MIAMI — A federal grand jury indicted a Miami woman for allegedly running a years-long operation to buy stolen Medicare beneficiary data from a health care network insider and resell it to fraud rings, a scheme that compromised the confidential information of more than 6,000 patients, federal prosecutors announced.
Kenia Marrero, 46, paid Joan Navarro Bruguet, 51, a former employee of a Miami-based regional health care provider network, approximately $500 per list of roughly 100 Medicare beneficiaries, according to court documents. Marrero then resold the stolen patient information — names, dates of birth and Medicare beneficiary identifier numbers — for as much as $7,000 per list to individuals involved in Medicare fraud schemes. The conspiracy ran from January 2022 through February 2025.
Navarro Bruguet allegedly accessed the provider’s confidential patient records on his work computer, photographed the information displayed on his screen with his personal cellphone and transmitted the images to Marrero through an encrypted messaging application. Marrero worked with others, including Juan Carlos Cardella, who has already been sentenced in the Southern District of Florida on related charges, to redistribute the stolen data.
The indictment alleges Marrero participated in a durable medical equipment fraud scheme that submitted more than $5 million in fraudulent Medicare claims using patient identifiers obtained through the conspiracy. Prosecutors say Marrero deposited more than $460,000 in Medicare fraud proceeds into a bank account associated with the fraudulent DME company.
During a recorded in-person meeting in January 2026, Marrero allegedly instructed a health care network employee to “deny everything,” to “stay strong and deny and never say anything to anyone,” and to do “no more texting on the phone,” but if there were a need to text, that they should “do like we always do and ask me about candles.”
Marrero faces conspiracy to buy, sell and distribute beneficiary identifier numbers; conspiracy to commit health care fraud; four counts of health care fraud; four counts of aggravated identity theft; and two counts of money laundering. If convicted, she faces up to 10 years in federal prison for the health care fraud conspiracy and each fraud count, up to 10 years for each money laundering count, and a mandatory consecutive sentence of two years for each aggravated identity theft count. Navarro Bruguet is charged with conspiracy to buy, sell and distribute beneficiary identifier numbers and faces up to five years in federal prison.
U.S. Attorney Jason A. Reding Quiñones for the Southern District of Florida, Special Agent in Charge Issac Bledsoe of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General Miami Regional Office, and Special Agent in Charge Brett Skiles of the FBI Miami Field Office announced the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Eduardo Gardea, Jr. is prosecuting. Court documents are available under case numbers 26-cr-20183 and 26-cr-20198 in the Southern District of Florida.