{"id":308990,"date":"2026-06-16T08:50:07","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T08:50:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/308990\/"},"modified":"2026-06-16T08:50:07","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T08:50:07","slug":"12-arrested-after-florida-uncovers-more-than-806k-in-public-assistance-fraud-in-may","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/308990\/","title":{"rendered":"12 arrested after Florida uncovers more than $806K in public assistance fraud in May"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (CBS12)  \u2014 Twelve people were arrested in May after <a href=\"https:\/\/cbs12.com\/topic\/Florida\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Florida <\/a>investigators uncovered more than $806,000 in public assistance fraud, according to Chief Financial Officer <a href=\"https:\/\/cbs12.com\/topic\/Blaise%20Ingoglia\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Blaise Ingoglia<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/cbs12.com\/news\/local\/south-florida-news-insurance-agent-in-palm-beach-county-accused-of-keeping-90k-meant-for-coverage-department-of-financial-services-north-palm-beach-old-republic-surety-company-bonds-florida-department-of-financial-services-criminal-investigations\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Florida Department of Financial Services <\/a>announced on June 15 that its Criminal Investigations Division (CID) identified $487,728 in fraud tied to the arrests, with an additional $318,895 uncovered through administrative cases that resulted in penalties such as benefit disqualifications.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you think you can scheme your way into profiting off of public assistance benefits, think again,\u201d Ingoglia said in a statement, adding that the state will continue efforts to hold offenders accountable and protect taxpayer-funded programs.<\/p>\n<p>Authorities said the largest individual case involved more than $221,000 in fraud tied to SNAP and <a href=\"https:\/\/cbs12.com\/topic\/Medicaid\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Medicaid<\/a> benefits.<\/p>\n<p>Those arrested in May include:<\/p>\n<p>Alexis Rivero \u2014 $221,787.88Kristen Bowman \u2014 $47,516.68Nelida Reyes-Carrasquillo \u2014 $42,113.46David Jacobs \u2014 $41,925.28Karigan Burgos \u2014 $33,452.41Janelle Josephik \u2014 $32,662.90Aurora Damian Chamu \u2014 $29,432.71Yamalys Parrilla \u2014 $18,123.78Shlaberte Saintlouis \u2014 $9,855Ricki Ambrose \u2014 $4,087.54Carolyn Ruise \u2014 $3,964Tanya Yinger \u2014 $2,806<\/p>\n<p>In addition to the arrests, officials said they reviewed 48 other cases that resulted in administrative action. Those individuals were disqualified from receiving <a href=\"https:\/\/cbs12.com\/topic\/SNAP\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">SNAP <\/a>benefits for 12 months, 24 months, or permanently, depending on prior violations.<\/p>\n<p>See also: <a href=\"https:\/\/cbs12.com\/news\/local\/florida-treasure-coast-crime-news-body-camera-footage-shows-moments-murder-suspect-was-arrested-vero-beach-spanish-lakes-76-year-old-patricia-ann-dibella-indian-river-county-sheriffs-office-brutal-family-murder-grandma-killed-5090-fairway-circle\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Bodycam video shows tense arrest as Vero Beach man charged in grandmother&#8217;s murder<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Investigators said they examine eligibility records, reported income, and household information to identify discrepancies that may indicate fraud. Cases can result in criminal charges or administrative penalties based on the severity of the violation.<\/p>\n<p>The Department of Financial Services encourages anyone with knowledge of fraud to report it at <a href=\"https:\/\/cbs12.com\/news\/local\/FraudFreeFlorida.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">FraudFreeFlorida.com.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 Twelve people were arrested in May after Florida investigators uncovered more than $806,000 in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":308991,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-308990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308990","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=308990"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308990\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/308991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=308990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=308990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=308990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}