Miami fugitive on run for 20 years found in Nicaragua
Miami fugitive on run for 20 years found in Nicaragua
Apr 2, 6:04 PM EDT
MIAMI (AP) -- A fugitive from Miami who has been on the run for almost 20 years is back in federal custody after he was arrested in Nicaragua.
Robert Allen Lopez, 49, was arrested on Nov. 14, 2015, and deported to Miami on Saturday by a team of deputy U.S. Marshals.
In December of 1995, Lopez plead guilty to conspiracy to defraud the government by establishing fake companies that filed false Medicare claims totaling more than $4.3 million on behalf of patients for services that were unnecessary or never provided. Lopez was released on bail on the condition that he not leave the area without permission. In 1997, he was indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of failure to appear for sentencing.
Lopez will appear before a federal magistrate on Monday.
More: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_FUGITIVE_FOUND?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2016-04-02-18-04-10
LBN:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10141400518
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Robet Allen Lopez [/center]
April 2, 2016 2:02 PM
Feds arrest Medicare fraud felon after 20 years on lam in Latin America
By Jay Weaver
jweaver@miamiherald.com
Twenty years ago, Robert Allen Lopez pleaded guilty to a scheme to swindle $4.2 million from Medicare while lying to the taxpayer-funded program that his Miami businesses were supplying liquid nutritional supplements to ailing patients. But rather than show up for judgment day on his fraud conviction in early 1996, Allen headed south.
All this time, he bounced around as a fugitive in Mexico, Colombia, Panama and Nicaragua, using a fake name. But it was in the last country where federal investigators finally tracked him down, bringing the 49-year-old Lopez back to Miami on Saturday.
Lopez, a U.S. citizen born in Chicago, was arrested in November by Nicaraguan authorities who were going to turn him over to the U.S. Marshals Service the following month, but his deportation was delayed until now. Lopez — who had pleaded guilty to Medicare fraud and was later charged as a fugitive from justice for failing to appear for sentencing before U.S. District Judge James Lawrence King — will soon be encountering that same jurist because he’s still on the bench.
. . .
Lopez’s status as a one-time fugitive isn’t unusual among Medicare fraud defendants in South Florida, where billions of dollars have been stolen from the federal health insurance program. At any given time, there are as many as 150 defendants who have been convicted or are facing charges for fleecing millions from Medicare who flee to Cuba, Mexico and other Latin American countries.
More:
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article69612652.html#storylink=cpy
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Welcoming Mr. Lopez back to Miami,his
old friend, Judge James Lawrence King. [/center]