Billions in Fake Medicine: How the Accused Mastermind of the Largest Medicare Scam Hid in Northern Cyprus

The FBI trail led to the TRNC

The northern part of Cyprus once again found itself at the center of an international scandal. A man whom the US authorities consider one of the key figures in the largest fraud investigation in the history of the United States involving the Medicare public health insurance program was detained here.

On June 18, as a result of a joint operation by the FBI, Turkish security services and TRNC police, US citizen and Iraqi-born Ibrahim Haldun Hilmi was detained. According to the investigation, he is linked to a fraudulent scheme worth about 3.7 billion dollars.

The detention was reported by the Turkish Cypriot portal MYK haber and the newspaper «Dialog», which put the story on its front page.

A year in the shadows

According to MYK haber, Hilmi had been living for about a year in Agios Epiktetos in the Kyrenia district, where he moved in May 2025.

Several days before the arrest, on June 16, the TRNC Council of Ministers declared him an «undesirable immigrant». Two days later, a special operation was carried out, after which the suspect was taken first to Turkey and then — under the escort of FBI officers — to the United States. According to available information, he arrived in the US on June 19.

How Medicare billions disappeared

Medicare is a US government health insurance program that provides medical care to people over 65, people with disabilities and patients with serious illnesses.

According to the US Department of Justice, it was this program that the criminal scheme used.

The investigation claims that through the Florida company Sunshine Senior Solutions, bills were submitted to Medicare for urological catheters and other medical equipment that patients either never ordered or never received at all. As a result, the government was billed for fictitious claims worth billions of dollars.

Hilmi faces charges under several articles, including health care fraud, wire fraud, money laundering and participation in organized crime.

An international operation

According to MYK haber, FBI Director Kash Patel said the arrest was the result of joint efforts by the White House Task Force led by US Vice President JD Vance, the FBI Miami field office, the US Department of Justice and Turkish authorities.

American law enforcement agencies call this investigation one of the largest in the history of fighting health care fraud. Across the country, hundreds of suspects were detained, millions of dollars in cash, expensive cars and cryptocurrency assets were seized.

Political undertones

Particular attention was drawn to a statement by TRNC Interior Minister Dursun Oguz. He did not deny the detention and said that the authorities were ready to cooperate with international law enforcement structures, above all with Turkey and Interpol.

Meanwhile, the night-time photos from the airport published by MYK haber and the newspaper «Dialog» have already become one of the most discussed images of recent days: they show FBI officers escorting Hilmi to a small plane that was to take him to American justice.

The story shows that even territories that have remained outside international recognition for decades are increasingly becoming part of global investigations. And high-profile financial crimes involving billion-dollar thefts now know no national borders — just as those who investigate them do.