Medicare fraud suspect caught trying to flee for Cuba on ‘jet ski,’ feds say
.jpg "A Hialeah man was found floating on a broken down personal watercraft Wednesday, June 8, 2022, in the ocean south of Key West. The man, Ernesto Cruz Graveran, is accused of fraudulently billing Medicare more than $4 million between January and February. Agents say he was attempting to flee to Cuba to avoid prosecution.")
Last week, U.S. Coast Guard crews and agents with Customs and Border Protection’s Air and Marine Operations found two men on a disabled personal watercraft floating in the ocean south of Key West.
Feds say that with a special fuel cell onboard and compartments stuffed with bottled water and food, the vessel was embarked on the long journey to Cuba before it broke down.
One man on the personal watercraft — a type of vessel mistakenly called a “jet ski” based on the name of the model made by Kawasaki — is a known human smuggler. The other man, 54-year-old Ernesto Cruz Graveran, is accused of fraudulently billing Medicare more than $4 million between January and April, according to federal court records.
“Based on the forgoing, I believe it is probable that Cruz Graveran was in fact fleeing to Cuba aboard the jet ski to evade prosecution,” Homeland Security Investigations Agent Carlos Suarez wrote in a June 9 probable cause complaint.
The other man was not named in the complaint.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Alicia Otazo-Reyes on Monday ordered Cruz Graveran held in the Federal Detention Center in Miami without bond. Federal public defenders did not respond to an emailed request for comment on the case.
Cruz Graveran is president of Xiko Enterprise, Inc., a Hialeah company that provides “durable” medical equipment — things like bandages, dressings, wheelchairs and prosthetic devices.
According to the complaint, Cruz Graveran billed Medicare $4.2 million on behalf of unknowing patients who never received the services. Medicare paid him $2.1 million, according to the complaint.
The complaint also states that one physician, who is not named, prescribed medical equipment from Xiko to 145 patients, for which Cruz Graveran billed Medicare more than $1 million.
Federal agents interviewed Cruz Graveran on May 20 after they discovered he bought a ticket for a plane headed from Miami to Havana. According to the complaint, he waived his rights to remain silent and to speak to an attorney and said he was paid “by an associate” to put his name on Xiko corporate records.
He told agents he had drawn numerous checks from Xiko’s corporate bank account “at the behest of this same associate,” and ended up cashing between $60,000 and $90,000. Cruz Graveran then agreed to cooperate with agents in their investigation, the complaint states, and they seized his passport.
However, eight days later, he was caught attempting the 90-mile journey from Key West to Cuba, agents say.
This story was originally published June 14, 2022 at 6:07 PM.
