Florida residents charged in Medicare fraud conspiracy said to involve 6,000 beneficiaries
Two Florida residents are facing federal charges of conspiracy for allegedly orchestrating a years-long scheme to steal the identities of Medicare beneficiaries and defraud the program.
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced on Tuesday that a grand jury had indicted Kenia Marrero, 46, said to have led the healthcare fraud scheme, which allegedly involved obtaining personal information on Medicare patients—names, dates of birth and Medicare BINs—from an unnamed Miami-based provider group.
Prosecutors said there was at least one employee of this healthcare entity, named in court documents as “Provider A,” who was willing to steal the information and secretly pass it to Marrero. That man was identified as Joan Navarro Bruguet, 51, who is accused of unlawfully disclosing protected patient information.
Navarro was indicted by a grand jury on those charges and is now the defendant in a separate-but-related criminal case, the DOJ added.
As for the arrangement between Marrero and Navarro Bruguet, court documents said their scheme lasted for over three years, from January 2020 to February 2025. It’s claimed that the latter would access patient records while at work and take photos of documents using his cellphone, then send those images to Marrero via an encrypted messaging app.
Navarro Bruguet was allegedly paid roughly $500 for each patient list containing personal details on 100 Medicare beneficiaries. Over time, the names and Medicare IDs of some 6,000 people were unlawfully disclosed, the DOJ wrote.
The stream of stolen patients was then allegedly used by Marrero for nefarious purposes, mainly to be re-sold to co-conspirators who used the data to commit Medicare fraud.
One man sentenced
In relation to this broader conspiracy, prosecutors said one man has already been sentenced in a separate criminal case. Juan Carlos Cardella allegedly worked with Marrero to offload the stolen patient information on the black market, sometimes for as much as $7,000 per list of 100 names, dates of birth and Medicare IDs.
The indictment further states that Marrero was directly involved in at least one act of Medicare fraud involving durable medical equipment. Prosecutors claim that scheme involved the submission of more than $5 million in fraudulent claims to Medicare using the stolen beneficiary information.
She has been charged with conspiracy to buy, sell, and distribute the stolen IDs; conspiracy to commit health care fraud; four counts of health care fraud; four counts of aggravated identity theft; and two counts of money laundering.
Navarro Bruguet is charged with conspiracy to buy, sell, and distribute Medicare beneficiary IDs.
Both have yet to enter an official plea and remain innocent until proven guilty. If convicted, the duo could face decades in prison.
The statement from the DOJ added that multiple law enforcement agencies coordinated to investigate this alleged healthcare fraud conspiracy, including the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
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