{"id":933129,"date":"2026-07-14T00:35:19","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T00:35:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/933129\/"},"modified":"2026-07-14T00:35:19","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T00:35:19","slug":"criminals-scamming-billions-from-medicare-using-fake-ai-voices-hacking-data-all-without-setting-foot-in-the-usa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/933129\/","title":{"rendered":"Criminals scamming billions from Medicare using fake AI voices, hacking data \u2014 all without setting foot in the USA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Medicare and Medicaid are losing billions of taxpayer dollars<\/a> to criminals because they can\u2019t keep pace with their high-tech scams, a Post investigation has found.<\/p>\n

International criminal networks employ hackers who steal sensitive patient data <\/a>then sell it on the dark web or use it to then bill for fake medical equipment or services in people\u2019s names.<\/p>\n

Scammers even use AI voice bots to coax info out of seniors on the phone, posing as US healthcare workers, often from thousands of miles away in Europe or Asia.<\/p>\n

Ibrahim Khaldoon Hilmi was scooped up by officials in Cyprus and Turkey and handed over to US agents. Hilmi was allegedly running an offshore $3.7 billion Medicare fraud scheme. FBI Miami<\/p>\n

Hilmi was camped out in the Mediterranean running a medical device scam, prosecutors say, and now faces federal health care fraud and money laundering conspiracy charges in Florida. FBI Miami<\/p>\n

They use the same techniques on the insurance companies, with one Philippines-based outfit going as far as training AIs to speak like American old folks when insurance companies called about suspicious claims, according to feds.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fraud schemes I\u2019m seeing \u2014 it blows me away. It\u2019s frightening how sophisticated these things have become,\u201d Gordon Schnell, a partner in the\u00a0healthcare fraud whistleblower law firm Constantine Cannon, told The Post.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe scale of the money that CMS [Centers for Medicaid and Medicare] doles out every year is enormous.\u00a0Even if they lose sight of a relatively small percentage of it, it\u2019s still billions of dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a March 2026 report to CMS, cybersecurity company Pindrop detailed how fraudsters use cloned voices to authorize transactions, working \u201cat machine speed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche spoke alongside several Trump administration officials during a press conference last month announcing several healthcare fraud busts, including some orchestrated by foreign crime networks. AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

AI-enabled campaigns deploy automated voice bots to probe Interactive Voice Response (IVR) systems \u2014 those automated telephone menus whenever you call a large company or a government agency \u2014 to test security and then escalate to a human agent, where they attempt to trick the human agent into releasing account data.<\/p>\n

\u201cSynthetic identities built from breached data are used to establish coverage under fraudulent pretenses, or to fabricate consumer consent,\u201d the report <\/a>found.<\/p>\n

Last month, The Post reported on a jaw-dropping \u201cphantom catheter\u201d scam<\/a> carried out by the Russian mob in which they made off with $1 billion.<\/p>\n

Incredibly they had allegedly been able to purchase 30 medical supply companies across the US which were already enrolled as Medicare providers, then used them to fraudulently bill Medicare. They attempted to bill $10 billion, mostly for urinary catheters, using the stolen patient data of over one million Americans, which triggered 400,000 complaints, according to prosecutors.<\/p>\n

The scheme was brazen and most of the fake reimbursements were blocked, but not before gangsters had laundered huge amounts through banks in Israel, Turkey and China, prosecutors charge.<\/p>\n

In January, Kazakh national Anuar Abdrakhmanov was charged in Chicago federal court with conspiracy to commit money laundering in a massive Medicare fraud scheme that prosecutors say billed $666 million from taxpayers. He has yet to enter a plea. aalmenda<\/p>\n

The change in ownership of a Medicare provider usually triggers a site visit, but CMS was unaware of the Russian business purchases because the gangsters \u2014 who sent patsies from Russia and Estonia to pick up physical checks in the US \u2014 didn\u2019t alert the agency and kept the old owners\u2019 names and bank accounts around for as long as possible, according to the indictment.<\/p>\n

In several cases when CMS caught on and stopped paying shady companies, private supplemental insurance companies, known broadly as Medigap, instead continued paying and kept the scam alive longer, according to several indictments.<\/p>\n

In June, the DOJ announced charges against Ibrahim Khaldoon Hilmi, who was allegedly running an offshore Medicare fraud scheme, also involving US medical supplies. He was apprehended in Cyprus<\/a> and now faces federal health care fraud and money laundering conspiracy charges in Florida.<\/p>\n

A Russian mob\u2019s \u201cphantom catheter\u201d scheme was so brazen that one affilated company billed Medicare over $250 million in catheters in 2023\u2013more than the rest of the country combined. sf_freelancer \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n

Prosecutors say through his Sunshine Senior urinary catheter company Hilmi was able to pocket $5.7 million in taxpayer money. It\u2019s unclear if any of that has been recovered. Hilmi has yet to enter a plea.<\/p>\n

Also last month Herbert Leon Kimble was nabbed at a casino in Pasig City, Philippines for orchestrating an attempted $1.2 billion Medicare fraud scheme using a Philippine call center to generate fake orthopedic brace prescriptions. He had previously pled guilty but then fled the country in 2022 after prosecutors recommended probation and a $40 million restitution payment.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, charges were filed in the Northern District of Illinois against five defendants in 2025, including two owners of Pakistani marketing companies, in connection with a scheme in which Medicare ID numbers were allegedly obtained via deceptive marketing.<\/p>\n

Through hacking, scraping websites, and deceptive \u201cfree product\u201d websites, they allegedly illegally obtained large numbers of real Medicare patients\u2019 ID numbers, which they sold for $31 million to their own fake medical supply companies, according to prosecutors.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Cartels] already have systems set up for laundering\u00a0illicit proceeds. So that\u2019s why you\u2019re seeing a trend. But by no means are [foreign networks] the dominant bad actors in this space,\u201d healthcare fraud attorney Gordon Schnell told The Post. Courtesy of Constantine Cannon<\/p>\n

The scam included using artificial intelligence to create fake recordings of patients consenting to receive medical supplies, and the outfit made off with $419 million out of $700 million they billed for.<\/p>\n

Another Pakistani scammer who owned a billing company was busted that year in a kickback scheme collaborating with at least 41 drug treatment centers in Arizona to fraudulently bill for substance abuse treatment services that were never provided, or substandard to requirements. Prosecutors say the defendant used some of his $25 million proceeds to purchase a $3 million home on a golf course in Dubai.<\/p>\n

None of the defendants have yet entered a plea.<\/p>\n

1.3 million Americans were issued new Medicare beneficiary numbers this spring in a fraud prevention effort, according to CMS.<\/p>\n

US citizenship is not required to buy any American company, even Medicare providers. In fact, even people who are in the country illegally still are lawfully allowed to purchase and own American companies in all 50 states as the IRS freely hands out taxpayer ID numbers to non-citizens. FBI Miami<\/p>\n

Most of these criminals never actually set foot in the US themselves. To obtain businesses, foreign-based gangsters use virtual private servers (VPSs) to hide their true physical locations while communicating with sellers and digitally signing purchase documents, meaning the ease and interconnectivity of the modern world worked to their advantage.<\/p>\n

They may also use a US-based corporate proxy, referred to in indictments as a \u201cRegistered Agent Company\u201d to file paperwork on their behalf.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt may be that it\u2019s just one of many criminal enterprises in which these foreign cartels engage in and may be actually easier because it doesn\u2019t involve smuggling or moving around products. It\u2019s clean. It\u2019s all paperwork-oriented and you can do it remotely,\u201d said Schnell.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Gangs] already have systems set up for laundering\u00a0illicit proceeds. So that\u2019s why you\u2019re seeing a trend. But by no means are [foreign networks] the dominant bad actors <\/a>in this space,\u201d he added, noting domestic fraudsters account for the vast majority of the $186 billion in improper Medicare and Medicaid payments nationwide, a figure estimated by the nonprofit Government Accountability Office.<\/p>\n

According to indictments, the scams also relied on US-based bank tellers who were friendly with the fraudsters to assist in opening accounts and looking the other way around shady transactions. FBI Director Kash Patel<\/p>\n

US citizenship is not required to start or buy many businesses, even medical providers. In fact, even people who are in the US illegally are still lawfully allowed to purchase and own American companies in all 50 states, an intentional part of business codes designed to encourage foreign investment.<\/p>\n

However, the system does not differentiate between a Saudi billionaire investor, for example, and the army of 20-something Estonians who feds say were sent to the US on tourist visas and became nominee \u201cowners\u201d of the 30 medical supply companies in the Russian mob operation.<\/p>\n

According to indictments, the scams often relied on US-based bank tellers who were friendly with the fraudsters to assist in opening accounts and looking the other way around shady transactions.<\/p>\n

\u201cCrypto seems to be a big part of it because it\u2019s so easily transferable,\u201d said Schnell. \u201cOne of our cases involved government payments sent through various money transfer platforms [such as Venmo or PayPal] that were immediately withdrawn and converted into crypto. Once it\u2019s in crypto, it can be moved much more easily.\u201d<\/p>\n

Requiring increased paperwork was once a bulwark against fraud, but Schnell says that no longer seems to be the case.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything is so tied into automation and AI that I\u2019m not sure the paperwork burden is what it used to be,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Medicare and Medicaid are losing billions of taxpayer dollars to criminals because they can\u2019t keep pace with their…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":933130,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[35],"tags":[738,820,210,1141,1142,3235,34163,3775,24958,67,132,68,1154],"class_list":["post-933129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-care","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-fraud","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare","tag-medicare","tag-organized-crime","tag-pakistan","tag-philippines","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-us-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116915531169774888","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/933129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=933129"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/933129\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/933130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=933129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=933129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=933129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}