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Hartford, Connecticut – A Hispanic man who was released from prison last year for health care fraud is back in court, now facing new charges for the same crime. His alleged accomplice is a prominent Hispanic businesswoman involved in real estate and even a CBD company.
On January 17, the US Attorney’s Office in Connecticut announced that they had arrested 39-year-old Ramon ‘Kristopher Rockefeller’ Apellaniz and his business partner, 38-year-old Suhail Aponte, both Hispanic residents in the Hartford area.
A family member’s Facebook profile suggests that Suhail Aponte may be of Puerto Rican descent.
According to various law enforcement agencies, Aponte and Apellaniz controlled Minds Cornerstone, LLC, which filed over $1.8 million in fraudulent Medicaid claims for autism services they were not qualified to perform.
Though the timing remains unclear, Apellaniz allegedly conducted business with Aponte in prison under the moniker ‘Kristopher (Kris) Rockefeller,’ and filed multiple claims under this fake provider name.
The US Attorney has charged the pair with one count of health care fraud apiece as well as one count of conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud. If found guilty, Aponte and Apellaniz could be looking at up to 20 years in prison.
After being arrested, Aponte was released on $100,000 bond while Apellaniz was remanded into custody pending a January 23 hearing.
Ramon Apellaniz was previously convicted in 2024 of health insurance fraud, identity theft in the first degree as well larceny in the first degree by defrauding a public community. The charges stemmed from an investigation of the Gemini Project, a now-defunct mental health counseling service that was run by Ramon Apellaniz.
According to authorities, of the nearly 13,000 claims filed from January 2018 to July 2019 by the Gemini Project, more than 9,700 were fraudulent. In order to create a paper trail for $909,268 worth of allegedly fake claims, the State argues that Apellaniz used a fake or stolen provider number.
After pleading nolo contendere, Apellaniz was given an 8-year-sentence, suspended at 15 months. Afterwards, Apellaniz was released to probation in late November and was ordered to continue towards paying full restitution.
According to authorities, Apellaniz attempted to use the inflated income generated from Minds Cornerstone, LLC to pay the remainder of his over $900,000 restitution bill.
Suhail Aponte is said by authorities to have begun a business relationship with Apellaniz while criminal charges against him were pending.
Various law enforcement agencies named Aponte as the registered agent of Minds Cornerstone, LLC, which is confirmed by Connecticut state filings.
From November 2021 to December 2024, the US Attorney’s Office (USAO) alleges that Ramon Apellaniz masqueraded as a man named Kristopher Rockefeller and assisted Suhail Aponte in generating over $1.8 million in claims for autism services allegedly performed at Minds Cornerstone, LLC.
The USAO further alleged that Apellaniz and Aponte were wholly unqualified to make any of these claims, some of which were for appointments that never happened according to witnesses.
Even while serving a prison sentence for health care fraud and identity theft, Apellaniz allegedly continued to use his false identity to submit fraudulent Medicaid claims.
According to the USAO, Aponte once worked in the State of Connecticut’s Office of Policy and Management and is seen quoted or referenced in numerous state documents of varying purposes.
State business records also reveal Aponte’s involvement in a real estate company and a CBD business marketed as part of the ‘wellness’ industry.
Aponte was even listed in the NYC Journal’s ‘Top 30 Women Disruptors to Look Out for In 2021’ for her work in ‘wellness.’
Cannabidiol, or CBD, comes from the cannabis plant Hemp. CBD is often viewed by Americans to have medicinal properties, though scientific evidence remains limited.
Considered by some to be free of the hallucinogenic properties of its cousin, marijuana, hemp and CBD actually contain trace amounts of the psychoactive compound tetrahydrocannabinol (or THC) which is connected to schizophrenia.
According to Census estimates, Hartford is 33.65% non-White Hispanic. Welfare fraud often runs rampant in non-White communities.
In December of 2024, the FBI raided two Minnesota autism centers—Smart Therapy Center in Minneapolis and Star Autism Center in St. Cloud—amid a federal Medicaid fraud investigation. Many of the suspected leaders of the alleged scheme were Somalians.
Authorities allege the centers submitted fraudulent claims for services either not provided or ineligible for reimbursement under government programs. Investigators also claim the centers employed unqualified staff, including teenage relatives of the owners, without certification or training in autism treatment.
In the same month, A Black owner of a home care agency in Pennsylvania, along with 20 individuals—most of whom were her relatives—were charged in a Medicaid fraud scheme.
Authorities argue that 52-year-old Stephanie Mobley, together with her co-defendants, submitted fraudulent Medicaid claims for services never rendered, diverting millions from the program over a three-year period.
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