An alleged fraudster, wanted in connection with one of the largest medical insurance scams, has been returned to the US after being detained by Turkish authorities, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said.
Ibrahim Khaldoon Hilmi, charged with defrauding the US federal health insurance programme Medicare of $3.7 billion, was flown to Florida after a foreign transfer of custody operation, the FBI’s Miami office said on Monday.
His transfer from Turkey to the US “demonstrates the FBI’s ongoing efforts to bring fraudsters to justice”, the bureau said.
US Vice President JD Vance confirmed that Mr Hilmi had been caught in Turkey and had landed back in the US.
“If you steal from the American people, there will be no safe harbour for you anywhere in the world,” Mr Vance wrote on X.
Mr Hilmi fled the US in May 2025 and was caught following efforts by the FBI, the US Justice Department and Turkish authorities, FBI director Kash Patel said in a statement. The case “could not have been accomplished” without the “tireless work” of Washington’s ambassador to Ankara, Tom Barrack, Mr Patel added.
The FBI’s Miami bureau posted pictures showing the handcuffed and blindfolded suspect being guided by security forces as he departed Turkey, and being met by the FBI when he arrived in South Florida last Friday.
The circumstances and location of Mr Hilmi’s arrest in Turkey remain unclear, as do the reasons he fled there. Turkish state media did not report on the case, while two Justice Ministry officials and a police media representative in Istanbul did not respond to requests for comment from The National.
Turkey co-operates with international and foreign law enforcement agencies in both the return of wanted suspects on Turkish soil and the return to Turkey of alleged criminals sought by Ankara.
In March, Justice Minister Akin Gurlek announced that in the first three months of 2026, Turkey had extradited 76 alleged offenders from 18 countries, mostly from Georgia, Germany and Montenegro.
Ankara is currently seeking the return from the US of a Turkish couple and their 17-year-old son, who also holds US citizenship, to face trial over a fatal car crash allegedly caused by the minor in Istanbul in 2024. The defendants fled Turkey following the crash, in which one person was killed, and were arrested in the US, where they are currently being held. They face trial in Istanbul with the first hearing scheduled for next month, Turkey’s NTV news reported this month.
Turkey and the US have an extradition treaty that dates back to 1979. Turkey is also a signatory to the European Convention on Extradition, which governs proceedings between the Council of Europe.
Turkish citizens have previously been extradited to the US, sometimes after their apprehension in a third country.
Ercan Findikoglu, arrested in Frankfurt, Germany, in 2013 and extradited to the US two years later, was charged with organising three worldwide cyberattacks that inflicted $55 million in losses on the global financial system in a matter of hours, the US Justice Department said in 2015. He was sentenced by a Brooklyn judge to eight years in prison in 2017.
