Federal prosecutors say Marizel Yukee used wound care clinics in several states to bill for unnecessary skin graft treatments.
HOUSTON, TX — A Las Vegas nurse practitioner who owned a Pearland wound care clinic has been indicted in Houston on charges tied to an alleged $906 million Medicare and TRICARE fraud scheme, federal court records show.
Marizel Yukee is accused of using four clinics to submit false claims for skin substitute allografts, a type of tissue graft used in wound care. Prosecutors say the claims ran from about October 2023 through April 2026 and led to about $297 million in payments from federal health programs. The indictment says many patients were elderly, and some were terminally ill and in hospice care.
The indictment was filed June 18 in the Southern District of Texas, Houston Division. Yukee is charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and health care fraud, two health care fraud counts, conspiracy to defraud the United States and pay and receive health care kickbacks, and transactional money laundering. Court records identify her as a Nevada-licensed nurse practitioner and enrolled Medicare provider. The case centers in part on Wound Medic LLC, which prosecutors say had principal places of business in Manvel and Pearland. A federal magistrate judge ordered a warrant issued for Yukee after the indictment was filed.
Prosecutors say Yukee owned and controlled Wound Medic in Texas, My BestHealth First in Nevada, AllCare Mobile Wound Treatment in California and Oracle Wound Treatment in Hawaii. The indictment says the clinics billed Medicare and TRICARE for amniotic wound allografts made from placental tissue. Medicare covered some allografts when they were medically reasonable, medically necessary, properly documented and not tied to illegal kickbacks. Prosecutors allege Yukee and unnamed co-conspirators applied grafts when wounds were infected, already healed, not responding to treatment or unlikely to heal because of a terminal patient’s medical condition. The indictment says some hospice patients died within days of receiving grafts.
Federal prosecutors allege the clinics submitted more than $875 million in false Medicare claims and received more than $293 million from Medicare. They also allege the clinics submitted more than $31 million in false TRICARE claims and received more than $4 million from TRICARE. The indictment says the clinics submitted an average of more than $1 million in claims per Medicare beneficiary for allografts. In one example, prosecutors say Yukee told a billing company in a February 2025 email, “invoice price 1600 charge 3900,” after paying less for the product than the amount billed to Medicare. Prosecutors also say Yukee caused sham invoices to be created so the higher prices would appear valid.
The indictment says Yukee enrolled My BestHealth First as a Medicare provider in July 2022, Wound Medic in October 2023, AllCare in March 2025 and Oracle in June 2025. In each enrollment, prosecutors say, Yukee certified that the businesses would follow Medicare rules and would not knowingly submit false claims. Prosecutors allege she later paid health care providers and facility workers for patient referrals and also received kickbacks from allograft distributors. One company tied to Yukee’s family received about $15.95 million in alleged kickbacks from January 2024 through January 2025, according to the indictment.
Prosecutors describe several alleged acts in the records. On Feb. 14, 2024, an administrator at a Las Vegas medical facility asked Yukee by text for flights and a hotel and wrote, “Once I get that I will give u your first 3. To 5 patients,” the indictment says. Yukee bought the flights that day, prosecutors allege. On March 20, 2024, My BestHealth First submitted $173,060 in Medicare claims for grafts applied to a patient who was receiving other care at the facility where the administrator worked, according to the indictment. Prosecutors also say Yukee directed staff in October 2025 to add records of conservative wound care to patient files for treatments that had happened more than a year earlier.
The government is seeking forfeiture of real estate, vehicles, bank funds and other assets if Yukee is convicted. The listed properties include addresses in Kahului, Hawaii; Las Vegas and Pahrump, Nevada; Pearland, Texas; and funds tied to construction of a beach resort in Santa Ana, Cagayan, Philippines. The indictment lists seized vehicles including a 2025 Ferrari 296 GTS, a 2024 Cadillac Escalade, a 2024 Porsche Cayenne, two Teslas, a 2026 Mercedes-Benz AMG GLC43, a 2025 Ford Bronco and a 2024 Toyota 4Runner. It also lists about $467,253 in U.S. currency seized May 20.
The alleged proceeds paid for a luxury lifestyle, prosecutors say. The indictment names a $594,000 Ferrari, a $158,000 Cadillac Escalade, an $865,000 Bulgari necklace, a million-dollar home in Hawaii, a $3 million certificate of deposit and about $4.6 million for the Philippine resort project. Prosecutors also cited a commercial property in Pearland among assets subject to forfeiture. Yukee did not respond to messages seeking comment, according to local reporting. The indictment does not name several alleged co-conspirators, distributors and referral sources, and it does not say whether other people will be charged.
The case comes as federal prosecutors continue to target wound care and skin graft billing schemes in Texas and other states. The indictment says Medicare contractors required providers in some places to report the actual invoice price for allografts that did not yet have a published Medicare average sales price. Prosecutors say Yukee’s clinics hid rebates, discounts and inflated invoice prices while billing federal programs. The charges are allegations, and Yukee is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.
The next public milestone is Yukee’s first court appearance if she is arrested or surrenders on the warrant. As of the latest available court records and local reports, no plea or trial date had been set in the Houston case.
Author note: Last updated 2026-06-23.