A woman accused of illegally operating South Florida dental offices that collected over $11 million was sentenced to probation and time served after reaching a plea agreement with prosecutors, according to court records.
Evelyn Cruz, 43, had faced over 50 felony charges following her arrest in January 2025. But prosecutors with Florida’s Office of Statewide Prosecution dropped most of the charges, and on Tuesday, she pleaded no contest to only one count of grand theft and one count of proprietorshop by non-dentists, Palm Beach County court records show.
Cruz was sentenced to 28 days in jail with credit for 28 days she already served, 48 months of probation, and restitution.
State investigators said in a probable cause affidavit that the Florida government had originally denied Cruz a business license she had sought because she is not a dentist. Then, beginning in 2012, she began opening dental practices in Boynton Beach, Fort Lauderdale, Pembroke Pines and Doral under the names of actual licensed dentists.
At first, the affidavit said, many of the dentists Cruz listed did not know that their names were being used. She later switched all of the offices over to Dr. Ivan Pelton, who allowed her to use his name despite the fact that Cruz was the true owner and operator. Pelton was also criminally charged, but prosecutors dropped all of the charges against him.
Between 2019 and 2024, the dental offices collectively billed insurance companies over $11 million, according to the affidavit. After the Boynton Beach location changed hands in 2021, the new owners discovered that insurance companies had been billed and over 80 patients had been charged for work that was not performed or overcharged, according to the affidavit, many of them 65 or older.
In 2021, Cruz and her husband used over $500,000 in proceeds from the dental offices to buy a $1.8 million beachside home on Manasota Key, south of Sarasota, according to the affidavit. When investigators searched the Cruzes’ other home in Southwest Ranches in 2023, they found over $300,000 in cash wrapped in patient cash receipts in trash bags in their closets.
State investigators had also arrested Cruz’s husband last year, but prosecutors never filed charges against him.
Prosecutors originally charged Cruz with over 30 counts of insurance fraud, one count of organized scheme to defraud between $20,000 and $100,000, 10 counts of theft from persons 65 years or older, four counts of proprietorship by non-dentists and one count of grand theft between $20,000 and $100,000 following a three-year investigation.
Last month, prosecutors dropped all of the charges except for one count each of grand theft, organized scheme to defraud and proprietorship by non-dentists. On Monday, they also dismissed the organized scheme to defraud charge.
Cruz’s attorney, Jason Weiss, told the South Florida Sun Sentinel Wednesday that prosecutors dropped many of the charges after it came to light that his client had relied on the advice of an attorney and did not knowingly commit fraud.
“If mistakes were made, they were made unintentionally and ultimately were not and did not constitute evidence of any kind of large-scale fraud,” Weiss said. He did not provide further information about the attorney.
In regards to the insurance fraud allegations, he added, the overcharging was done in error and not intentionally fraudulent.
“In any large-scale billing company there are going to be errors,” he said. “Whether the errors are made with criminal intent or not separates mistakes from crimes.”
As part of the plea agreement, Cruz must forfeit close to $500,000 she obtained from the dental offices, but she does not have to forfeit the Manasota Key home.
The office of Statewide Prosecutors did not respond to questions seeking comment Wednesday.