Staff and wire reports

The operator and part owner of Florida Medical and Diagnostic Center Inc. in Miami pleaded guilty on Friday to charges that she used the company to defraud the Medicare and Medicaid programs out of $3.3 million. Juana Mayda Perez Batista, 37, of Miami, was among 11 people associated with the company and its subsidiaries who have pleaded guilty to filing false claims for medical services to elderly patients.

The fraud ran from October 1989 to February 1992, prosecutors said.

Also charged in the case is Huber Rogerlio Matos Araluce, the other co-owner of the medical center. Matos is the son of Huber Matos , an anti-Castro exile leader in Miami. The younger Matos is a fugitive in Costa Rica who has so far escaped extradition to the United States on Medicare fraud charges, prosecutors said.

The defendants face up to five years in prison and fines of $250,000.

Sentencing has been set for March 24 before U.S. District Judge Ursula Ungaro-Benages.