentation necessary to support claims submitted to Nevada Medicaid for payment.
The criminal complaint states that between July 16, 2021 and Sept. 23, 2022, DC Medical Center and Morales received more than $2.1 million from Medicaid.
You can read the full criminal complaint below:
The Nevada Attorney General's Office has also filed charges against Yoselin Elizabeth Sorto Mejia and Salvi Therapeutics, which was located near South Las Vegas Boulevard and East St Louis Avenue.
From May 1, 2023, to Feb. 13, 2025, the criminal complaint alleges that Mejia made and/or caused false claims to be made to Medicaid and represented that its service providers "rendered certain behavioral health services that the provider denied providing and/or the services represented an impossible number of daily patients."
According to the complaint, Mejia and Salvi received more than $2.1 million from Medicaid.
You can read the full criminal complaint below:
Federal officials stated this is a bipartisan effort to crack down on fraud as part of an "all-government approach."
"There are nine healthcare fraud strike forces that have been part of this effort, 57 U.S. Attorney's offices, 41 state Attorneys General offices, not red states, not blue states, but both working together with the federal government," U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche said on Tuesday. "Fraudsters can no longer rip off American taxpayers. If you seek to harm or cheat Americans, we will find you, seize any assets and prosecute you to the fullest extent of the law."
13 Investigates is digging into suspicious activity in the healthcare industry, especially hospice and home health companies.
A new six-month moratorium now pauses state licenses and Medicaid enrollments for those providers until officers verify existing businesses are legitimate.
Watch for my special report in the coming weeks.