A Florida health care executive accused in a multi-million dollar Medicare fraud has been ordered held without bail after he was caught allegedly trying to flee to Cuba aboard a Jet Ski. Federal prosecutors say the U.S. Coast Guard caught up to Ernesto Cruz Graveran last week aboard a broken-down Jet Ski in the waters south of Key West, Fla., heading in the direction of Cuba, just 90 miles away.
Cruz Graveran was accompanied by a person prosecutors said was a known human smuggler, and that the watercraft was equipped with a special long-distance fuel cell. They were also carrying food and water supplies sufficient for a long journey, according to court documents. “I believe it is probable that Cruz Graveran was, in fact, fleeing to Cuba aboard the Jet Ski to evade prosecution,” an agent with the Department of Homeland Security wrote in a court-filed affidavit. On Monday, a federal judge in Miami ordered Cruz Graveran, 54, of Hialeah, Florida — whose passport had previously been seized — to be detained pending trial on health care fraud charges. It wasn’t immediately clear if Cruz Graveran had retained a lawyer and he couldn’t be reached for comment. F …