A Hialeah man accused of orchestrating a $4 million health care fraud scheme has been arrested after he allegedly tried to flee to Cuba on a personal watercraft, federal authorities said.
Ernesto Cruz Graveran, 54, was ordered held without bond Monday by a federal judge in Miami after he was found on the broken-down watercraft in the waters south of Key West, according to the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida.
Authorities said Graveran and another person known to law enforcement as an alien smuggler were found on the watercraft by the U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers.
The watercraft was outfitted with a special fuel cell to allow for long trips and had a trove of food and water bottles in its compartments when it was discovered headed in the direction of Cuba, which is about 90 miles away, officials said.
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According to a criminal complaint, Graveran was the owner of Xiko Enterprises, Inc., a Florida corporation that claimed to provide medical equipment to eligible Medicare beneficiaries.
During a two-month period from February through April, the company submitted around $4.2 million in fraudulent health care claims to Medicare for equipment that was never requested by or provided to beneficiaries, the complaint said.
Medicare paid Xiko over $2.1 million, the complaint said.
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In one case, Xiko billed Medicare over $1 million for equipment referred by one physician for 145 beneficiaries, but it turned out none of the 145 beneficiaries were patients of the physician and the physician had never prescribed any of the equipment, the complaint said.
Graveran was ordered held at the Federal Detention Center in Miami until his trial.
