A fugitive accused of running a $1.2 billion Medicare fraud conspiracy has been captured overseas and returned to the United States, becoming the second suspect taken into custody from the FBI’s new ‘Most Wanted Fraudsters’ list.
Medicare Fraud Scheme
Herbert Leon Kimble, 60, was arrested in the Philippines after allegedly evading authorities for nearly two years. Prosecutors said Kimble operated a healthcare fraud scheme that generated more than $1.2 billion in Medicare charges and affected thousands of beneficiaries, many of them elderly.
Kimble pleaded guilty in 2019 to multiple federal offenses, including conspiracy to defraud the United States, healthcare fraud, wire fraud, mail fraud, making false claims and offering kickbacks and bribes. He failed to appear for his sentencing hearing in August 2024, prompting a federal arrest warrant and an international manhunt.
Task Force to Eliminate Fraud
The capture came just weeks after the Justice Department unveiled its new ‘Most Wanted Fraudsters’ list, which is intended to publicly identify individuals charged in major fraud cases. Vice President J.D. Vance reacted to the arrest, crediting the creation of the Most Wanted Fraudsters list with helping investigators track down Kimble.
‘Our message is simple,’ Vance wrote. ‘If you defraud the American people, we will find you and we will bring you to justice.’ Vance said authorities had been unable to capture Kimble for months, but that the Philippine government helped locate him after the Justice Department published its list.
Original reporting: Fox News (HLL/CB) — read the source article.
