Filipina nurse accused of $906 million healthcare fraud scheme in Houston: Reports
A Las Vegas nurse practitioner from the Philippines faces multiple federal felony charges after being accused of taking part in a $906 million (P55 billion) healthcare fraud to steal from Medicare.
Marizel Yukee was indicted in a Houston court for submitting fraudulent Medicare and Tricare claims from October 2023 to April 2025 through 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 wound care 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, said prosecutors.
Investigations revealed that Yukee used the money to fund her lavish lifestyle, including a $1 million home in Hawaii, a $4.6 million (P279 million) beach resort under construction in the Philippines, a Ferrari supercar worth $500,000 (P30 million), and an $865,000 (P52.5 million) Bulgari necklace.
Investigators have also seized a Porsche, a Mercedes, an Escalade, two Teslas, and $467,000 (P28 million) in cash, as per ABC13.
A warrant for her arrest has been issued.
Medicare is the United States' federal health insurance program for people 65 and older and younger people with long-term disabilities, permanent kidney failure, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
Meanwhile, Tricare is a health care program for active duty service members, their family members, US national guard and reserve members and their families, retirees and their families, survivors, and certain former spouses.
