Jeremias Otoniel Herrera Rosales, Organ Transplant Scheme, Iowa 2024

Worthington, Minnesota - Jeremias Otoniel Herrera Rosales, a 37-year-old man from Worthington, Minnesota, and originally from Guatemala, has been sentenced to 16 months in federal prison for his role in an organ transplant scheme.

Herrera Rosales was one of three individuals involved in the scheme, which targeted federally funded health care benefits, including a kidney transplant. The scheme resulted in over $500,000 in benefits being obtained fraudulently.

According to the evidence presented in court, Herrera Rosales assumed the identity of D.G. and used their identification documents to apply for Medicare and Minnesota Medicaid benefits. He obtained more than $500,000 in benefits between 2015 and 2020, using D.G.'s identity without their knowledge or consent.

As part of the scheme, Herrera Rosales gained placement on the organ donor registry under false pretenses and obtained a federally funded kidney transplant in Minnesota in 2019. He admitted in his plea agreement that he received the transplant fraudulently, which prevented another person from receiving the kidney transplant they needed.

Herrera Rosales was sentenced to 16 months in prison and ordered to pay $510,949.61 in restitution as a joint and several obligation. He will also serve a three-year term of supervised release after his prison term.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Timothy L. Vavricek and Ronald Timmons, and investigated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General, and the Social Security Administration, Office of Inspector General.

The case file number is 23-CR-4062. The case was heard in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Iowa before Judge Leonard T. Strand.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndia/pr/illegal-alien-and-two-others-sentenced-federal-prison-organ-transplant-scheme