By admin 
A major South Carolina fraudster who was hiding out in the Philippines is now back in confinement in this country and will soon make a court appearance in Columbia, South Carolina, according to knowledgeable sources and court records.
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Herbert Leon Campbell, 60, the alleged mastermind of a $1 billion Medicare fraud scheme of which key parts were carried out in South Carolina, had pleaded guilty in federal court in Columbia in a plea deal to conspiracy to commit health care fraud, violating the anti-kickback statute and defrauding the government.
That was in 2019.
For five years after that, Kimble — as part of the plea deal — provided information to the government that enabled investigators to make arrests and carry out prosecutions of others involved in the scheme, according to court filings.
Because of his help, the government was able to charge some 80 defendants with health care offenses, prosecutions that otherwise would not have been made, prosecutors wrote in court filings in his case.
The scheme involved call centers in the Philippines, doctors and others who targeted the elderly and used their Medicare eligibility to buy medical equipment they didn’t need.
Finally, in 2024, when a sentencing hearing for Kimble’s guilty plea was set, he didn’t show.
“I don’t see the defendant,” said U.S. District Judge Joe Anderson on Aug. 27, 202,4 as he looked out on a mostly empty courtroom in the Columbia federal courthouse and paraphrased a well-known quote from an astronaut movie. “Houston, do we have a problem?”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Amy Bower replied, “We do have a problem.”
Anderson was not amused.
He ordered the immediate arrest of Kimble. But Kimble was beyond the law’s immediate reach.
Kimble’s lawyer, Jim Griffin of Columbia, told Anderson his client was in the Philippines, which is an island archipelago nation in the Pacific about 7,000 miles from Columbia. The Philippines does not have an extradition treaty with the U.S. for fraud matters.
Officials have not explained by what legal mechanism how exactly Kimble has been brought back to South Carolina.
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The judge also revoked a $5 million bond Kimble had posted in 2019 when he was arrested.
Griffin also told Anderson that Kimble had said he was on the way to South Carolina, but he never showed up.
Griffin said in a recent interview, “I have no comment at this time.”
In a 2022 sentencing memo for Kimble federal prosecutors recommended probation because of his substantial help in the case and because he was going to pay $40 million in restitution when he was sentenced.
At a court hearing in November 2024, Anderson voided Kimble’s plea deal, making him eligible for five years in prison, the maximum for the charges to which he pleaded guilty.
Last week, a federal grand jury in Columbia indicted Kimble on new charges with no fanfare or press release.
Kimble is now charged with three counts of failure to appear in court in 2024, according to the indictment.
Special assistant U.S. attorney Samantha Usher is the prosecutor on the case.
FBI director Kash Patel has posted news of Kimble’s arrest on the FBI’s X page. But the posting misspelled Kimble’s name and did not mention South Carolina or give other details. It said in part:
“Herbert Leon Kimbel (sic) was apprehended in the Philippines and is now back in the United States, on the run since 2024 after he allegedly orchestrated a $1.2 billion healthcare fraud conspiracy that targeted the Medicare system — particularly elderly victims — from 2014-2019. “
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