Time for a Congressional Investigation

February 5, 2011


Yesterday, the Office of the Inspector General at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released a list of the Top 10 most-wanted health care fugitives, who have defrauded U.S. taxpayers of over $124 million.

Sadly, seven out of the ten are of Cuban origin. Six of them are currently hiding in Cuba.

Meanwhile, a recent report by the University of Miami entitled, "The Cuban Government and Multi-Million Medicare Fraud in South Florida," traces back its potential high-level links to Havana:

In a discussion with a high-level former intelligence official with the Cuban Government... who asked to remain unnamed, [he] states that there are indeed strong indications that the Cuban Government is directing some of these Medicare frauds as part of a desperate attempt to obtain hard currency. The source notes that the Cuban Government is also assisting (while not directing) other instances of Medicare fraud – providing perpetrators with information with which to commit fraud.

The former Cuban official goes on to say that, in the instances where the Cuban Government is not directing or facilitating the fraud, it does provide Cuba as a place for fugitives to flee. This gives the Castro regime a convenient and care-free way to raise hard currency. The source specified that any fugitive in Cuba needs to pay astronomically large sums of money to the Cuban Government in order to enter and remain in the country.

Clearly, it's time for Congress to look into this concerning matter.