May 12, 2010 - Jose Garcia, 55, who has been a fugitive since 2008, was taken into federal custody Monday at Miami International Airport, announced the Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services (HHS).  Garcia self-surrendered to FBI agents upon arrival in Miami. 

Garcia appeared in federal court in Miami on Tuesday, where U.S. Magistrate Judge William C. Turnoff ordered him detained pending the resolution of the charges against him.  Garcia and his co-defendant, Nayda Freire, were charged in 2008 with allegedly conspiring between April 2003 and November 2003 to submit approximately $10.9 million in false and fraudulent claims to the Medicare program for HIV infusion services allegedly provided at Global Med-Care Corp., an HIV infusion clinic operated by Garcia and Freire.

Freire admitted that after payments from Medicare were made into the bank accounts of Global Med-Care, she and others transferred approximately $6 million of the fraud proceeds to sham management, marketing and investment companies owned and operated by co-conspirators Carlos, Luis and Jose Benitez.  Co-conspirators Carlos and Luis Benitez and Thomas McKenzie were charged separately with health care fraud and money laundering crimes in an indictment unsealed on June 11, 2008.  According to the separate indictment, these co-conspirators allegedly provided the money and staff necessary to open Global Med-Care; the Medicare patients whom the clinic would bill to the Medicare program; and transportation for the HIV patients who visited the clinic.  That indictment also alleges that Carlos and Luis Benitez were the true owners of Global Med-Care. 

The three Benitez brothers and McKenzie were charged with participating in the commission of approximately $109 million in HIV infusion fraud and money laundering through Global Med-Care and 10 other HIV infusion clinics.  On Sept. 18, 2008, McKenzie pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and one count of submitting false claims to the Medicare program, and also admitted his role in a $119 million HIV infusion fraud scheme.  McKenzie was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Alan S. Gold on Dec. 18, 2008, to 14 years in prison in connection with his role in the HIV-infusion Medicare fraud scheme.  In addition to the prison sentence, McKenzie was ordered to serve three years of supervised release following his prison term and pay $84 million in restitution to the Medicare program. The Benitez brothers remain fugitives.