Several Central Florida residents are among 193 people charged by the U.S. Department of Justice recently in a nationwide fraud crackdown focused on health care for the elderly and disabled.
The Central Florida defendants include 53-year-old Ma Gracia Cadet of Kissimmee and 29-year-old Marques Elijah Green of Windermere.
They were charged and signed plea agreements last week in separate cases of conspiracy to commit health care fraud worth millions of dollars.
Prosecutors claim they filed bogus claims for medical equipment and that Cadet's conspiracy involved at least $9.3 million in Medicare funds and Green's, more than $3.4 million.
In another case, federal prosecutors said Erin Kim of Orlando, a 54-year-old nurse practitioner, conspired with others at Done, a California-based digital healthcare company, to illegally supply Adderall to patients without a medical need for it.
In a news release, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Florida said Kim prescribed 1.5 million pills and was paid $800,000 for it.
Prosecutors also indicted 28-year-old Eric Brewer, an intensive care nurse from Lakeland. They accused him of stealing fentanyl infusion bags and in some cases actually siphoning the fentanyl out of patient IV bags at hospitals in Tampa.
