Tens of millions in Medicaid/Medicare fraud | State board reverses course on Wake County democrats who counted dead voters' ballots | Smithfield wife-killer is illegal alien?
No. 182 — Jun. 21-Jun. 27, 2026
An ICE detainer has been issued for yet another accused criminal for whom legal status could not be determined; this time, it’s a Colombian residing in Smithfield who allegedly shot his Colombian wife in the parking lot of her Smithfield employer.
A Raleigh man has plead guilty to $60 million in Medicaid/Medicare fraud by paying “collectors” to obtain larger numbers of fraudulent samples to undergo virus testing at his California lab.
An Irish citizen living in Youngsville is alleged to have participated in an entirely separate Medicare fraud scheme, billing over $14.5 million from multiple medical supply companies using forbidden practices to charge for medically unnecessary devices.
Two Democrats on the Wake County Board of Elections have been censured by the state board for counting the ballots of dead voters, in a reversal from when the Democrat-controlled board dismissed the complaint without giving it the hearing required by law.
Prosecutors say Colombian who confessed to killing wife had been previously deported
Prosecutors: Man charged with workplace killing of his wife confessed to crime - WRAL
Man accused in wife’s deadly shooting in Smithfield parking lot, police say - CBS17
Husband Charged With Murder After Woman Fatally Shot At Smithfield Business - JoCo Report
Smithfield man to remain in jail after wife found shot to death in parking lot - N&O
The Smithfield resident charged with murdering his wife at her workplace is a Colombian national subject to removal proceedings, according to court documents.
Jesus Antonio Tenorio Bermudez, 39, has been charged with first degree murder after Lorena Capera Paz, 45, was found fatally shot in the parking lot of the AAF Flanders Plant in Smithfield, where she was an employee.
Prosecutors say that Bermudez bought a firearm days prior to the shooting, admitted to the shooting, and had previously been deported from the United States.
According to a Spanish-language fundraiser to repatriate her body, Paz was also a Colombian immigrant, and was killed during an argument with her husband. (No motive for the shooting has been confirmed by law enforcement.)
Bermudez is being held without bond, with a magistrate reporting that he “was unable to determine that [Bermudez] is a citizen or legal resident of the United States,” while Immigrations and Customs Enforcement has filed a detainer stating that Bermudez is subject to the Laken Riley Act.
Raleigh man pleads guilty to $60 million in Medicaid/Medicare fraud at California lab
Raleigh Man Pleads Guilty to Receiving More than $60 Million in Fraudulent Claims from Paying Kickbacks for Patient Referrals - USAO EDNC Press Release
Raleigh man pleads guilty in $60 million healthcare fraud, kickback scheme - ABC11
Raleigh man pleads guilty to receiving more than $60 million in fraudulent claims - WWAY
James Shuford Price, III, 59, of Raleigh, has plead guilty to $60 million in Medicaid and Medicare fraud via a virus testing lab in California which he owned and operated.
According to the charges, Price’s lab unlawfully incentivized “collectors” to obtain “bulk quantities of bogus test samples obtained under fraudulent circumstances, including widespread identity theft,” which were then billed to Medicare or California’s Medicaid program.
In addition, over 90% of the Medicaid claims from the lab used identities stolen from real medical professions to manufacture fraudulent authorization for the tens of millions of dollars in tests that were being performed.
Price’s fraud also included manufacturing fake contracts to disguise the fraudulent nature of his operation, as well as failing to pay taxes on “money received from victims in connection with a prior investment scam.”
The FBI seized over six million dollars in assets as part of the operation, and Price faces up to 13 years imprisonment.
Irish Youngsville resident accused of $14.5 million Medicare fraud
Foreign National Indicted in Multimillion Dollar Healthcare Fraud Conspiracy - USAO EDNC Press Release
Irishman in Youngsville indicted in $14 million healthcare fraud conspiracy: US Attorney - CBS17
Youngsville man indicted in alleged $14 million healthcare fraud scheme - WWAY
An Irish citizen residing in Youngsville, James Thomas Foley, has been charged federally in a massive scheme involving fraudulent and/or medically unnecessary billing for medical equipment such as “pneumatic compression devices.”
According to federal court documents, medical supply companies owned by or associated with Foley collected over $14.5 million from Medicare, including at least three LLCs registered to Foley in Wake Forest.
The scheme is described as the following: non-medical telemarketers were hired to aggressively market the devices to beneficiaries of Medicare, Tricare (Department of Defense), CHAMPVA (Veterans Administration), etc. by asking generic questions about symptoms (without verifying any specific diagnoses for which the devices were authorized) and offering the devices “at no cost” despite regulations requiring the collection of copay/deductible; the identifying information was then sold as prepopulated doctors’ orders to providers like Foley, who obtained approval for the orders by hiring contractors to “persistently and aggressively fax[]” doctors documentation which “often contained false and misleading language.”
At least three others besides Foley are referenced as conspiring in the scheme, including Randal Fenton Wood who allegedly helped Foley enroll his businesses and replicate the business model which Wood used with his own companies in Winston-Salem; Wood has already plead guilty to similar charges of receiving “over $39 million” in Medicaid reimbursement to companies “owned by or affiliated with” himself.
Follow-up
Democrat members of Wake County Board of Elections censured for counting ballots of dead voters
NC elections board censures Wake officials over deceased voters’ ballots - Carolina Journal
Wake officials can keep seats despite bucking guidance on counting ballots of dead voters - WRAL
Two Wake election officials censured for counting ballots of three dead NC voters - NC Newsline
Wake elections officials censured over 2024 decision on dead voters - WUNC
The North Carolina State Board of Elections has voted to censure the two Democrat members of the Wake County Board of Elections for their 2024 decision to count the ballots of three voters who died before election day, in violation of state law and NCSBE guidance.
This hearing on the complaint filed by two citizens from Buncombe County and Rowan County only occurred after a ruling in March 2026 by a judge at the Office of Administrative Hearings, which held that the party-line decision of the Democrat-majority board in January 2025 to dismiss the complaint without a hearing was in violation of the North Carolina Administrative Code.
In the meantime, the legislature’s amendment to the boards of election appointment process resulted in a Republican majority on the NCSBE, which voted 3-2 on party lines to find that Gerry Cohen and Greg Flynn had violated their duties as members of the Wake County board.
Although Republicans Stacey “Four” Eggers and Angela Hawkins (a former WCBE member) voted in favor of removing Cohen and Flynn from their positions, the third Republican boardmember Francis De Luca voted against, explaining afterwards that he did not believe Cohen and Flynn acted with malice.
Instead, the board voted unanimously to limit the consequences to a censure for the pair after each apologized for their decision and promised not to count the ballots of dead voters in the future.
Previous Coverage:
Wake County Board of Elections flouts state law/guidance in counting ballots of dead voters (No. 98 — Nov. 16, 2024)
State Board of Election dismisses complaints over Wake BoE illegally counting dead voters
(No. 108 — Jan. 25, 2025)Counting the ballots of the dead: administrative judge rules state election board should have heard complaint against Wake board members (No. 166 — Mar. 7, 2026)