A group of four men, two from Broward County and two from Palm Beach County, were behind a massive Medicare fraud scheme that ended up costing the federal government over $54 million. When they got caught, it wasn’t just their freedom they lost—one of them also had to give up several properties and some high-end luxury items.
The four men—Omar Solari from Lighthouse Point, Michael Murphy from Fort Lauderdale, Luis Lacerda from Boca Raton, and Joelson Viveros, also from Boca Raton—were sentenced after pleading guilty in federal court in Jacksonville. The fraud, which they carried out between 2018 and 2021, involved paying bribes to telemarketers and telemedicine providers to get prescriptions for medical items Medicare patients didn’t really need. These prescriptions were then billed to Medicare, racking up millions of dollars in fraudulent claims.
Each of them faced serious consequences. Solari was sentenced to two years and six months in prison, Lacerda received three years and five months, and Murphy was sentenced to one year and three months. Viveros got five years of probation. On top of their sentences, they were ordered to pay restitution to the government, and in some cases, they had to forfeit their assets.
For Solari, this meant losing some flashy possessions, including a $47,000 Royal Oak Chronograph watch and a $37,000 Rolex. He also had to give up several properties he owned through his company, Solari Capital LLC:
- A four-bedroom house at 2801 NE 48th Street in Lighthouse Point, which sold for $2.65 million in November.
- A four-unit apartment building at 2180 NE 44th Street in Lighthouse Point, sold for $1.025 million in August.
- A one-bedroom condo at 5760 Rock Island Road, Unit 330, in Tamarac, sold for $150,000 in October.
- A two-bedroom condo at The Ivy, 90 SW Third Street in Miami, sold for $585,000 in May.
Murphy had also owned a property, a three-bedroom house at 5510 Bayview Drive in Fort Lauderdale. He had bought it with his then-wife, Grazielle Murphy, in 2020 for $1.25 million. However, two months before he was indicted, Murphy signed the property over to Grazielle through a quit claim deed. Grazielle sold the house later that year for $2.2 million, leaving it out of reach for prosecutors. Instead, they managed to seize $402,779 from Murphy.
This case sheds light on how serious Medicare fraud can be and how far authorities will go to hold people accountable. It’s not just about jail time—everything from luxury watches to real estate can be taken to pay back what’s owed.
