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Month: May 2018
This is why proper background checking is SO important — California dentist who is ordered not to practice uses identity theft to get hired as an associate
A dentist pleaded no contest Tuesday to felony charges alleging that she performed unnecessary work on several patients in Daly City and then altered a judge’s order and stole someone’s identity to seek other dental jobs during her pending court case, San Mateo County prosecutors said.
Amishi Patel, 43, was a part-time dentist at Campus Heights Dental Care in Daly City, where she performed unnecessary dental work on at least eight patients between April 2014 and May 2015, District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe.
The case came to light when the family of a patient contacted the Dental Board of California, which contacted the state Department of Insurance, which contacted the district attorney’s office about the alleged insurance fraud, Wagstaffe said.
Among the patients was a 16-year-old girl who Patel recommended receive 16 fillings. Patel performed eight of the fillings before the girl’s father became suspicious and took her for a second opinion, prosecutors said.
Three subsequent dentists determined the girl had no signs of cavities, did not need any fillings and said the eight fillings from Patel were so poorly performed that they needed to be replaced, prosecutors said.
Patel was charged this February for the cases in Daly City and a judge ordered her not to practice dentistry as a condition of her release on bail, but investigators eventually learned she had altered the order to make it appear that it had been rescinded days later, prosecutors said.
Content retrieved from: http://www.sfexaminer.com/bay-area-dentist-pleads-no-contest-performing-unnecessary-work-identity-theft/
She used the altered order to get temporary employment as a dentist in Fremont, where she treated four patients.
Patel also called another dentist with a name similar to hers, pretending to be from a dental insurance company, and obtained the dentist’s license number that she then used to apply for several dental jobs in Fremont, including an interview attended by an undercover officer, prosecutors said.
Those cases took place between June and July of this year, Wagstaffe said.
Patel pleaded no contest Tuesday to felony insurance fraud, assault, identity theft and forgery on the condition that she receive a sentence of up to a year in county jail and a referral to mental health court, according to the district attorney’s office.
“She got a very light sentence,” Wagstaffe said of the plea deal, adding that San Mateo County Superior Court Donald Ayoob “had leniency for her because he thinks there are mental issues there.”
Prosecutors had sought a sentence of up to five years in state prison for Patel.
“We think the only mental issue is she’s a fraud,” Wagstaffe said.
The case will return to court on Jan. 12 for an intake conference for the mental health court and to set a sentencing date.
Patel’s defense attorney Jonathan McDougall was not immediately available for comment on the case.
A repeat offender
We previously wrote about Jill D’Angelo, who embezzled more than $475,000, HERE.
However, it appears that not everybody looks at our Hall of Shame, because after spending 41 months in prison, Jill has been at it again. Here is a recent news article showing what Jill has been up to. She has now joined an exclusive fraternity known as the Half Million Dollar Club.
A former dental office manager from Pleasant Hills on federal probation after spending 41 months in prison for health care fraud has been at it again, this time using a different name, the FBI says.
Jill Bowser, who had previously been known by her married name, Jill D’Angelo, is charged in U.S. District Court again with embezzlement in connection with a dental practice in Turtle Creek where she worked and forging prescriptions for narcotic painkillers so she could sell the pills.
Bowser, who is in her early 50s, came to the FBI’s attention in January when U.S. probation officers said they were concerned she was forging prescriptions for opioids.
Formerly an office manager of a dental practice in Pleasant Hills, she was convicted of embezzling $475,000 from 2003 to 2010 and was sentenced in 2012 to 41 months behind bars. Since her release in 2014, she’s been using the Bowser name.
In a complaint filed under seal on Tuesday, the FBI said Bowser had been working at a dental office called Steel City Dental Associates in Turtle Creek and had been forging painkiller prescriptions purportedly written by a dentist there identified as “R.K.” The FBI said RK is a dentist at the practice but did not authorize any prescriptions for Bowser.
FBI Agent Ryan Melder said in an affidavit that Bowser also forged the names of other dentists to obtain over 100 prescriptions for painkillers in her name or the names of her relatives and filled them at area pharmacies between 2016 and this year.
Security camera footage shows her at the pharmacies picking up the prescriptions, according to the affidavit.
Agent Melder said he also had the owner of the practice record a conversation with Bowser during which she admitted that she had forged prescriptions and sold the pills “because she needed money.”
The agent said his investigation revealed that Bowser was also diverting checks from insurance companies that were supposed to go to the business bank account but instead went to her own account. From 2016 to January 2018, she deposited 129 checks for about $87,000.
Bowser appeared Tuesday before a federal magistrate judge and waived a detention hearing.
No lawyer was listed for her in court records.
Content retrieved from: http://www.post-gazette.com/local/south/2018/05/02/Jill-Bowser-embezzlement-felon-probation-dental-office-Pittsburgh-Pleasant-Hills/stories/201805020164
Maine woman pleads guilty to embezzling more than $500,000 from dentist and physician
A Scarborough woman pleaded guilty Monday to embezzling more than $500,000 from a dentist and a doctor.
Carrie Caporino, 46, entered the guilty pleas in U.S. District Court in Portland to two counts of embezzlement and one count of Social Security number fraud.
According to authorities, from 2014 to 2016, Caporino embezzled about $295,000 from a dental practice by putting personal charges on office credit cards, using money from the practice to pay a personal credit card bill and a PayPal account, and by writing office checks to cover personal bills, including her rent.
The dental practice, which is not named in court documents, has offices in Portland, Biddeford and Yarmouth.
In 2016 and 2017, federal officials said, Caporino embezzled about $253,000 from a Falmouth doctor by depositing checks intended for the doctor into her personal checking account. She also wrote unauthorized office checks to herself, authorities said.
The Falmouth physician is not identified by name in court documents and is only referred to as the “victim” by the FBI agent who investigated the case.
According to the charges, Caporino also used a Social Security number that was not assigned to her to apply for health insurance when she worked for the dentist.
She faces up to 10 years in prison on the embezzlement counts and up to five years on the Social Security count, along with fines of up to $250,000 on each count.
Content retrieved from: https://www.centralmaine.com/2018/04/30/scarborough-office-worker-pleads-to-embezzlement/
Embezzlement News #69 May 2018
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