Farid Tanios Fata (Arabic: فريد طانيوس فتى, born 1965) is a Lebanese-born former hematologist/oncologist and the mastermind of one of the largest health care frauds in U.S. history.
Fata pleaded guilty in 2014 to charges of health care fraud, conspiring to pay and receive kickbacks, and money laundering.
[7] In 2010, veteran oncology nurse Angela Swantek went to MHO for an interview, but was stunned to see practices that her experience told her were "plain wrong".
Swantek believed Fata was deliberately billing patients' insurance companies for more money, a classic fraud scenario.
[1] He later told The Detroit News that myeloma can start with minor changes in blood chemistry—minor enough that a dishonest doctor can use chemo to avoid detection.
He also believed that since Flagg was far healthier on paper than a typical myeloma patient, the insurance payments would continue flowing to Fata for the rest of his life.
[9] Maunglay was already due to leave MHO the following month after catching Fata lying about the clinic's enrollment in a professional quality program.
Maunglay searched MHO's patient records and found numerous instances of unethical and potentially illegal behavior.
Later, he explained to the News that an honest doctor would never cut back on his own protocol solely because of staff and physician objections.
Several weeks later, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) stepped in on a tip from George Karadsheh, an MHO office manager.
When Karadsheh asked Maunglay why he was leaving, he told him that Fata kept insisting on aggressive chemo regimens, even for patients who did not need it.
Karadsheh took his findings to the Detroit office of the FBI and sued Fata, MHO, and several related entities under the False Claims Act on August 5; he was thus entitled to a significant financial reward.
[13] Federal investigators amassed evidence that Fata had bullied or deceived 553 people into getting chemotherapy treatments they did not need, causing the patients' insurance companies and Medicare to pay $34 million in fraudulent and unnecessary claims.
On the basis of these findings, Barbara McQuade, the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan, obtained a series of superseding indictments against Fata.
They culminated in a 23-count indictment charging Fata with health care fraud, conspiracy to take and receive kickbacks, money laundering, and unlawfully procuring naturalization.
The last charge was added because McQuade contended Fata had concealed the extent of his fraud from immigration authorities when he applied for citizenship.
Patty Hester lost much of her hair after being falsely told she was terminally ill with myelodysplastic syndrome, and the stress of finding out about Fata's deceit gave her high blood pressure.
Another patient, "C. C.", said that due to 177 unnecessary chemo treatments, she had problems with her bladder, bowel and kidneys so serious that she could no longer perform basic tasks.
"[19] Fata's story was featured in the first half of the September 2016 episode "Diagnosis: Blood Money / Chicago Jailbreak", of the crime series American Greed.