Florida federal judge handed a Pembroke Pines insurance broker a nearly three-year prison term and ordered millions in restitution after finding he led a scheme that fraudulently enrolled thousands of people in Affordable Care Act health plans.
Trial testimony broke the fraud into clear steps. First came recruitment. Street marketers, hired by Strong, approached people facing homelessness, addiction, or financial distress. Some were paid $5 or $10 just to sign up.
Dafud Iza, formerly a vice president at Fiorella Insurance Agency in Stuart, pleaded guilty in April. Prosecutors said he and others paid low-income individuals $5–$10 to sign up for ACA coverage.
Many recruits were homeless. Eligibility didn’t exist. Premium payments weren’t expected.
The commissions did exist. Iza and his co-conspirators collected them anyway, fully aware the enrollments would collapse, according to court filings. The scheme drained $134 mn from the ACA program.
In a sentencing memo, prosecutors said federal guidelines supported a longer term. The U.S. Attorney’s Office backed a 35-month sentence after Iza accepted responsibility, pleaded guilty, and shared information about others involved. The judge agreed.
Two alleged accomplices already stand convicted. Cory Lloyd, the agency’s chief operating officer, and Steven Strong, who ran consumer recruitment, were found guilty in 2025 and are scheduled for sentencing in February.
Iza once held property and casualty, temporary life, and health insurance licenses. By 2025, all were invalid, according to the Florida Department of Financial Services. The paper trail closed. The damage didn’t.
Inside the $100 mn ACA subsidy fraud run through Fiorella
Federal prosecutors describe a multi-year fraud that drained more than $100 mn from the Affordable Care Act through fake subsidies and systematic deception. At the centre sat Dafud Iza, executive vice president of Fiorella Insurance Agency, who worked with others to file thousands of false ACA enrollment applications.
The operation relied on deceptive marketing to pull in vulnerable people for fully subsidised ACA plans, meaning the government covered the full premium.
Fiorella staff then lied on applications to ensure those consumers qualified, even when they clearly did not. Many enrollees neither met eligibility rules nor intended to pay premiums. Some didn’t even realise they had coverage.
Evidence presented at the trial of Iza’s co-conspirators laid out the scale. In United States v. Cory Lloyd et al., prosecutors showed how the scheme pushed ACA losses past $100 mn.
The damage went beyond public finances. People who depended on Medicaid or community health programmes lost access to medication and care after being shifted into bare-bones ACA plans with high deductibles, chosen because they generated higher commissions for Fiorella.
Prosecutors argued the conduct justified prison time. Still, they weighed Iza’s cooperation heavily. He accepted responsibility early, pleaded guilty, and assisted investigators.
He testified for two days against co-defendants Cory Lloyd and Steven Strong, both convicted after trial. The government recommended 35 months in custody. The court agreed.
Iza was formally charged in December 2024 with major fraud against the United States under 18 U.S.C. §1031. He entered a guilty plea in April 2025, which the district court accepted in May.
Lloyd and Strong faced separate indictments, followed by a superseding indictment in September 2025. A jury convicted both in November on wire fraud and conspiracy charges.
Next came the call centre. Fiorella agents used leading questions to extract agreement that consumers would “attempt” to earn the minimum income required for subsidies. No verification. No follow-up. Just a number that unlocked government money.
Then came manipulation of Medicaid. Fiorella processors submitted fabricated Medicaid applications designed to trigger denial, even when consumers likely qualified.
Employees followed written instructions to ensure rejection, clearing the way for year-round ACA enrollment and bypassing open-enrollment rules. Those filings claimed consumers had no income or assets, statements later contradicted on ACA forms.
With a denial secured, Fiorella staff filed ACA applications under penalty of perjury, reporting that the same consumers were employed and earning just enough to qualify for full subsidies. When income didn’t fit, agents were told to “put them at the minimum.” Accuracy didn’t matter. Approval did.
Finally, when the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services requested documents to verify income, Fiorella used what prosecutors called a “subsidy fix.”
Employees invented life events to reset verification deadlines, keeping subsidies flowing and commissions intact.
According to the government, the system worked exactly as designed. Taxpayers paid. Consumers lost care. Fiorella collected. The paper trail now sits in federal court, and the sentence reflects both the scale of the fraud and the cooperation that helped expose it.
