Cuban Ariel Núñez Finalet, 58 years old, was sentenced to three years in prison for his participation in a network that defrauded Medicare in Miami a decade ago, which allowed him to escape to the Greater Antilles with half million dollars and remain a fugitive from justice for years.
According to the media The New HeraldDistrict Judge Kathleen Williams made the decision this Friday, March 29, to sentence the defendant to three years in prison, followed by another three years of supervised release.
Likewise, the Cuban’s punishment included having to pay a sum of 1,910,222 dollars (USD) in restitution for the fraud committed to Medicare.
Núñez’s case became known years ago, when he and other individuals managed to obtain more than $17 million with the help of false prescription claims through senior and disability insurance.
Núñez is the former owner of a pharmacy called ‘Lily and Rosy’, which was located in Hialeah and made it easier for him to carry out the fraud.
After the money stopped arriving in 2015, the Cuban took half a million dollars and flew from the United States to Cuba, where he stayed for years living a life of luxury. Documents presented in court indicate that he laundered the fraudulent money on the Island, taking frequent vacations to Russia and purchasing several cars and properties.
In 2017, Castro authorities arrested Núñez on charges of money laundering, which were linked to lavish purchases and financial transactions carried out to conceal the illicit origin of his fortune.
The arrest occurred shortly after the Cuban government learned of his scam through an official note shared by the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) in March of that same year.
After that, he was tried on the Island, where he was found guilty of fraud committed to Medicare years ago. Núñez received an 8-year sentence in 2018, although he received probation three years later.
The Cuban moved with his family to Mexico in 2022, and a year later, they moved to Spain, where they were arrested and extradited to the United States.
According to federal prosecutor Jospeh Egozi, Núñez is the perfect example of criminals who exploit the American health system to enrich themselves illegally.
Egozi maintains that many of these scammers are Cuban citizens who, upon escaping back to the Island, rarely receive punishment for their crimes, due to the lack of diplomatic relations between both nations.
The aforementioned media indicates that four other defendants in the case still remain fugitives from justice. These are Pedro Torres, Antonio Hevia, Dora Robaina and Mario Saúl Lay.
Torres and Hevia were identified as the leaders of the pharmacy network, while Robaina is an elderly woman who had already served two years in prison in a previous Medicare fraud case in 2005.
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