International Fugitive Arrested for Role in Multi-Million Dollar Health Care Fraud Scheme

A Cuban national who had been wanted since 2013 on charges relating to a multi-million dollar health care fraud scheme was arrested on Friday, Oct. 9, 2015, when he arrived in Miami on a flight from Cuba.

Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney A. Lee Bentley III of the Middle District of Florida, Special Agent in Charge Paul Wysopal of the FBI’s Tampa Division and Special Agent in Charge Shimon Richmond of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General’s (HHS-OIG) Miami Regional Office made the announcement.

Ubert Guillermo Rodriguez, aka Ubert Guillermo Rodriguez Sigler, 47, of Cuba, was charged by indictment, returned on July 31, 2013, with 14 counts of health care fraud.  The indictment was unsealed today following his initial appearance in the Southern District of Florida.

According to the indictment, Rodriguez was the president and owner of G.R. Services Equipment & Supplies Inc. (G.R. Services), a Largo, Florida, company that purported to provide durable medical equipment to Medicare beneficiaries.  The indictment alleges that, between May and July 2013, Rodriguez caused G.R. Services to submit to Medicare approximately $2,579,695 in false and fraudulent claims seeking reimbursement for durable medical equipment that was not prescribed by doctors and not provided to beneficiaries.  For example, according to the indictment, G.R. Services sought thousands of dollars in reimbursement for wound therapy electrical pumps and sterile collagen dressings purportedly provided in 2013 to Medicare beneficiaries who had died in 2010.

Federal law enforcement agents previously seized from the bank account for G.R. Services approximately $243,339 in proceeds from the health care fraud scheme.

The charges and allegations contained in an indictment are merely accusations.  The defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.

This case is being investigated by HHS-OIG and the FBI and was brought as part of the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, under the supervision of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Middle District of Florida.  This case is being prosecuted by Senior Trial Attorney Christopher J. Hunter of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section.

Since its inception in March 2007, the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, now operating in nine cities across the country, has charged over 2,300 defendants who collectively have billed the Medicare program for over $7 billion.  In addition, the HHS Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, working in conjunction with the HHS-OIG, are taking steps to increase accountability and decrease the presence of fraudulent providers.