Ai-Ai delas Alas recalls declining business meeting with Fil-Am nurse in alleged $906M healthcare fraud scheme in Houston

Ai-Ai delas Alas revealed that the Fil-Am nurse who is now facing multiple federal felony charges for allegedly taking part in a $906 million (P55 billion) healthcare fraud in Houston once expressed interest in doing business with her.

The comedienne told PEP.ph's Cabinet Files that she received a text message from Marizelle Yukee on Oct. 15, two days before the 15th edition of The Outstanding Filipino Nevada Awards in Las Vegas, where both of them were awardees.

Delas Alas said Yukee talked about her health clinics in San Francisco and later asked for the best time to speak with her.

The actress, however, turned down the invitation as she was uninterested in pursuing business opportunities.

“Buti na lang, suplada and tamad ako sa ganyan. Gusto ko lang mag-artista. Hindi rin ako marunong sa mga ganyang negosyo," she told the outlet. 

Delas Alas said she was caught by surprise when Yukee made international headlines due to the healthcare fraud case. 

“Buti na lang, hindi ako interesado dahil na-scam na nga ako ng dating asawa ko, dadagdag pa siya?” she added.

Yukee is accused of being part of a healthcare fraud to steal from Medicare.

She was indicted in a Houston court for submitting fraudulent Medicare and Tricare claims from October 2023 to April 2025 through her wound care clinics. The US Justice Department said that Yukee and her unnamed co-conspirators got up to $297 million in payments from claims, billing the government an average of P1 million (P60 million) per patient.

According to a Houston Chronicle report, Yukee allegedly bribed the providers to make referrals to her four clinics. She supposedly received nearly $16 million (P971 million) in kickbacks from distributors whose treatments she used.

Her clinics allegedly gave patients "medically unreasonable and unnecessary" allografts, which are a type of tissue transplant. Some of the patients were terminally ill and later died days after the procedure, per prosecutors.