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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her release on bail, but investigators eventually learned she had altered the order to make it appear that it had been rescinded days later, prosecutors said.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 receives 21 month jail sentence
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.
Former dental clinic manager gets fed prison in second embezzlement case
A federal judge on Thursday told Jill Bowser that her drug addiction does not excuse her “outrageous conduct” of embezzlement and forging prescriptions and sent her away for 21 months.
U.S. District Judge Cathy Bissoon also tacked on another 10 months for violating probation in a previous embezzlement case.
Bowser is a former dental office manager from West Mifflin.
Twice she has victimized employers who trusted her.
She went to prison the first time, got out, got a new job under a different name and then did the same thing.
Her previous victim, Marjorie Leof, a Pleasant Hills dentist, took the stand and said Ms. Bowser has no respect for the law and doesn’t care about the pain she causes.
“Her narcissism won’t allow it,” she said.
Bowser, 51, pleaded guilty in August to embezzlement and narcotics charges. She stole $87,000 from Steel City Dental Associates in Turtle Creek. She also forged prescriptions for narcotic painkillers so she could sell them.
Bowser and her public defender, Sarah Levin, had hoped for probation and a treatment program to help her deal with a decade-long addiction to narcotics.
Prosecutors wanted jail time.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Shaun Sweeney said that when Bowser was convicted of the same crimes in 2012, she told a judge that she would “never again commit such a stupid, irresponsible and dishonest act.”
Then she did exactly that.
After she was hired at SCDA using a different name, Mr. Sweeney said, she forged and mailed an employment verification form on SCDA letterhead to her probation officer. The letter, purportedly from the owner of the practice, said Bowser was working there, deceiving the probation officer into believing that SCDA knew about her past and hired her anyway.
Bowser used her maiden name and not her married name, Jill D’Angelo, which she had used in the previous case.
Mr. Sweeney said prison is the only way to stop her.
“She undoubtedly would have continued to forge and embezzle for as long as she could get away with it,” he said. “Fortunately, however, the USPO and the FBI were able to put a stop to the defendant’s criminal activity before the defendant completely destroyed SCDA and caused more losses to the insurers.”
The judge agreed and U.S. marshals led Bowser away.
She initially came to the attention of the FBI last year when federal probation officers said they thought she was forging prescriptions again.
She had previously been the officer manager at Dr. Leof’s practice. She forged prescriptions under various dentists’ names to obtain more than 100 scripts for painkillers in her name or the names of relatives, according to the FBI.
Agents also found that she was diverting checks from insurance companies that were supposed to go to the practice’s bank account.
The FBI said she diverted 129 checks and stole $475,000 in all.
She was released from prison in 2016 and was still on probation when SCDA hired her, not realizing who she was.
Content retrieved from: https://www.post-gazette.com/news/crime-courts/2018/12/06/Dental-clinic-manager-Jill-Bowser-federal-prison-second-embezzlement-case/stories/201812060141
Maine woman receives 2-year sentence for embezzling more than $500,000 from dentist and physician
Update September 11, 2018:
A 46-year-old Scarborough woman was sentenced Friday in federal court to two years in prison and three years of supervised release for embezzling from two health care providers and for using the Social Security number of another person.
Judge John A. Woodcock Jr. from the U.S. District Court for the District of Maine also ordered Carrie Caporino (who also may go by the name Carrie Cole) to pay $549,469 in restitution, according to a news release from the office of U.S. Attorney Halsey B. Frank of the District of Maine.
Caporino pleaded guilty to the charges on April 30.
According to court records, between 2014 and November 2016, Caporino worked as the office manager for a southern Maine dental practice and embezzled more than $293,000 by using office credit cards for personal expenses, using the office checkbook to pay rent and other personal expenses and by making internet transfers from an office bank account to pay a personal credit card and her PayPal account.
Between December 2016 and 2017, Caporino was the office manager for a Falmouth physician and embezzled more than $255,000 from his practice by stealing checks mailed to the office by patients and insurance companies and then depositing them to her own bank accounts using her smartphone.
Court documents also stated that in January 2014, Caporino fraudulently used the Social Security number of a southern Maine resident on a health insurance application.
In announcing her sentence, Woodcock told Caporino that he found it particularly reprehensible that she victimized a dentist and a doctor, stating that her actions resulted in a “catastrophic victimization of two fine gentlemen who dedicated their lives to helping others.”
Both employers are now closed, according the U.S. Attorney’s news release.
Content retrieved from: http://www.mainebiz.biz/article/20180910/NEWS01/180919995
Original post:
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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