Pensacola women charged in nationwide $14.6 billion healthcare scheme. How did it work?
The National Health Care Fraud Takedown included 280 state and federal cases throughout 12 states and 50 federal districts. Four Pensacola women were also charged as part of $14.6 billion in total healthcare schemes.
Alexandra Christensen, Lindsay McCray, Heather Bradley and Jennifer Purves were federally indicted for allegedly spending nearly a decade forging controlled substance prescriptions as part of conspiracy to resell the unlawfully obtained drugs.
Here's what to know about the 2025 National Health Care Fraud Takedown that involved the four Pensacola women.
The 2025 National Health Care Fraud was a coordinated federal investigation involving multiple agencies that resulted in criminal charges against 324 defendants, including 96 doctors, nurse practitioners, pharmacists, and other licensed medical professionals, in 50 federal districts and 12 State Attorneys General's Offices across the United States.
The government seized over $245 million in cash, luxury vehicles, cryptocurrency, and other assets as part of the coordinated enforcement efforts.
U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Florida John Heekin said the effort is meant to "root out healthcare fraud that wastes taxpayer funds, depletes resources needed for vulnerable patients, and contributes to the opioid epidemic plaguing our communities."
The takedown involved various types of healthcare fraud, including fraudulent wound care, prescription opioid trafficking, telemedicine and genetic testing fraud, and even offenses involving transnational criminal organizations.
In total, including the four Pensacola women, federal law enforcement says all the defendants so far defrauded various health care facilities of $14.6 billion by stealing and distributing 15.6 million controlled substances in pill form or submitting false claims to Medicare.
The four women indicted by federal grand jury worked for a family medical practice that has multiple clinic locations throughout Escambia and Santa Rosa counties.
From Jan. 1, 2015, until June 25, 2024, McCray and Christensen allegedly abused access to the clinic's Electronic Medical Record system to print prescriptions under the Drug Enforcement Administration numbers of physicians at the clinic without their knowledge.
They allegedly wrote these prescriptions to people who did not exist, totaling over 300,000 hydrocodone pills and over 30,000 oxycodone pills.
Bradley and Purves then allegedly sold the pills to other individuals in the community.
"The defendants allegedly defrauded programs entrusted for the care of the elderly and disabled to line their own pockets," Heekin said in a news release.
McCray and Bradley are also charged with possessing amphetamine with the intent to distribute it throughout the community between November 2023 and June 2024.
McCray and Purves are charged with distributing amphetamine between January 2024 and April 2024.
Twenty nine defendants were charged for their roles in transnational criminal organizations alleged to have submitted over $12 billion in fraudulent claims to America's health insurance programs.
That tally includes a nationwide investigation known as Operation Gold Rush, which resulted in the largest loss amount ever charged in a health care fraud case brought by the Department, a DOJ news release said.
These charges were announced in the Eastern District of New York, the Northern District of Illinois, the Central District of California, the Middle District of Florida, and the District of New Jersey against 19 defendants. Twelve of these defendants have been arrested, including four defendants who were apprehended in Estonia as a result of international cooperation with Estonian law enforcement and seven defendants who were arrested at U.S. airports and the U.S. border with Mexico, cutting off their intended escape routes as they attempted to avoid capture.
The organization allegedly used a network of foreign straw owners, including individuals sent into the United States from abroad, who, acting at the direction of others using encrypted messaging and assumed identities from overseas, strategically bought dozens of medical supply companies located across the United States. They then rapidly submitted $10.6 billion in fraudulent health care claims to Medicare.
The 2025 National Health Care Fraud Takedown included 50 federal districts and 12 State Attorneys General's Offices across the United States, and resulted in:
Criminal charges against 324 defendants
Seizure of over $245 million in cash, luxury vehicles, cryptocurrency
Civil charges against 20 defendants for $14.2 million in alleged fraud, as well as civil settlements with 106 defendants totaling $34.3 million
29 defendants were charged for their roles in transnational criminal organizations alleged to have submitted over $12 billion in fraudulent claims to America's health insurance programs.
74 defendants, including 44 licensed medical professionals, being charged across 58 cases in connection with the alleged illegal diversion of over 15 million pills of prescription opioids and other controlled substances
49 defendants are being charged in connection with the submission of over $1.17 billion in allegedly fraudulent claims to Medicare resulting from telemedicine and genetic testing fraud schemes
An additional 170 defendants with various other health care fraud schemes involving over $1.84 billion in allegedly false and fraudulent claims to Medicare, Medicaid, and private insurance companies for diagnostic testing, medical visits, and treatments that were medically unnecessary, provided in connection with kickbacks and bribes, or never provided at all.
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Operation Gold Rush healthcare part of scheme with Pensacola women
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


CNN
34 minutes ago
- CNN
Latest ‘Tiger King' twist finds ‘Doc' Antle sentenced to 1 year in prison for animal traffickin
Animal stories Endangered lifeFacebookTweetLink Follow 'Tiger King' star Bhagavan 'Doc' Antle was sentenced on Tuesday to one year and a day in federal prison and fined $55,000 for trafficking in exotic animals and money laundering after pleading guilty in November 2023. Antle's fate was resolved in a federal courtroom in Charleston, South Carolina, five years after the true crime documentary 'Tiger King' captivated a country shut down by COVID-19. Three others who pleaded guilty in his investigation received either probation or a four-month prison sentence. Antle's sentence is the final true-life chapter of the Tiger King saga. The Netflix series debuted in March 2020 near the peak of COVID-19 restrictions. The show centered on dealers and conservationists of big cats, focusing on disputes between Joe Exotic, a collector and private zookeeper from Oklahoma, and Carole Baskin, who runs Big Cat Rescue in Florida. Exotic, whose real name is Joseph Maldonado-Passage, is serving a 21-year federal prison sentence for trying to hire two different men to kill Baskin. Antle, who owns a private zoo called Myrtle Beach Safari, appeared in the first season of the documentary and was the star of the third season. Antle's zoo was known for charging hundreds or thousands of dollars to let people pet and hold baby animals like lions, tigers and monkeys that were so young they were still being bottle-fed. Customers could have photos or videos made. Antle would sometimes ride into tours on an elephant. Myrtle Beach Safari remains open by reservation only, according to its website. Antle had remained out on bail since his arrest in June 2022. Antle's federal charges were brought after the 'Tiger King' series. Prosecutors said he sold or bought cheetahs, lions, tigers and a chimpanzee without the proper paperwork. And they said in a separate scheme, Antle laundered more than $500,000 that an informant told him was being used to get people into the U.S. illegally to work. Antle was used to having large amounts of money he could move around quickly, investigators said. The FBI was listening to Antle's phone calls with the informant as he explained a baby chimpanzee could easily cost $200,000. Private zookeepers can charge hundreds of dollars for photos with docile young primates or other animals, but the profit window is only open for a few years before the growing animals can no longer be safely handled. 'I had to get a monkey, but the people won't take a check. They only take cash. So what do you do?' Antle said according to a transcript of the phone call in court papers. Two of Antle's employees have already been sentenced for their roles in his schemes. Meredith Bybee was given a year of probation for selling a chimpanzee while Andrew 'Omar' Sawyer, who prosecutors said helped Antle launder money, was given two years of probation. Jason Clay, a Texas private zoo owner, pleaded guilty to illegally selling a primate and was sentenced to four months in prison, while charges were dropped against California ranch owner Charles Sammut. Antle was also convicted in 2023 in a Virginia court of four counts of wildlife trafficking over sales of lions and was sentenced to two years of prison suspended 'upon five years of good behavior.' An appeals court overturned two of the convictions, ruling that Virginia law bans the sale of endangered species but not their purchase. Antle was found not guilty of five counts of animal cruelty at that same Virginia trial.


Associated Press
35 minutes ago
- Associated Press
Judge orders mental evaluation for Venezuelan man convicted of killing Laken Riley
ATLANTA (AP) — A judge has ordered a mental evaluation of the Venezuelan man convicted of killing Georgia nursing student Laken Riley. A judge in November found Jose Ibarra guilty of murder and other crimes in Riley's February 2024 killing and sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Ibarra is seeking a new trial, and his lawyers asked the judge to order a mental evaluation as part of that process. Clarke County Superior Court Judge H. Patrick Haggard's order for a mental evaluation was sent to the state Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities Tuesday, according to a letter filed with the court. Riley's killing became part of the national debate about immigration during last year's presidential campaign. Ibarra had entered the U.S. illegally in 2022 and was allowed to stay while he pursued his immigration case, federal immigration authorities said after his arrest. President Donald Trump in January signed into law the Laken Riley Act, which requires the detention of unauthorized immigrants accused of theft and violent crimes. Prosecutors said Ibarra encountered Riley while she was running on the University of Georgia campus on Feb. 22 and killed her during a struggle. Riley, 22, was a student at Augusta University College of Nursing, which also has a campus in Athens, about 70 miles (115 kilometers) east of Atlanta. In a court filing last month, Ibarra's post-conviction attorneys, James Luttrell and David Douds, said they believe Ibarra suffers from 'congenital deficiency' that could make him 'incapable of preparing a defense and standing trial.' Ibarra 'lacks the mental capacity' to understand the proceedings, and his attorney wrote that he believes that was the case at the time of the killing and at the time of trial. Ibarra, 27, had waived his right to a jury trial, meaning it was up to Athens-Clarke County Superior Court Judge H. Patrick Haggard alone to hear and decide the case. 'A criminal defendant must personally and intelligently participate in the waiver of the constitutional right to a trial by jury,' Luttrell and Douds wrote, noting that Ibarra's trial attorney did not ask for a competency evaluation. Prosecutor Sheila Ross wrote in a court filing responding to the request that there were 'no challenges or concerns' about Ibarra's competency prior to trial and that 'there is nothing in the trial record that would suggest that Defendant was not competent during his trial.' But she wrote that she does not oppose the request for a competency evaluation. Haggard last week filed an order asking the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities to evaluate Ibarra with the aid of a Spanish-language interpreter. He asked for findings on whether Ibarra was capable of understanding the pretrial proceedings involving the waiver of his right to a jury trial, as well as the trial itself, and whether he was capable of assisting his attorney to prepare his defense. He also wants to know whether Ibarra understands the post-conviction proceedings and can aid in preparing his defense. Ibarra was convicted on Nov. 20 and his attorneys filed a motion for a new trial on Dec. 2. Under Georgia law, a notice of appeal must be filed within 30 days of a conviction becoming final, which is the date of sentencing or the denial of a motion for a new trial, whichever is later. Therefore, the filing of a motion for a new trial effectively extends the deadline to file an appeal.


TechCrunch
an hour ago
- TechCrunch
US government confirms arrest of Chinese national accused of stealing COVID research and mass-hacking email servers
In Brief The U.S. Justice Department has confirmed the arrest of Chinese national Xu Zewei, an alleged prolific contract hacker who carried out cyberattacks for China. Xu was arrested in Italy at the request of U.S. prosecutors. Xu and another Chinese national Zhang Yu, who remains at large, are accused in a nine-charge indictment of 'hacking and stealing crucial COVID-19 research' from U.S. universities during February 2020. The DOJ said Xu worked for a company called Shanghai Powerock Network, which conducted hacking operations for the Chinese government. The alleged hackers are also accused of the mass hacks of Microsoft Exchange servers beginning in March 2021. The hackers, publicly referred to as a group called Hafnium, broke into more than 60,000 self-hosted Exchange servers run by mostly small businesses across the United States, allowing the theft of private company mailboxes and address books. Hafnium has since launched a new hacking campaign, dubbed Silk Typhoon, which researchers say is known for hacking into big companies and government agencies.