Over $126M in Tampa Bay health fraud alleged amid federal crackdown

Seven Tampa Bay area residents were among 455 people charged in connection with the U.S. Department of Justice’s 2026 National Health Care Fraud Takedown this week. The federal operation resulted in charges against 90 medical professionals, whose alleged actions created $6.5 billion in false claims nationwide.

“There is no case too big, no scheme too complex and no hiding place too remote for our relentless fraud-fighting team,” Assistant Attorney General Colin McDonald of the Justice Department’s National Fraud Enforcement Division says in a statement. “Our message is simple: if you put profit over patients, you should expect to be put in prison.”

Skin grafts

A trio of defendants were charged in one case that involves more than $115 million in alleged fraud regarding skin substitutes known as allografts. Those three are Leigh Tesar, 44, of Sarasota; Walter Presha Jr., 51; of Ellenton; and Koby Evans, 31, of Apollo Beach. 

Tesar was charged with multiple counts of health care fraud and conspiracy to defraud the United States and to offer, pay, solicit and receive kickbacks. Presha and Evans were charged in connection with kickbacks as well.

According to the indictment, Medicare covers allografts that are medically necessary; however, Tesar is accused of billing Medicare for expensive allografts that were never applied to patients, were applied to infected wounds and were applied to wounds that would not heal because the patient was terminally ill. 

Tesar — along with “purported sales representatives,” including Presha and Evans, a licensed registered nurse — “induced Medicare beneficiaries to undergo and continue expensive wound allograft treatment by, among other things, misrepresenting the cost, illegally waiving beneficiary co-payments and providing illegal inducements to Medicare beneficiaries in the form of free medical supplies and expensive gifts, such as jewelry and a leather recliner,” according to the indictment. 

Prosecutors say the case resulted in Medicare being billed more than $118 million in 18 months for false and fraudulent claims connected to skin grafts and wound care services; as a result, officials report that Medicare paid about $61 million. The scheme is alleged to have occurred from May 2024 to November 2025.

The indictment says Tesar and others falsified patient medical records to make it look like the allografts were medically reasonable and necessary and met Medicare requirements, including by falsely stating that there had been prior treatments when none had occurred or falsely reporting patient conditions to justify the application of the allografts.

Tesar and others used the proceeds of the scheme “to fund their lavish lifestyles, including spending over $215,000 for Tampa Bay Buccaneers tickets and a luxury box suite at Raymond James Stadium, and over $400,000 for fine art," according to the indictment.

Tesar, Presha and Evans were arrested June 18 and released the same day — Tesar on $1 million bond; Presha on $250,000 bond; and Evans on $100,000 bond, according to court records.

If convicted, proceeds to be forfeited, according to the indictment, include:

• $61,634,756 from Tesar
• $3,193,172 from Presha
• $263,223 from Evans

More cases

Other defendants who live in the region charged in the National Health Care Fraud Takedown include:

• Rustam Abdaev, 38, a Russian citizen living in Tampa, was charged by information with one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering for his role in defrauding Medicare and Medicaid through submitting false and fraudulent claims for durable medical equipment. He has pleaded guilty and is awaiting sentencing, prosecutors say. Abdaev and co-conspirators used stolen beneficiary information and physician provider numbers to submit durable medical equipment claims that were not prescribed, not medically necessary and not provided, prosecutors say. From December 2024 to May 2025, Abdaev submitted more than $19 million in false and fraudulent claims for back, knee and wrist braces to Medicare and Medicaid, which paid about $941,000, according to prosecutors.
• Leo Corrigan, 56, of Tampa, was charged by information in connection with two schemes to fraudulently bill Medicare for more than $7.5 million and to receive about $1.79 million in illegal kickbacks and bribes. He is accused of conspiring to purchase Medicare beneficiary ID numbers and using them to bill Medicare for over-the-counter COVID-19 tests, even if the beneficiary had not ordered the test. Prosecutors say Corrigan also used a corporation he owned to provide Medicare beneficiary information to laboratories that could then use the data to bill Medicare for genetic testing in exchange for payment.
• Henry Garcia, 59, of Bradenton, was charged by indictment with one count of conspiracy to offer and pay kickbacks and bribes and nine counts of offering and paying kickbacks and bribes. Garcia ran multiple medical equipment companies that supplied knee and back braces to Medicare beneficiaries, according to court records. Prosecutors say he worked with two co-conspirators: one in Florida who funneled him pre-completed doctors’ orders, and another in Canada who ran call centers targeting Medicare beneficiaries to generate those orders. Through a scheme that involved call centers as well as “sham telehealth encounters,” prosecutors say Garcia generated and submitted claims for knee and back braces to Medicare Advantage plans, even when the equipment was not medically necessary; Garcia then paid kickbacks for each brace order that led to reimbursement, prosecutors say.
• Marc Vincent Pazienza, 56, of Pasco County, is a licensed Florida attorney indicted on two counts of wire fraud and two counts of falsification of records. Prosecutors allege he created shell corporations to hide at least two clients’ proceeds from defrauding Medicare and then stole more than $300,000 from them. He used the money for “furniture, jewelry and other items,” prosecutors say, noting he also gave false and fraudulent documents in response to a federal grand jury subpoena related to an investigation into health care fraud.

The federal National Health Care Fraud Takedown operation involved the cutting-edge use of data analytics to target the worst actors, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida. Authorities nationwide seized more than $182 million in cash, houses, luxury vehicles, jewelry and other assets and, according to the statement, provided accountability "from doctor’s offices to corporate boardrooms."