Are Billions of Medicare Dollars Going to Castro's Cuba?

story from Breitbart
by Wynton Hall 23 Jun 2012

Are Billions of Medicare Dollars Going to Castro's Cuba?
Interesting theory being brought up here.

Could it be that foreign operatives are scamming the U.S. Government programs that use cash reimbursement systems ?

Maybe it's not that hard to do.

The same federal government that wants to take over the U.S. healthcare system may also be the same federal government who is unwittingly funneling billions of Medicare and Medicaid dollars to Castro’s Cuba.

So worry Sens. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Tom Coburn (R-OK), and Rep. Peter Roskam (R-IL) in a letter to Marilyn Tavenner, head of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid.

From the Washington Examiner:

“Clearly, the program vulnerabilities that facilitate billions of dollars to be stolen from the Medicare program each year also allow for some of that money to be funneled to foreign countries,” the three congressmen said.

“While the fraud itself is unacceptable, the loss of American dollars to foreign countries because of flaws in our system is totally unacceptable. The American people deserve the peace of mind to know that federal officials are doing everything they can to safeguard taxpayers’ dollars and the Medicare program.”

“Thus far, it does not appear that CMS has addressed the concept of nominee owners, false storefronts, and shell companies in any of its enrollment regulations or its Provider Screening statement of work,” they said.

Hmmm.

At issue is whether fraudsters are using so-called “nominees” to pose as companies that would receive Medicare and Medicaid dollars and then shuttle them outside the United States.

Last week, the Miami Herald reported one case of an alleged Medicare scam “involving 70 Florida companies and more than $70 million of fraudulent billings” that “ended up in Cuba.”

Alicia O. Valle, special counsel to the U.S Attorney, says “there is no allegation and we have no evidence that the Cuban government is involved in this case."

Cuba defends its banks amid Medicare fraud case

HAVANA -- A Cuban official said Wednesday that the country has strict controls to avoid money laundering and works closely with banks to detect and deter fraudulent transactions, responding to allegations by U.S. prosecutors that millions of dollars defrauded from Medicare were routed to the island's financial system.

The statement from Johana Tablada, deputy director for U.S. affairs at the Cuban Foreign Ministry, came in response to a request from The Associated Press after a Cuban-American man in South Florida was ordered held in the case this week.

"Foreign commercial banks that maintain accounts in Cuban banks are obliged to operate in strict compliance with international and Cuban rules and must guarantee the reliability of their transactions and the correct use of their accounts," read the statement emailed to the AP on Wednesday.

RIGHT !!

I believe with 100% confidence that the Cuban Government is enforcing those "strict controls" over money laundering !!

So because of the 50 year old embargo America has instituted against the Cuban government there's no way to follow a paper trail?

One of the most telling things about this piece from breitbart.com is that it only mentions Cuba, while neglecting the other countries that the Miami article alluded to.

Remember patriots, communists are the bad guys. Keep that red scare fresh in your mind.

Why am I not surprised.......

Has this been going on for a while or just with this current administration, I wonder.

I think that Obama and his people have enough on their plate, scandals that is. But I wouldn't put it past them to do something like this.

Originally posted by links234
So because of the 50 year old embargo America has instituted against the Cuban government there's no way to follow a paper trail?

One of the most telling things about this piece from breitbart.com is that it only mentions Cuba, while neglecting the other countries that the Miami article alluded to.

Remember patriots, communists are the bad guys. Keep that red scare fresh in your mind.

Cash transactions always lead to a dead end.

Do you think that criminals always use checks and valid I.D. ??

Now this is good.

“While the fraud itself is unacceptable, the loss of American dollars to foreign countries because of flaws in our system is totally unacceptable. The American people deserve the peace of mind to know that federal officials are doing everything they can to safeguard taxpayers’ dollars and the Medicare program.”

So it's ok to lose billions to countries overseas as long as it isn't medicare?

a reply to: xuenchen

I'm bringing this thread forward due to some current and relevant information. Anyone wanting to read about this Cuban Medicare Fraud in depth, can research the archives at the Miami Herald. (Oh, and you might want to check the New Orleans Picayune archives too, for how then-Mayor Ray Nagin met with Obama in 2009 - months after Obama took office - and then flew off the very next day for Havana, supposedly to see how Cuba handled hurricanes ...)

But now - look! Team Obama has found a non-Havana way to make money from Medicare!

www.nytimes.com...
TIPS ON MEDICARE SPUR "INSIDER TRADING INVESTIGATION"
"With only 20 minutes remaining in the trading day, a Washington-based broker-dealer, Height Securities, blasted out a “flash report” to nearly 200 clients, including some of the biggest hedge funds on Wall Street, predicting that Medicare was about to raise some reimbursement rates.

"Within minutes, dozens of investment houses bought the stocks of various health insurance companies, including Humana, sending them soaring ahead of the official announcement from Medicare at around 4:15 that afternoon.

"That was 19 months ago. Today, the email from Height Securities is at the center of a broad investigation into possible insider trading that stretches from within the walls of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to the halls of Congress and onto the sleek trading floors of Wall Street hedge funds."

a reply to: MKMoniker
....and yet...Congress Quickly And Quietly Rolls Back Insider Trading Rules For Itself
www.techdirt.com...

Not surprising. Those who make the laws can always stack the deck in their favor!

When I lived in downtown LA they used to drive around in vans on a certain day at the beginning of the month iirc, and holler "Red White and Blue. Red White and Blue." Old people would pile in and they would take off. I had to ask someone what all that was about eventually. He told me they were picking people up with Medicaid, ringing it up, and paying cash (like $60) to the people that went in. I'm dying if I'm lying. I could easily see this money ending up out of country, in fact I'm sure it does.

Very interesting read.....except it's source article at the Miami Herald has been 404'd.

www.miamiherald.com...

The Washington Examiner link talked about possibly up to a $100,000,000, but the Republicans senators said billions. Where are they getting that number from? The money that allegedly made it to Cuba went through many foreign banks before it made it to Cuban banks. They would have no reason to suspect it came from medicare fraud.

Could it be that these guys are talking out their backsides and have no real evidence to such a claim......and of course Breitbart being the crud-slingers they are peddle this to their misinformed readers?

a reply to: sheepslayer247

Yeah that's what grabbed my interest. Billions? No way. They may suspect billions in Medicare Medicaid fraud but if they are trying to say billions are being funneled to Cuba then they must be being deliberately deceptive.

originally posted by: links234

Remember patriots, communists are the bad guys. Keep that red scare fresh in your mind.

That is what I get out of this article, blind patriotism and hatred toward a country we have been conditioned to hate. Those darn commies, always up to no good......

Seriously though, when are we going to do something about the embargo?

originally posted by: nukedog
a reply to: sheepslayer247

Yeah that's what grabbed my interest. Billions? No way. They may suspect billions in Medicare Medicaid fraud but if they are trying to say billions are being funneled to Cuba then they must be being deliberately deceptive.

Well somebody did say "Some" of the billions go to "foreign countries" ....

“Clearly, the program vulnerabilities that facilitate billions of dollars to be stolen from the Medicare program each year also allow for some of that money to be funneled to foreign countries,” the three congressmen said.

a reply to: xuenchen

Ok thanks I didn't read too closely there.

Pffft... Like this is news...

It's just the easiest way for dur leeter, 0bummer, to funnel funds to his commie cronies in Cuba... Hint: more is going to Venezuela...

originally posted by: xuenchen

originally posted by: nukedog
a reply to: sheepslayer247

Yeah that's what grabbed my interest. Billions? No way. They may suspect billions in Medicare Medicaid fraud but if they are trying to say billions are being funneled to Cuba then they must be being deliberately deceptive.

Well somebody did say "Some" of the billions go to "foreign countries" ....

“Clearly, the program vulnerabilities that facilitate billions of dollars to be stolen from the Medicare program each year also allow for some of that money to be funneled to foreign countries,” the three congressmen said.

That's true, but what is the title of your thread and the title of the Breitbart piece?

ARE BILLIONS OF MEDICARE DOLLARS GOING TO CASTRO'S CUBA?

I know that you are just copying the title as required, but this is the sort of tactic Breitbart uses to imply things that are not true.

This is what I have a problem with and the reason I believe that website is among the worst websites someone can read if they are truly trying to inform themselves on the latest topics. Not to mention that one of the sources they use in the article doesn't exist anymore.

a reply to: sheepslayer247

The "missing" story from the Miami Herald is not surprising.

Why would they 404 the thing?

Can't think of any logical reasons.



Unless ............

originally posted by: xuenchen
a reply to: sheepslayer247

The "missing" story from the Miami Herald is not surprising.

Why would they 404 the thing?

Can't think of any logical reasons.

Unless ............

Well, it could be that the article never existed at all. Or it could have been taken down since the piece you used to make the OP is over 2 years old. This story is from June 2012.

Also, I did a search for the quoted text in the Breitbart piece attributed to the Miami Herald:

“involving 70 Florida companies and more than $70 million of fraudulent billings....ended up in Cuba

The only thing I could find with that exact quote was in a FoxNews piece here: FoxNews

Also, Neo created a thread on this in 2012, which you were the only person that responded and you even posted a link to the same Miami Herald article.

ATS Thread

So why are bringing this back up? It's old news.

originally posted by: jrod
Seriously though, when are we going to do something about the embargo?

Wow, old thread...

We won't do anything about the embargo because then the American government would have to admit that they're wrong. We're Americans, we're never wrong when it comes to foreign policy. If we are, we're not supposed to admit it.

Don't let the GOP fool you with their talk of cutting spending either, they can't even get rid of that stupid plane;

Why the U.S.'s Cuban propaganda plane is a complete waste of money

Despite its cost to the U.S. government — more than $24 million total since 2006, according to Foreign Policy — very few people on the ground can receive the broadcast, due to the fact that its signal is blocked by the Cuban government.

Thanks for all the replies. And here are the relevant stories you had a hard time finding:

www.miamiherald.com...
(2013) MIAMI MONEY-LAUNDERING CASE SPOTLIGHTS LINK BETWEEN MEDICARE FRAUD AND CUBA'S NATIONAL BANK
"Oscar Sánchez, the man charged with laundering Medicare money and diverting it to Cuba, may be just one player in a very large web, authorities say."

www.miamiherald.com...
(June 2012) FEDS IN MIAMI: MILLIONS STOLEN FROM MEDICARE WOUND UP IN CUBAN BANKING SYSTEM
"In an unprecedented case, federal prosecutors have charged a Miami man with engaging in a massive money-laundering operation that moved millions stolen from the federal Medicare program into Cuban banks.

"Prosecutors say Oscar Sanchez, 46, was a key leader in a group that funneled $31 million in Medicare dollars into banks in Havana — the first such case that directly traces money fleeced from the beleaguered program into the Cuban banking system.

"Most of the money moved through an intricate web of foreign shell companies before ending up in Cuba, to avoid being detected in the United States, said investigators.

www.miamiherald.com...
(2012) MEDICARE FRAUD'S MEN IN HAVANA

(The following may or may not be related. Former NOLA mayor Ray Nagin is now in prison for post-Katrina corruption and graft.)

www.nola.com...
(Oct. 2009) NEW ORLEANS MAYOR RAY NAGIN LEAVES FOR CUBA
"Mayor Ray Nagin listens as President Barack Obama conducts a town hall meeting at the University of New Orleans on Thursday. He is headed to Cuba today. Nagin returns Oct. 22, according to his office, which didn't announce the trip until it issued a press release at 5:01 a.m. today. The release did not say how much the trip will cost or who will pay for it, but The Times-Picayune has sent questions to Nagin's press office seeking that information.

"The release states that the mayor's trip comes "less than 24 hours after President Barack Obama talked during his visit to New Orleans about the importance of flood protection and disaster preparedness."

"According to the news release, Nagin is the first New Orleans mayor in 50 years to make an official visit to Cuba. Officials issued that bit of trivia after retracting an initial report that the Nagin would be the first U.S. mayor to officially visit the island nation in a half-century."

a reply to: MKMoniker

I appreciate your effort, but I have already read those articles. I was looking for the article that was quoted in the OP's source. It no longer exists from what I can tell.

It must be noted that this issue seems to stem from the case of one man.

Nevertheless, this is an old article and has already been posted on ATS.

Also, there is no evidence to suggest, nor has there been any updates, that the Cuban government was in on the scam. This man and those who helped him used the banks to launder money. It's complete conjecture to suggest the government was in on it.

And the title of the OP/source is also completely false as there was not billions of dollars sent to Cuba....but that's what we come to expect from the likes of Breitbart.