The U.S. government charged 455 people this week for stealing from Medicare and Medicaid. Twelve of them are from South Florida.

The Justice Department called it the 2026 National Health Care Fraud Takedown. It is one of the largest in DOJ history.

Agents say the crooks billed the government for care that patients never got. Others paid patients cash to show up at fake clinics. The total: more than 6.5 billion dollars in fake claims.

Cases were filed in 56 federal courts across 45 states. Fifty state Medicaid fraud units joined in. That is more than ever before.

The FBI and the HHS Inspector General led the work.

In South Florida, the 12 defendants billed more than 4 billion dollars in fake claims. Agents seized more than 27 million dollars from 12 clinics there.

The biggest case is Ibrahim Hilmi, 58, of Miami. He is charged with health fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering. He ran two companies, ABRH Care Inc. and Sunshine Senior Solutions LLC. They billed Medicare and other insurers 3.76 billion dollars for equipment patients never got. That includes catheters, braces, and wound dressings.

He sent the money to Hong Kong. Then he ran. The FBI found him in Turkey. Agents brought him back on June 19, 2026, on a private plane. His hands were in shackles.

Casilda Muniz Rodriguez, 57, of Hialeah, is charged with fraud. She set up at least 11 fake clinics. Her clinics billed Medicare more than 117 million dollars for wound care products patients never got. Medicare paid more than 55 million dollars on those fake claims.

In Miami, a married couple ran De La Cruz Mental Health LLC. They are charged with paying cash to elderly Medicaid patients to get them into the clinic. Workers were told to lie on sign-in sheets. They wrote that patients came four days a week. They only came two.

A cardiologist is charged with billing for heart tests on student athletes at schools. Prosecutors say he used fear of sudden cardiac death to sell the tests. The scheme billed 89 million dollars.

In Sarasota, nurse practitioner Leigh Tesar is charged with billing Medicare more than 118 million dollars. Prosecutors say the wound care and skin grafts were not needed or never done. Two nurses, Walter Presha Jr. and Koby Evans, took cash to send patients her way.

The pattern is always the same. Clinics bill Medicare or Medicaid for things patients never got. Sometimes they pay patients to show up and lie. Doctors who sign off get a cut.

This hits close to home in the Rio Grande Valley.

Hidalgo County and Starr County have some of the highest Medicare and Medicaid use in the country. Hundreds of thousands of RGV families count on these programs. When fraud drains the money, our families pay the price.

These are not small-time crooks. They are doctors, nurses, and clinic owners. They know how to make fake bills look real. And they steal big.

All charges are claims. Every person is innocent until proven guilty in court.