Two people with South Florida ties were among nine fugitives on the FBI’s Most Wanted Fraudsters list. Both were found and arrested this week.
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Elaine Escoe, 41, was wanted for her alleged involvement in a conspiracy that fraudulently obtained more than $32 million in federal COVID-19 relief funds, according to the FBI.
She was charged by indictment last year with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering and multiple counts of wire fraud and money laundering.
Escoe did not appear for a court appearance last May after a federal arrest warrant was issued, the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida said in a news release Saturday.
The FBI previously said she had last been seen June 3, 2025, in Palm Beach County.
Palm Beach County woman placed on new FBI ‘Most Wanted Fraudster’ list in COVID funds case
Authorities in Jamaica captured Escoe “after receiving a tip,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida said. Escoe was returned to South Florida on Saturday.
Further details about the tip or the investigation leading to her arrest were not released.
Escoe and five co-defendants allegedly submitted fraudulent applications for funding from the federal Paycheck Protection Program, the Restaurant Revitalization Fund and several other federal programs that were intended to help small businesses stay afloat during the pandemic, according to federal prosecutors. They used fabricated tax documents and bank records in the applications, some of which were submitted for third parties in exchange for kickbacks, the news release said.
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Escoe’s co-defendants have already received federal prison sentences, ranging from three-and-half years to 19-and-a-half years, according to federal prosecutors. She is the last remaining accused in the scheme.
Earlier this month, the FBI Miami Division announced a $150,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of Khalid Ahmed Satary, who is accused in a $547 million health care fraud conspiracy and has ties to Delray Beach.
Satary was found and apprehended “by regional partners in the Middle East” on July 20, the U.S. Department of Justice announced in a news release on Tuesday. He was found with a fake Mexican passport under an alias.
While the owner of several diagnostic testing labs in the U.S. between 2016 and 2019, Satary allegedly billed Medicare for medically unnecessary genetic tests, according to the FBI. In 2019, he was charged by indictment in federal court in New Orleans and was released on bond with conditions prohibiting him from working in health care.
During his release on bond, he allegedly conspired with labs in Houston to submit fraudulent genetic testing claims to Medicare, according to the FBI, and a federal arrest warrant was issued in Louisiana in 2022 for violating the conditions of his pre-trial release.
One month after the arrest warrant was issued, Satary failed to appear at a court hearing in Louisiana, and he was then deemed a fugitive.
On Tuesday, Satary made an initial appearance in federal court in the Eastern District of Virginia, the DOJ said. He faces charges including conspiracy to commit health care fraud and wire fraud, health care fraud and conspiracy to defraud the United States, among others.
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