FBI offers $150K reward for fugitive in $100M Medicare fraud

The FBI is offering up to $150,000 for information leading to the arrest of a woman accused of a nearly $100 million genetic testing fraud scheme, who investigators believe is hiding in Vietnam.

Emylee Thai, 41, was added to the FBI's most-wanted list on June 23, when FBI Director Kash Patel named her at a Justice Department news conference unveiling the bureau's 2026 National Health Care Fraud Takedown, Fox News reported.

The FBI's Houston field office is offering the reward. Thai, who also uses the aliases Kelsey Tan, Thu Anh Thai and Kimberly Le-Thai, was born Aug. 27, 1984, according to the bureau.

Beginning in 2019, Thai owned a laboratory and contracted with marketers to funnel signed doctors' orders and patient DNA samples to her lab, ABC13 Houston reported, citing the indictment. In return, the marketers took a percentage of whatever Medicare reimbursed the lab.

The genetic tests, often reimbursed for several thousand dollars per patient, were medically unnecessary, and the results were frequently never used in treatment, ABC13 Houston reported. Kickback-driven genetic testing has become a recurring target of federal fraud investigators.

Around that period, Thai's laboratory billed Medicare roughly $142 million for genetic testing and was paid about $95 million, Houston broadcaster KPRC reported, citing authorities. The FBI estimates the fraud at nearly $100 million; the Justice Department put it at $90 million.

Thai was first charged on July 11, 2022, with conspiracy to commit health care fraud, conspiracy to defraud the United States, and paying kickbacks in connection with a federal health care program, according to Fox News. She was arrested and released on bail on the condition that she wear a location monitor.

On Dec. 8, 2022, the device was removed, and her last recorded location was Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas, ABC13 Houston reported. A federal court in the Southern District of Texas issued a warrant for her arrest the next day, after she was charged with tampering with her monitoring device, KPRC reported.

Investigators determined that Thai left the country aboard a private charter flight using a fake passport, the Justice Department said. The bureau believes she is most likely in Vietnam. On July 5, 2023, she was separately charged with destroying and altering records to obstruct a federal investigation, ABC13 Houston reported.

Thai was one of two fugitives the FBI newly added to its most-wanted list during the takedown, Fox News reported. The other addition, Khalid Satary, is wanted in a $547 million genetic testing fraud scheme and is believed to be in the United Arab Emirates.

The operation was among the largest healthcare fraud sweeps on record. The Justice Department said it charged 455 defendants, including 90 doctors and other licensed medical professionals, over more than $6.5 billion in alleged false claims across 45 states and territories.