A nurse-practitioner from Las Vegas is accused of running a massive healthcare scheme that defrauded the US government by providing unnecessary medical treatments to terminally ill patients. Marizel Yukee, 49, was arrested in Houston and charged with health care fraud, conspiracy, and money laundering. Prosecutors claim she submitted nearly $1 billion worth of false Medicare claims for medically unnecessary allografts over two-and-a-half years. The scheme allegedly generated tens of millions of dollars in profits, which Yukee used to fund a lavish lifestyle, including a Ferrari, a luxury home in Hawaii, and a beach resort in the Philippines.
Yukee owned multiple medical clinics across several states, including Texas, where she enrolled her clinics as Medicare providers despite paying illegal kickbacks to healthcare providers. She allegedly applied allografts to Medicare beneficiaries without attempting conservative wound care treatment, resulting in some patients’ deaths within days of treatment. Yukee purportedly falsified patient records and created fake invoices to meet Medicare requirements.
Yukee’s case is being tried in the Southern District of Texas after Judge Nicholas J. Ganjei recused himself from the case.
Source: https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/health-science/healthcare/2026/06/24/555434/las-vegas-woman-accused-of-running-illegal-healthcare-scheme-in-pearland-federal-prosecutors-say