A FILIPINO-American nurse based in Nevada was formally indicted this week in Houston, Texas, for her alleged role in a large‑scale healthcare fraud operation.
Prosecutors say Marizel Yukee and her associates took advantage of vulnerable individuals — particularly elderly Medicare recipients and terminally ill patients under hospice care — by subjecting them to procedures that were not medically necessary, falsifying medical records, and receiving illegal payments in exchange for referrals.
The scheme is considered one of the biggest healthcare fraud cases uncovered in recent years, involving hundreds of millions of dollars in false claims submitted to government health programs.
Investigations revealed that between October 2023 and April 2025, the group filed fraudulent claims amounting to $906 million under Medicare and Tricare. These claims were primarily for allografts, or tissue transplants, which prosecutors maintain were not required by the patients’ conditions.
On average, Yukee’s entities billed more than $1 million per patient, and authorities confirmed that the government had already released approximately $297 million in payments based on these false documents. The indictment also notes that she deliberately ignored regulations requiring disclosure of actual costs, instead commanding her staff to inflate prices, with one email cited as direct proof of such instructions.
Authorities traced a large part of the proceeds to Yukee’s personal assets and investments, revealing a lavish lifestyle funded by the fraud. Among the items identified were a luxury home in Hawaii, a Bulgari necklace worth $865,000, a Ferrari sports car valued at $594,000, and a $4.6 million resort development project in Santa Ana, Cagayan, Philippines.
Court documents further allege that she received close to $16 million in kickbacks from two distribution companies in exchange for exclusively purchasing their allograft products, establishing a clear profit‑driven network rather than one focused on patient care.
According to the indictment filed on June 18 in the Southern District of Texas, Yukee owned and managed four wound care firms — Wound Medic LLC, My BestHealth First LLC, AllCare Mobile Wound Treatment LLC, and Oracle Wound Treatment LLC — with operations spanning Texas, Nevada, California, and Hawaii. She now faces serious criminal charges related to fraud, false claims, and kickback schemes, which carry heavy penalties if convicted. The case highlights the continuing efforts of authorities to crack down on illegal activities that misuse public health funds and compromise the safety and well‑being of patients.
