Attorney General James Uthmeier’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (MFCU) has charged the final member of a fraudulent transportation scheme that defrauded the Florida Medicaid program of over $5 million. An MFCU investigation revealed that the defendants, led by Jose Enrique Hernandez Fernandez, operated a nonemergency medical transportation service that billed Medicaid for thousands of trips never provided. Joseph Chacon, the final suspect in the scheme, was arrested on an outstanding warrant at Orlando International Airport (MCO) on Wednesday, April 23, 2025. Twenty co-defendants were arrested in October 2023.
The investigation revealed that Hernandez Fernandez owned Sweet Transportation, LLC, a company contracted to provide nonemergency medical transportation services to Medicaid recipients. Over at least two years, Hernandez Fernandez and his employees billed Medicaid for thousands of nonexistent trips and inflated mileage on actual trips. GPS data showed that drivers often submitted claims while at home, on vacation, or even out of state. Chacon, a dual citizen of the United States and Costa Rica, was in Costa Rica when warrants were issued for all suspects involved in the scheme. Although the MFCU coordinated with ICE and the FBI, Costa Rican officials declined to extradite Chacon. However, when Chacon returned to the United States this week, he was detained at customs and turned over to the Orlando Police Department.