'Dr. Evil' pleads guilty to scamming healthy people out of $90M
A cancer specialist in Michigan is being called "Dr. Evil" after pleading guilty to more than a dozen charges including fraud.
Federal prosecutors say Dr. Farid Fata scammed Medicare out of more than $90 million by prescribing chemotherapy to patients who didn't need it. Many of them didn't even have cancer.
Fata told the court Tuesday, "I knew that it was medically unnecessary." He submitted about $225 million in claims between August 2007 and July 2013. The government says he had around 1,200 patients.
The Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department's Criminal Division released a statement, saying: "Dr. Fata today admitted he put greed before the health and safety of his patients ... The mere thought of what he did is chilling."
Victims plan to meet with the attorney's office to figure out what will happen next in the case.
His sentencing is scheduled for February and he could get life in prison. He's currently being held on a $9 million bond.
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