US And Dominican Republic Share Assets Forfeited In Medicare Fraud Case

Domestic fraud can be handled domestically, by federal authorities if they have jurisdiction or by a state’s prosecutors when a financial fraud is within their domain. When it comes to international fraud, however, resolution can be a bit more complex. 

An interesting example of a collaborative approach to resolving an alleged financial fraud has just been taken by the U.S. and the Dominican Republic. The two countries, through Attorney General Eric Holder and Dominican Prosecutor General Radhamés Jiménez Peña, have agreed to a case-specific agreement to share approximately $7.5 million in forfeited assets.
 
The agreement represents approximately 20 percent of the estimated $37.5 million in forfeited assets located in the Dominican Republic that stem from an alleged conspiracy led by brothers Carlos, Luis and Jose Benitez, who allegedly defrauded the U.S. Medicare program of approximately $80 million.  
 
The U.S. Marshals Service is working with its Dominican counterparts to liquidate the complex assets. The assets include more than 30 commercial and residential real estate assets, most of which are income-producing properties, including a water park, a soft drink distribution center, multi-unit motel complexes and waterfront condominium apartments.  
 
The assets involved were ordered forfeited by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida as part of two civil forfeiture cases filed in that district. The Benitez brothers were charged criminally in June 2008 in the Southern District of Florida by prosecutors from the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney’s Office in Miami, as part of the Medicare Fraud Strike Force.
 
As for the Benitez brothers: They remain fugitives.