Angelica Pacheco, former Hialeah council member, leaves her court hearing on Monday, Jan. 26, 2026, at the Wilkie D. Ferguson Jr. U.S. Courthouse in downtown Miami, Fla.
Alie Skowronski
askowronski@miamiherald.com
On the eve of her federal trial in Miami, prosecutors did an about-face and dropped major healthcare fraud charges against suspended Hialeah Councilwoman Angelica Pacheco.
Instead, they cut a deal with Pacheco leading to her guilty plea on Monday to falsifying information on her Hialeah addiction treatment center’s emergency loan application to the federal government during the pandemic — resulting in tens of thousands of dollars that she spent on herself, not on her business, prosecutors said.
For Pacheco, 39, a registered nurse, the plea deal with the U.S. Attorney’s Office will leave her with a felony conviction barring her from political office but also with a possible probationary sentence that will spare her time in prison. Sentencing guidelines call for zero to six months but prosecutors and defense attorneys are recommending a probation sentence with no jail time.
The judge set her sentencing for April 16.
Angelica Pacheco, former Hialeah council member, leaves federal court in downtown Miami on Monday, Jan. 26, 2026, after pleading guilty to lying on her pandemic loan application. The felony conviction means she cannot hold political office. Alie Skowronski askowronski@miamiherald.com
Had she gone to trial starting this week and lost on the original healthcare fraud charges, Pacheco could have faced a lengthy prison sentence.
It was not clear why prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s Office and Justice Department dismissed the indictment against her at the last minute before U.S. District Judge Jacqueline Becerra.
In June 2024, Pacheco was charged with conspiring to commit healthcare fraud and related charges accusing her of falsely billing private insurers millions of dollars for medically unnecessary services at her addiction treatment center in Hialeah.
She was accused of using her businesses, Florida Life Recovery and Rehabilitation LLC, and four clinical laboratories to submit $19.1 million in bogus bills for substance abuse therapy, urine and blood analysis tests and other services to multiple insurance companies between July 2017 and August 2020, according to a grand jury indictment.
In total, insurers such as Aetna, Cigna and other firms paid Florida Life and the labs about $4.3 million, which Pacheco and unnamed co-conspirators, including Florida Life’s medical director, pocketed for themselves, the indictment says.
Pacheco was also charged in the same indictment with defrauding the U.S. government for filing false business loan applications to cover payroll and other expenses at Florida Life during the COVID-19 pandemic. Pacheco was accused of “falsely” representing that her business was “not engaged in any illegal activity” in 2020 when she submitted two loan applications totaling about $236,000 that she said were for maintaining payroll and other legitimate expenses, the indictment says.
Lenders approved the Paycheck Protection Program loans, which were guaranteed by the Small Business Administration as part of the CARES Act passed by Congress after the coronavirus swept the country in March 2020.
But on Monday, federal prosecutors dismissed those eight conspiracy and fraud charges. Instead, they charged Pacheco anew with one count of making false statements to a government agency, the SBA, according to a court filing.
Pacheco pleaded guilty to providing false information to the SBA for forgiveness of a Paycheck Protection Program loan that was issued to her treatment center, Florida Life, in February 2021.
Pacheco admitted that she falsely represented on a certification form that “Florida Life used funds received from the PPP loan only on eligible expenses including to pay $54,946 in payroll costs,” according to the new charge. “When in truth and in fact, and as the defendant knew, Florida Life did not use the PPP loan funds only on eligible expenses and did not pay $54,946 in payroll costs, but instead, much of the funds were spent on unauthorized personal expenditures,” the charges says.
As part of her sentencing, Pacheco will be ordered to pay that amount to the federal government.
Pacheco was elected to the Hialeah City Council in November 2023, after she unsuccessfully ran three times. Following her federal indictment, Gov. Ron DeSantis suspended her from office in 2024, citing the pending criminal case. The Hialeah City Council subsequently appointed Melinda De la Vega to fill the vacancy. In the most recent election cycle, William Marrero won the seat.
In a video posted on social media shortly before her arrest, Pacheco blamed the Hialeah administration under then-Mayor Esteban “Steve” Bovo for any consequences she might face and claimed she had been threatened.
On Monday, Hialeah mayor Bryan Calvo, an ally of Pacheco’s when they were council members, issued a statement: “On June 20, 2024, former Councilwoman Angelica Pacheco was arrested by federal authorities in connection with matters related to her private business activities and not to her official duties. Today, she has pleaded guilty to one of those charges. … Now we can move forward and remain focused on what matters most: serving the residents of Hialeah.”
Pacheco, who owned the treatment center in Hialeah with her husband, has been represented by the Miami Federal Public Defender’s Office, including lawyers Christian Dunham, Evan Kuhl and Kathleen Mollison. The prosecution’s team was led by Justice Department trial attorney James Hayes.
Pacheco’s original case was an offshoot of an investigation into a former Miami-Dade doctor, Jose Santeiro, who served a four-and-a-half year prison sentence for his role in a criminal case similar to hers. Santeiro, who was licensed to practice medicine between 1995 and 2022, was the medical director of Pacheco’s Florida Life Recovery during the time frame of the activity in her indictment, according to court and public records.
Santeiro, 63, of Miami Lakes, was found guilty in March 2022 of nine counts of healthcare fraud, including conspiring with others to bill $112 million to private insurers for detox services that were never provided or were medically unnecessary at two substance-abuse facilities in Broward County.
This story was originally published January 26, 2026 at 4:40 PM.
el Nuevo Herald
Verónica Egui Brito ha profundizado en temas sociales apremiantes y de derechos humanos. Cubre noticias dentro de la vibrante ciudad de Hialeah y sus alrededores para el Nuevo Herald y el Miami Herald. Se unió al Herald en 2022. Verónica Egui Brito has delved into pressing social, and human rights issues. She covers news within the vibrant city of Hialeah, and its surrounding areas for el Nuevo Herald, and the Miami Herald. Joined the Herald in 2022.