A Miami couple, Magaly Travieso and Yudorki Ramirez, have been sentenced in connection with a multimillion-dollar health-care fraud and money laundering operation. According to a press release from the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida, evidence presented in court revealed that Travieso, 54, an advanced practice registered nurse, was sentenced to nine years in prison for her role in creating and submitting more than $20 million in fraudulent claims through her clinic, ProMed Healthcare, L.L.C.
The investigation revealed that, from March 2019 to at least January 2023, Travieso and her accomplices defrauded Medicare, Medicaid, and other insurance entities by paying kickbacks to patients and fabricating medical records. During their operations, ProMed collected more than $10 million for supposed mental health therapies and orthopedic equipment, many of which were unnecessary or never delivered. Travieso’s former spouse, Yudorki Ramirez, 53, received a three-year prison sentence for his role in funneling over $2.07 million in illegal revenues into his investment accounts, among other personal expenses.
Law enforcement’s tenacity resulted in the recovery of more than $6 million in confiscated assets from the couple. The visible representations of their crimes, Travieso’s 2021 Land Rover Range Rover and the large sums of money hidden in the couple’s bank accounts, have been seized; Ramirez had also used the ill-gotten gains to buy a Miami home. In addition to their punitive measures, the court ordered the couple to pay millions of dollars in compensation to the government and the people they had defrauded, according to the same press statement.
The diligent work of the FBI’s Miami Field Office, the HHS Office of Inspector General, and Florida’s MFCU, led by prosecutors Joseph Egozi and Joshua Paster, brought this case to a close, sending a clear message to potential fraudsters that the healthcare system is not to be taken lightly, and the consequences for such exploitation will be severe. U.S. Attorney Hayden P. O’Byrne underscored his office’s unwavering commitment to holding individuals who steal federally supported health-care programs and use the banking system to launder illicit gains responsible.
The District Court for the Southern District of Florida’s website and the PACER system provide public access to formal documents and additional case details, ensuring transparency and maintaining public trust in the system’s ability to bring wrongdoers to justice and recover assets for both the government and innocent victims, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.