I Hate Dialysis Message Board
Dialysis Discussion => Dialysis: News Articles => Topic started by: kitkatz on May 10, 2009, 09:09:52 PM
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SYRACUSE (AP) -- A fugitive American who claimed he was a psychiatrist will be returned to upstate New York to face federal charges he took $70,000 for a bogus promise of a liver transplant in the Philippines, a federal prosecutor said Thursday.
Jerome Howard Feldman is also wanted by state and federal authorities in Florida on charges he defrauded Medicare and Medicaid programs of more than $2 million.
Feldman, 67, was arrested Feb. 2 in Manila, acting U.S. Attorney Andrew Baxter said. He had been a fugitive sought by the FBI since 2001 and a federal grand jury in Syracuse indicted him last month on wire fraud charges that carry a maximum penalty of up to 20 years in prison.
Feldman is accused of duping a Canadian couple, according to the indictment.
The wife found organ transplant information for her husband on the Web site www.liver4you.org and contacted a "Dr. Mitch Michaelson" by e-mail. The doctor convinced the husband to travel to a Philippine hospital to receive a liver transplant.
The couple wired a total of $70,000 into an account in the name of "Alberto Gomez" at a bank in DeWitt. "Dr. Michaelson" promised the money would cover all medical bills for the transplant procedure, which was to be performed by another doctor he named.
But the husband died July 11, 2008, at a Philippines hospital without receiving a transplant, Baxter said.
Doctors at the hospital told the victim they had never heard of a "Dr. Mitch Michaelson."
The widow then had to pay $20,000 in hospital fees run up during her husband's stay.
Investigators determined that "Dr. Mitch Michaelson" and "Alberto Gomez" were aliases used by Feldman, who was arrested holding a British passport that identified him as "Michael Adams." Authorities believe Feldman initially fled to Thailand and stayed there before moving to the Philippines in 2002.
Investigators also found six other victims, but that list could grow. Approximately $400,000 was wired into the Gomez account by victims of the scheme, Baxter said.
Feldman appeared in a federal court in Guam Thursday on immigration charges, Baxter said. Federal authorities will return him to New York sometime in the next several weeks, he said, adding that Feldman does not yet have a lawyer.
Feldman faces federal health care fraud charges in the Middle District of Florida from 1999 and racketeering, money laundering, and stolen property charges filed by Florida in 2001.
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What a colossal bastard. :puke;
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Epoman and Goofynina would be happy.
:clap;
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:)
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It's about time. Thanks for posting that kitkatz. That guy is a real ass whole.
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I wonder what stauffenberg would say about this turn in events?
8)
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He was such a troll for so long it's kinda weird to think of him as an actual person. Was anyone else around when the old Brumley board - Dialysis Online - was the only game in town?
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My comment: For the newer members who are not familiar with the story behind this guy, you can read some of the history of "MitchOrganBroker" here http://ihatedialysis.com/forum/index.php?topic=1334.0 - Transplant Surgery abroad is not the same in every country
08-Jun-09, 06:30 PM (EDT)
Failed transplant leads officials to fugitive
By JULIE MURPHY
Erwin Langier was promised a lifesaving liver transplant when he traveled to the Philippines last year, but federal officials say instead the Canadian lived out his last days in a foreign hospital, away from his wife.
She stayed behind to handle the financial arrangements for her dying husband. And, nearly $100,000 later, what she is left with are memories tainted by the knowledge she was duped by a former Ormond Beach psychiatrist who investigators say started scamming people internationally more than 40 years ago.
When the FBI tracked down Jerome Howard Feldman, 68, in the Philippines in February, he had already eluded prosecution in the United States for nearly 10 years, and close to $50 million in federal fines went unpaid.
According to court documents, among other illegal schemes, Feldman ripped off the Medicare and Medicaid system in a billing scam at three clinics he owned in the mid-1990s, including one in Daytona Beach. Feldman would bill the Medicaid program for large quantities of AIDS infusion therapy drugs, but never provided the drugs to several patients and even billed for patients no longer being treated, officials say.
As Feldman hid from his legal troubles, a judge in 2001 ordered the fugitive to pay the federal government $46 million, damages and civil penalties, to the Medicare and Medicaid programs. The same year the Attorney General's Office also charged him with racketeering, conspiracy to commit racketeering, fraud, grand theft, money laundering and dealing in stolen property.
Feldman's medical license was revoked in 2002.
LIVER TRANSPLANT SCAM
While it may be no consolation to his grieving widow, it is because of Langier's death that Feldman -- who used at least nine aliases -- was ferreted out.
Investigators believe Feldman operated a human organ transplant scheme while living as a fugitive from justice in the Philippines. He used his many aliases to run his online organ transplant brokerage, www.liver4you.org, and continued to bait potential victims until he was arrested.
According to the FBI, Feldman conducted different aspects of the business as Alberto Jennaro Gomez, Alberto Gomez, Al Gomez, Mitch Michaelson, Mitchel Michaelson, Dr. Mitch Michaelson, Michael Adams, David Smith and David Dow Smith.
His web of deception began to unravel when the Dewitt (N.Y.) Police Department took a complaint from Victoria Langier, who paid for the liver transplant for her 55-year-old husband. She contacted Dewitt police because all of her payments were wire transferred to a bank there.
Erwin Langier and a family friend traveled to the Philippines for his transplant less than a week after the procedure was paid for with money wired to "Alberto Gomez" at the instruction of "Dr. Michaelson" -- May 31, 2008. His health deteriorated shortly after their arrival and his friend brought him to the local emergency room, court documents show.
It was then that Feldman demanded more money from Victoria Langier, via "Dr. Michaelson," so another doctor could perform the surgery within two weeks, a report states. This was done, though neither Victoria Langier nor the family friend spoke to any hospital personnel who knew "Dr. Michaelson" or his alleged associates, or of any arrangements made on Erwin Langier's behalf, the report states.
Though the Filipino government placed Erwin Langier on its transplant eligibility list, he died there of liver failure on July 11. Even worse, Victoria Langier was required to pay more than $20,000 in hospital fees -- on top of the $70,000 total she sent to Alberto Gomez, which was to have been an all-inclusive fee.
Several messages left at the home of Victoria Langier were not returned.
There are at least six suspected victims worldwide who were taken for a known $324,985, and money was transferred to "Michael Adams" as well as to Feldman's wife and children, according to reports.
FLORIDA CLINICS SCAM
Besides billing the Medicaid program in the 1990s for large quantities of AIDS infusion therapy drugs that were never provided, investigators believe Feldman recruited elderly and poor patients -- insured by Medicare, Medicaid or both -- from assisted-living facilities and private residences for group therapy.
He had them taken by van to one of his facilities in Orlando that is described in court documents as an "abandoned warehouse in disrepair with no running water or kitchen facilities" where they would be for six to seven hours a day, five days a week.
Investigators contend Feldman hired unlicensed individuals to provide the group therapy, including his (then) teenage son, a maintenance man and the van drivers who brought the patients to the facility, according to court documents. They also contend many of the patients didn't need group therapy or didn't have afflictions where group therapy would have been a benefit, and the sessions were deemed "social, recreational and diversionary rather than psychotherapeutic."
Feldman wasn't around when his medical license was revoked in 2002.
Court records show he left "in or about" 1999, when investigators began looking into his Medicare and Medicaid billing practices as well as his treatment of patients, and could not be located until the FBI tracked him down to the Philippines last year.
Feldman won't be extradited to Florida to face criminal charges here until he stands trial in New York on federal wire fraud charges. He was extradited to Syracuse on April 1 from Guam where he was held after being arrested early in February.
Investigators obtained search warrants for a Yahoo account used by Feldman that may reveal how he went about his business.
In an e-mail message to one of his sons dated June 17, 2008 -- one day before Victoria Langier made her second payment to "Alberto Gomez" -- Feldman wrote, "In the past 9 months I have made about $30,000. It is harder than pulling teeth to get money out of people even if they face severe health problems or even death, without my help. I am trying to get another $30,000 from the above person, but it ain't a sure thing."
http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/News/EastVolusia/evlHEAD02060809.htm
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My comment: For the newer members who are not familiar with the story behind this guy, you can read some of the history of "MitchOrganBroker" here http://ihatedialysis.com/forum/index.php?topic=1334.0 - Transplant Surgery abroad is not the same in every country
Man sentenced in NY over organ transplant scam
(AP) – May 27, 2010
UTICA, N.Y. — A former psychiatrist accused of duping seriously ill people out of $400,000 with false promises of organ transplants in the Philippines has been sentenced in New York to more than 15 years in prison.
U.S. District Judge David Hurd also ordered Jerome Feldman to repay $2 million to the victims of the transplant scheme and an earlier Medicare fraud in Florida.
The 69-year-old Feldman pleaded guilty last year to wire fraud charges for luring five people to the Philippines for potentially lifesaving organ transplants.
Prosecutors say Feldman never arranged the transplants and kept the money. One person died while awaiting a liver.
Feldman apologized in court Thursday.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5imFWdseReD9kjQRrpN35f9sKQouQD9FVE8N80
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"Apologized"? Grrrrrrr. Can we make him go apologize in person to the patient who died? :Kit n Stik;