Medicare Fraud Sentencing Set for 'Dr. Evil' Cancer Doc

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Dr. Farid Fata, the Oakland County oncologist who admitted he prescribed medically unnecessary treatments to cancer patients and misdiagnosed others in what the government has called one of the most egregious Medicare fraud cases ever, will be sentenced at 10 a.m. Friday.

The sentencing will follow three days of emotional, gripping testimony in U.S. District Court by 22 of the estimated 550 victims, who looked Fata in the eye and called him “Dr. Evil,” a “monster” and “a cowardly bastard,” according to reports from the Detroit Free Press, The Detroit News, NBC News and other media organizations.

Others former patients referred to themselves as victims of the “Fata Holocaust,” said the disgraced oncologist had committed “medical genocide,” and called him “a cancer on the medical community.”

Fata reportedly showed little emotion as the parade of victims testified about their fake and inflated cancer diagnoses and uged U.S. District Judge Paul D. Borman to hand down the harshest possible sentence. Federal prosecutors have asked that Fata be jailed for 175 years.

“When he walked by me during one of the breaks, when they walked him out, I looked him square in the face. He had that ‘Fata look’ – smug,” Steven Skrzypczak, 68, told NBC News.

Skrzypczak said he learned after Fata’s 2013 arrest that he had never had non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma to begin with, even though Fata had implanted a mediport in his chest and prescribed 25 treatments with a chemotherapy drug in six months.

U.S. Attorney: Most Egregious Health-Care Fraud Ever

Last September, Fata, 50, pleaded guilty to 13 counts of health-care fraud, two counts of money laundering, and one count of conspiring to pay and receive kickbacks in a $34 million Medicare fraud scheme. He had operated oncology centers in Clarkston, Bloomfield Hills, Lapeer, Sterling Heights, Troy and Oak Park.

Also on Patch:

• Watchdog: Detroit Metro Hot Spot for Medicare Drug Fraud

At the time, U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade said her office is familiar with Medicare fraud schemes, “but this one is really unique in that he exploited patients.” McQuade said it was the most egregious case of health-care fraud she’d ever seen.

McQuade’s office asked for a 175-year sentence, while Fata’s lawyers argued for a much shorter, 25-year sentence.

In a pre-sentencing memo, prosecutors said he had prescribed 9,000 medically unnecessary injections and infusions to patients and bilked the government out of $35 million in a Medicare fraud scheme. Some weren’t ill at all, others were so ill the treatments harmed more than helped them, prosecutors said.

Related Links:

• Medicare Report: Disgraced Oncologist Among Nation’s Highest-Paid Docs
• Disgraced Cancer Doc Named in 20 Lawsuits on Anniversary of Arrest
• Report: State Ignored Whistleblower Suspicious in 2010 of ‘Chemo Mill’
• Surprise in Case Against Cancer Doc Who Misdiagnosed Patients, Prescribed Unnecessary Drugs

Also among those testifying was Christopher Sneary, 55, of Rochester, who said his new oncologists, engaged after Fata’s arrest, were “amazed and shocked that I had survived Dr. Fata’s overly gross over-treatment of a fairly easy cancer to get rid of.”

Sneary had been diagnosed with testicular cancer in 2011, and said the “almost fatal decisions” Fata made about his care continue to affect most of his bodily functions. Sneary called Fata “a cowardly bastard.”

“Dr. Farid Fata doesn’t deserve the title of doctor anymore,” Sneary testified, according to a report on The Detroit News. “... He can use every last breath of his remaining life to reflect on how his hideous and greedy choices affected me, my family, and so many others. He is an evil person. Farid Fata deserves nothing less than a natural life sentence.”

On Thursday morning, defense witnesses took the stand in support of Fata, a married father of three and U.S. naturalized citizen whose native country is Lebanon. He has been held on $9 million bond since his arrest.

A former patient, Amanda Iodice, described Fata as “kind, caring, professional and very compassionate.”

After Friday’s sentencing, Fata’s legal problems won’t be over. About 40 individual lawsuits are pending in Oakland County Circuit Court, and he still must appear before Borman for a restitution hearing to adjudicate the distribution of his assets.