The Daily Populous

Wednesday June 22nd, 2022 evening edition

image for Florida man accused of fraud caught fleeing to Cuba on Jet Ski, officials say

A Cuban man charged in a $4.2 million Medicare fraud scheme is being held as a flight risk after officials said he tried to flee the U.S. on a Jet Ski.

A federal judge in Miami ordered Ernesto Cruz Graveran, 54, of Hialeah, to be detained pending trial Monday, according to court records.

He has been charged with health care fraud.

Investigators learned last month that Cruz Graveran was planning to travel to Havana and approached him several days before his flight, the complaint said.

Cruz Graveran agreed to cooperate with a criminal investigation during an interview, and officials said they took his passport.

Cruz Graveran was aboard the personal watercraft with a person known to law enforcement as a migrant smuggler.

Investigators say the Jet Ski was outfitted with a special fuel cell for long trips and was carrying extra food and water bottles. »

Can Putin Survive?: The Lessons of the Soviet Collapse

Authored by foreignaffairs.com

In reality, it was misguided Soviet economic policies and a series of political missteps by Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev that caused the country to self-destruct.

And Putin has learned a great deal from the Soviet collapse, managing to avoid the financial chaos that doomed the Soviet state despite intense sanctions.

In the United States and Europe, many experts assume that the collapse of the Soviet Union was preordained. »