​A sweeping federal takedown in Los Angeles has exposed what prosecutors say is a brazen, multimillion-dollar scheme that turned end-of-life care into a cash grab, allegedly using people who weren’t even dying to rip off taxpayers by more than $50 million. Eight defendants, including nurses, a chiropractor and a purported psychologist, were arrested in a crackdown targeting sham hospice operations and fraudulent medical billing schemes, according to the Justice Department. At the center of the case, hospice companies are accused of enrolling healthy patients, paying kickbacks and pocketing millions from Medicare for treatment that was never needed or never provided.

“We are enforcing a zero-tolerance policy for criminals who defraud American taxpayers,” First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said. “The defendants arrested this morning who are charged with stealing millions of dollars of health care benefits got caught and now face years in federal prison.”

Investigators say the pattern was repeated across multiple cases. Patients who weren’t dying were enrolled in hospice, marketers were paid illegal kickbacks and providers cashed in while delivering little or no legitimate care.

In Anaheim, Lolita Minerd, a nurse, allegedly ran a hospice business that recruited patients at a market, promising them free services and $300 a month in cash to enroll. Some of the couples who signed up were not terminally ill, a doctor confirmed, yet they were paid $600 a month in envelopes of cash while Medicare was billed for end-of-life care. Minerd’s company alone submitted more than $9.1 million in claims, collecting roughly $8.5 million from taxpayers, authorities said.

“More than $50 million in losses to taxpayers” across the scheme were noted by HHS Inspector General T. March Bell, who said anyone who weaponizes hospice care to bilk Medicare should expect to be held accountable.

In another case, a Covina couple, a nurse and a self-described psychologist, allegedly pulled in more than $4 million from Medicare and spent it on mortgages, international travel, restaurants and personal bills.

Federal prosecutors say one repeat offender went even further, allegedly running multiple fraudulent hospice companies while already facing charges in a separate case and being legally barred from operating such businesses.

Beyond hospice fraud, authorities say the takedown uncovered a $19 million scheme targeting a labor union’s health plan that the defendants allegedly billed for fake or unnecessary chiropractic and therapy services.  

​NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) recently lodged a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainer pleading with Texas authorities not to release an illegal immigrant accused of fatally slitting his wife’s throat with a pocketknife in Dallas.. Francisco Mendez-Marin, a 24-year-old illegal immigrant from Mexico, was arrested March 18 by the Carrolton Police Department and is charged with felony homicide after he allegedly killed his wife, 20-year-old Karla Rangel, during a domestic dispute.. The couple had been married for less than a month, FOX 4 Dallas reported.. When police arrived at the scene, Mendez-Marin had blood on his clothes and a bloody pocketknife on him, officials said.. ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT CONFESSES TO 2 COLD-BLOODED MURDERS MONTHS APART: REPORT. Body camera footage shows Mendez-Marin telling officers, “I didn’t do anything bad” and “I was obligated to do it” in Spanish, according to the arrest affidavit.. “This depraved animal murdered his own wife just one month after they were married by brutally slitting her throat with a pocketknife,” DHS Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis wrote in a statement. “This illegal alien should have never been allowed into our country to commit this heinous murder.”. “ICE requested authorities in Dallas to not release this cold-blooded killer onto the streets,” she continued. “Thankfully, Dallas politicians cooperate with ICE, so together we can ensure this murderer is NEVER loose in American communities.”. CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP. Mendez-Marin is currently in Dallas County Sheriff’s Office custody and being held in the Dallas County Jail, according to DHS.  

​NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!. FINAL CLUE: Ted Bundy unmasked in decades-old teen murder as cold case finally solved by DNA: report. UNDER OATH: County leaders seek advice from lawyers after Nancy Guthrie sheriff accused of perjury. ‘DIGITAL SPYING’: Hawaii doctor claims self-defense as prosecutors reveal wife tracking before alleged hike attack. SEND US A TIP HERE. TUG-OF-WAR: Luigi Mangione’s federal trial stays on track as judge rejects defense push for delay. WITHOUT A TRACE: Arizona girl last seen walking to stable before vanishing found alive decades later, authorities say. LISTEN TO THE NEW ‘CRIME & JUSTICE WITH DONNA ROTUNNO’ PODCAST. EVIL EXPOSED: Long-cold case shattered as DNA links suspect to savage attack, killing of young woman, investigators say. SIGN UP TO GET TRUE CRIME NEWSLETTER. GRAVE SECRETS: ‘Texas Killing Fields’ cold case explodes as suspect indicted in two slayings decades after 30 bodies found. LIKE WHAT YOU’RE READING? FIND MORE ON THE TRUE CRIME HUB. CALCULATED MOVE: Suburban mom accused of killing ex, his parents after ‘hang out’ text, confession revealed in docs: report. ‘INCONCLUSIVENESS’: Experts unload on Tyler Robinson’s ballistics claim: ‘Unable to identify is not the same as ruled out’. CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP. MORBID MEMORY: Executed killer’s chilling claim about what she felt during pickax murders still haunts retired FBI agent. FOLLOW THE FOX TRUE CRIME TEAM ON X  

​NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!. An Arizona girl whose 1994 disappearance was long treated as a possible abduction has been found alive more than three decades later and investigators now say she left voluntarily.. The Gila County Sheriff’s Office confirmed this week that Christina “Tina” Marie Plante, who vanished from Star Valley at age 13, has been located alive at 44, bringing a decades-old case to a close.. But new details shared by a lead investigator are shifting the narrative behind her disappearance.. Capt. Jamie Garrett, a cold case investigator who ultimately identified and contacted Plante, said she was surprised to learn the teen had run away rather than being taken.. ARIZONA GIRL LAST SEEN WALKING TO STABLE BEFORE VANISHING FOUND ALIVE DECADES LATER, AUTHORITIES SAY. “I guess she wasn’t happy with where she was living and who she was living with, and she ran away,” Garrett told NewsNation on Thursday.. “I was dumbfounded,” Garrett added. “I was like, ‘Oh, my gosh. OK, so you ran away.’ I told her … ‘You know, we were under the impression that somebody kidnapped you. It was deemed a criminal offense.’”. Plante was last seen around midday on May 15, 1994, leaving her home in Star Valley on foot. According to her missing person flyer, she told others she was heading to a nearby horse stable but never returned. Investigators at the time classified the case as “missing/endangered” under suspicious circumstances.. REALTOR’S COLD CASE MURDER FINALLY SOLVED AFTER 15 YEARS, POLICE SAY. She was described as having blue eyes and dark blonde hair and was last seen wearing a white T-shirt, multicolored shorts and black tennis shoes.. Her disappearance prompted an extensive search effort, but authorities were unable to develop meaningful leads. Over time, the case went cold, though it remained open and was periodically revisited by investigators.. Garrett said he recently focused on a lead involving an adult woman he believed could be Plante and reached out directly. The woman confirmed her identity, according to Garrett.. FOLLOW THE FOX TRUE CRIME TEAM ON X. The investigator said Plante indicated she left on her own with help from relatives she had been in contact with at the time.. SIGN UP TO GET TRUE CRIME NEWSLETTER. “She said that was a long time ago, that was an old life,” Garrett said. “She’s in her adult life. She has her family now. That’s not something she even thinks about.”. SEND US A TIP HERE. Garrett also told NewsNation that he does not believe there are immediate family members currently in the Star Valley area still searching for Plante.. LISTEN TO THE NEW ‘CRIME & JUSTICE WITH DONNA ROTUNNO’ PODCAST. Authorities have not released further details about where Plante has been or the circumstances surrounding her departure, citing privacy considerations.. LIKE WHAT YOU’RE READING? FIND MORE ON THE TRUE CRIME HUB. The development marks a significant shift from the assumptions that guided the early invest  

​NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!. The parents of the suspects connected to the foiled explosive attack outside MacDill Air Force Base in Florida last month are illegal immigrants, the Department of Homeland Security announced, adding that the case underscores the dangers of birthright citizenship.. ICE agents took the parents, identified as Qiu Qin Zou and Jia Zhang Zheng, into custody on March 18, days after their son, Alen Zheng, allegedly planted an explosive device outside the base.. Officials said the parents illegally entered the United States and applied for asylum in 1993, but an immigration judge denied those claims and ordered both Zheng and Zou removed from the U.S. in 1998.. The Board of Immigration Appeals denied multiple attempts by the pair to reopen their case, but they remained in the U.S. for decades despite the removal order.. MIKE DAVIS: SANITY MUST BE RESTORED TO BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP. The arrests add a new dimension to the case, as the Trump administration argues it underscores national security risks tied to birthright citizenship, an issue now before the Supreme Court.. Their children — Alen Zheng and his sister, Ann Mary Zheng — were both born in the U.S. and are citizens.. Federal authorities allege Alen Zheng planted an improvised explosive device outside the MacDill Air Force Base visitor center in Tampa on March 10, while his sister later helped cover up the crime.. Prosecutors said Ann Mary Zheng “assisted after the fact” and tampered with evidence to hinder her brother’s arrest.. Federal investigators believe Alen Zheng fled to China and remains there. His sister was arrested after returning to the U.S. through Detroit.. The explosive device, described by officials as potentially “very deadly,” failed to detonate and was discovered six days later by an Air Force airman.. Investigators later linked the device to materials recovered from Zheng’s home and a burner phone used to place a cryptic 911 call warning about the bomb.. DHS officials said the case highlights broader concerns about immigration enforcement and citizenship laws, as the Supreme Court weighs the scope of birthright citizenship under the 14th Amendment.. “Automatically granting citizenship to children of illegal aliens born in the U.S. … poses a major national security risk,” DHS Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis said in a statement. “This incident underscores the severe national security threat that illegal immigration and birthright citizenship pose to the United States.”. The agency noted that the suspects were born in the United States after their parents entered the country illegally.. President Donald Trump moved to restrict birthright citizenship through an executive order signed on his first day in office, arguing the current interpretation of the Constitution is flawed.. The policy is being challenged in the Supreme Court, setting up a major legal battle over the scope of the 14th Amendment.. Federal prosecutors have