Marizel Yukee
Charged, not convicted. Marizel Yukee faces a multi-count federal indictment and is presumed innocent.
Introduction
Marizel Yukee, 49, is a Las Vegas nurse practitioner charged in one of the largest health care fraud cases of 2026: a scheme that allegedly billed more than $906 million in false claims to Medicare and TRICARE for medically unnecessary amniotic wound allografts applied to elderly patients, many of them terminally ill people in hospice care . A federal grand jury in the Southern District of Texas indicted her on June 18, 2026, and her case was later announced publicly as part of the Justice Department’s 2026 National Health Care Fraud Takedown, a coordinated action against 455 defendants across 56 federal districts .
Background Information
Yukee was a Nevada-licensed nurse practitioner and an enrolled Medicare provider who owned and controlled four wound care companies — Wound Medic LLC, My BestHealth First LLC, AllCare Mobile Wound Treatment LLC, and Oracle Wound Treatment LLC — operating across Texas, Nevada, California, and Hawaii, with Wound Medic based in Pearland, Texas . Before the indictment she had built a public profile in the Filipino-American community: in 2025 she was named one of the “100 Most Influential Filipinos in the World” by The Outstanding Filipino Awards, and her hometown of Tuguegarao City publicly congratulated her for the recognition .
The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation
According to the indictment, from October 2023 through April 2026 Yukee and unnamed co-conspirators caused approximately $906 million in false and fraudulent claims to be billed to Medicare and TRICARE, of which approximately $297 million was paid. Through her four clinics she allegedly submitted an average of over $1 million in claims per beneficiary, targeting elderly Medicare patients — including hospice patients — and causing allografts to be applied without attempting or confirming conservative wound care, to wounds that were already infected, already healed, or not responding to the product . Prosecutors allege she also falsified patient medical records to make the applications appear medically necessary .
The kickback allegations run in both directions: she is charged with paying providers to induce patient referrals and with receiving kickbacks in exchange for purchasing allograft products. In at least some cases, hospice patients “died within days of the allograft application,” according to the indictment as reported by Nurse.org, which also noted the government’s allegation that a family-controlled shell company received about $15.95 million in illegal kickbacks from a distributor between January 2024 and January 2025 . One report states her co-conspirators included her daughter .
Public Reaction and Consequences
Federal agents seized assets valued at approximately $35.2 million in the investigation, including $467,000 in cash, a $594,000 Ferrari 296 GTS, seven other vehicles, and jewelry including an $865,000 Bulgari necklace . Prosecutors say scheme proceeds also funded a multi-million-dollar Hawaii home and a $4.6 million resort under construction in the Philippines, and agents seized additional vehicles including a Porsche, a Mercedes, an Escalade, and Teslas . The case was investigated by the FBI, the Texas Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, and HHS-OIG, with Trial Attorney Adam Tisdall handling the prosecution .
Current Status
Yukee has been indicted but not tried, and an indictment is merely an accusation; she is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty. She is charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and health care fraud, health care fraud, conspiracy to defraud the United States and illegal kickback counts, and transactional money laundering . Yukee did not respond to reporters’ messages seeking comment about the allegations . At the time of Nurse.org’s review, the four clinic websites remained active .
Impact on Their Career/Life
The indictment converted Yukee’s award-winning wound-care brand into a federal fraud case, placed her among the defendants of the largest health care fraud takedown in Justice Department history, and put roughly $35 million of her assets in government hands pending the case’s outcome. Because the alleged scheme sits in the amniotic allograft billing boom that Medicare moved to reprice in 2026, her prosecution has become a reference point in coverage of wound care fraud aimed at hospice patients .
Sources
- DOJ Southern District of Texas, “Nine charged in SDTX as part of national health care fraud takedown,” October 2026 — source
- Nurse.org, “Nevada Nurse Practitioner Indicted in Alleged $906M Skin Graft Fraud Scheme,” June 19, 2026 — source
- California Globe, “$906M Medicare Fraud: Nevada Nurse Indicted for Bilking Taxpayers with Fake Grafts on Hospice Patients,” June 23, 2026 — source