Jose Perez

Finally caught, Jose Perez is charged with operating 21 Miami-Dade medical equipment companies with partner Reinaldo Guerra, using ``straw owners'' to disguise their ownership, and stealing physicians' ID numbers to submit phony bills to Medicare for healthcare equipment.

Perez and Guerra pocketed $56 million from Medicare for durable medical equipment such as artificial limbs that no one needed or received between 2002 and 2004, authorities say.

Prosecutors say Perez's share of the illegal profits was $21 million.