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  • Arizona Pastor Accused of Medicaid Fraud After Submitting False Claims Worth Millions: Attorney General

    Arizona Pastor Accused of Medicaid Fraud After Submitting False Claims Worth Millions: Attorney General

    An Arizona pastor has been indicted alongside 16 others in a sweeping Medicaid fraud case, accused of helping funnel millions in state healthcare funds through fake rehab claims and laundering the proceeds through his church, state officials announced.

    A grand jury indicted 17 individuals and two organizations, including Hope of Life International Church and its pastor, Theodore Mucuranyana. Authorities allege that from August 2022 to July 2023, co-defendants Desire Rusingizwa and Fabrice Mvuyekure used their business, Happy House Behavioral Health, to submit more than $60 million in fraudulent Medicaid claims, according to AZ Central.



    Prosecutors allege that the company billed for services to patients who were deceased, incarcerated or hospitalized—and funneled more than $5 million to the church as the investigation loomed.

    Most defendants were scheduled to be arraigned between May 20 and May 27. Mucuranyana and the church face money laundering charges, while Happy House has been suspended from the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System. Assets including luxury goods and properties are now subject to seizure as part of ongoing investigations.

    The pastor’s lawyer told 12 News that he knew “nothing” about the alleged fraud.

    Since Attorney General Kris Mayes took office in early 2023, over 100 people across 14 cases have been charged following accusations of exploiting the system—largely by billing for nonexistent alcohol and drug rehabilitation services,

    Officials say more indictments could follow as investigations continue into how widespread the misuse of state funds may be.

    Originally published on Latin Times

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  • RFK Jr. Is Giving Families ‘False Hope’ By Claiming He’ll Figure Out Cause of Autism by September, Former FDA Vaccine Head Warns

    RFK Jr. Is Giving Families ‘False Hope’ By Claiming He’ll Figure Out Cause of Autism by September, Former FDA Vaccine Head Warns

    Dr. Peter Marks, the former top vaccine official at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), has criticized Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for giving what he called “false hope” to families by claiming that the Trump administration will identify the cause of autism by September.

    Marks, who resigned earlier this month amid mounting frustration with Kennedy’s promotion of vaccine misinformation, appeared on CBS’s Face the Nation to challenge Kennedy’s recent assertion that a massive federal research initiative would soon pinpoint and eliminate the root causes of autism.


    Kennedy announced the effort through the National Institutes of Health. “By September we will know what has caused the autism epidemic and we will be able to eliminate those exposures,” he promised.

    “Giving people false hope is something you should never do,” Marks said in response to Kennedy’s announcement.

    “I don’t see any possible way [to get the answer that quickly],” Marks continued. “Autism is an incredibly complicated issue.”

    Kennedy, a longtime vaccine skeptic, has implied that vaccines may be among the environmental toxins driving autism rates. However, Marks dismissed that notion, citing the overwhelming body of research showing no link between vaccines and autism. “We’ve studied them in so many millions of children,” he said.

    The controversy comes amid a deadly resurgence of measles in the US, with three unvaccinated individuals—including two young girls from Seminole, Texas—dying in recent weeks. Measles had been declared eliminated from the U.S. in 2000, but new outbreaks have developed in certain under-vaccinated communities.

    Kennedy has offered only tepid support for the measles vaccine, telling CBS that “people should get the measles vaccine” but reiterating his opposition to mandates. He has also promoted unproven alternatives like vitamins and cod-liver oil.

    Marks blamed the recent pediatric measles deaths on Kennedy and his staff, describing it as “the epitome of an absolute needless death.”

    “These kids should get vaccinated—that’s how you prevent people from dying of measles,” Marks emphasized.

    In his resignation letter, Marks criticized Kennedy for spreading misinformation and undermining public trust in safe and effective vaccines.

    “Truth and transparency are not desired by the secretary,” Marks wrote. “He wishes subservient confirmation of his misinformation and lies.”

    Originally published on Latin Times



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  • ‘I Can Get False Teeth If Needed’

    ‘I Can Get False Teeth If Needed’

    Government officials in Florida’s Winter Haven City voted to eliminate fluoride from its water supply, citing Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., the incoming head of the the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and his national campaign on removing fluoride from the water supply.

    “I’ll tell you that after the recent election, President Trump has named Mr. Kennedy to be his H-something-something director, and Mr. Kennedy has made it well known and has publicly said that he wants fluoride out of the water around the entire country,” Commissioner Brad Dantzler said Tuesday, according to WFLA News.

    “So this issue, we may be at the front of it, but this issue is coming just based upon current events and what’s going on in Washington D.C.” Dantzler continued.



    Mayor Pro Tem Brian Yates added that the government “really should not be involved in healthcare, or what goes into the bodies of citizens,” and reportedly alluded to his hyperthyroidism being connected to fluoride, WFLA reported.

    The vote passed 3-2 in favor of removing fluoride. One of the two dissenters, Commissioner Clifton E. Dollison, dubbed himself “the poster child” for the benefits of a fluoride-rich water supply.

    “My mother had nine children. We grew up poor, lived in a project. I never saw a dentist until I was an adult,” Dollison said at the meeting. “I went to the dentist, got my first checkup … he said, ‘You do not have a cavity in your head. You must have lived in a place where there was fluoride’.”

    The commissioner added that removing fluoride would affect “those less fortunate” in the community.

    Meanwhile, Hannah Bush, a Winter Haven resident, echoed Dantzler’s sentiment and spoke out against fluoridated water. She shared her family uses a reverse-osmosis filtration system to remove toxins but added that it is unable to eliminate the chemical.

    “I can get false teeth,” Bush said at the meeting. “I only have one brain.”

    Kennedy previously said that “fluoride is a poison” in an October interview with the New York Sun.

    The city will eliminate fluoride from the water supply by Jan. 1, 2025, or “as soon as reasonably practical thereafter,” per WFLA News.

    Originally published by Latin Times

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