The FBI has announced a reward of 150,000 dollars for tips leading to the arrest of a Houston woman wanted in a major health care fraud case. According to FOX 26 Houston, Emily Tai has been added to the bureau's most wanted fraudster list, and investigators are appealing to the public for information that could help track her down.
The allegations against her point to a scheme of considerable size. Investigators say Tai billed Medicare more than 100 million dollars for what they describe as useless genetic testing, charging the government health program for tests that authorities say were not warranted. The figure places her case among the larger health care fraud allegations now being pursued by federal agencies.
What has drawn particular attention is how she is said to have evaded supervision. According to the FBI, Tai cut off her ankle monitor at a Las Vegas airport, removing the electronic tracking device that was meant to keep tabs on her movements. The step allowed her to slip away from the place where authorities had expected her to remain.
From there, officials say, she left the United States altogether. Investigators believe Tai boarded a private jet and used a fake identification document to travel out of the country. The FBI now believes she is in Vietnam, placing her beyond the immediate reach of American law enforcement and complicating any effort to bring her back to face the charges.
Her case does not stand alone. The reward and the manhunt come as part of a wider federal crackdown on health care fraud, an effort that officials say has led to charges against more than 400 people accused of filing billions of dollars in false claims against government health programs. Tai's case is one of the most striking examples of a defendant going to extreme lengths to avoid prosecution.
The size of the reward reflects how seriously authorities are treating the search. By offering 150,000 dollars for information, the FBI is signaling both the value it places on locating Tai and the difficulty of finding someone believed to have fled abroad. With her thought to be overseas, investigators are relying heavily on members of the public who may have information about where she is now.