” ... busted for bilking at least $6.5 billion in fake Medicare and Medicaid claims ..”
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How do you get to $6.5 billion before the government is taking a close look at it? If you short pay your taxes by $100, you would be hearing from the IRS.
Absolutely shocking our government didn’t have better checks in place. They cannot be trusted with taxpayer money.
Thankfully, the Trump administration is trying to clean all this BS up.
IRS has actual numbers turned in by your payers.
Government has no data to check Medicare claims.
It is basically an honor system by medical professionals.
Bonanza for dishonorable medical professionals.
I lived on an island at the southern end of Pinellas County (think of the North end of the Sunshine Skyway bridge, then look to the west.) There was a range of homes there, including some modest older ranches built in the 1960’s and some substantial recently constructed waterfront mansions. One house that was somewhere in the middle always had an array of exotic cars in the driveway and on the street in front. The cars added together exceeded the value of the house.
I never knew who lived there, but I would walk the dog past the place 2x a day, 6-7 days a week. I made regular observations. One day a neighbor nearby told me that the FBI had arrested the owner, a physician, and hauled off all the cars and a lot of records and computer equipment, and from that point on the daily walks past that house were much less interesting.
Nearly a year later the indictments were unsealed, and quickly the doctor pled and served as a witness in related prosecutions. He got time served (roughly a year), plus another year on work release. All his cars were confiscated, all 5 of his homes in the Tampa area were recovered and he faced a $5m restitution order.
He was prescribing custom formulary drugs that were filled by a specialized pharmacy, which would make topical ointment versions of many common drugs that were better known in pill form. The pharmacy was owned by a couple of SE Asian brothers who made anything and everything in topical ointment form. The scheduled amounts that Medicare would pay for the topical form were much higher than the pill form, and some of the cancer therapies in the topical ointment form were $15k/month. So, the MD pipelined these prescriptions to the house pharmacy, and they would kick back 50% the profits to him. The houses were his, half the cars were his, and the other half he had given to his kids. He was living very large. Until he wasn’t.
Medicare thief Marizel Murkee is a nurse practitioner born in Tuguegarao City, Phillipines.
She was recognized in 2025 as one of the “100 Most Influential Filipinos in the World.”
She is now facing multiple federal charges in the United States over her theft of tax dollars, concocting a Medicare fraud scheme.
I recently received a bill from the California Franchise Tax Board from 2021. Apparently I forgot to add to my taxes 2 over $1200 wins in Vegas that year. But you can bilk billions from Medicare or Medicaid and no one notices.