Press Release
CONTACT: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
David Haron, Esq. JUNE 23, 2015
Phone: (248) 762-7009
E-mail: dharon@umich.edu
FEDERAL WHISTLEBLOWER SUIT AGAINST MICHIGAN DOCTOR FARID FATA UNSEALED
DETROIT, MI – (June 23, 2015) – Michigan Qui Tam attorney David Haron today announced that a False Claims Act/Qui Tam law suit brought by his client George Karadsheh on August 5, 2013 against former Michigan oncologist/hematologist Dr. Farid Fata has been unsealed by a US federal court. Fata was arrested on August 6, 2013 after the government raided his clinics in Michigan. Fata pled guilty on September 16, 2014, to 13 criminal counts of health care fraud, one count of conspiracy to pay or receive kickbacks and two counts of money laundering.
The civil lawsuit, filed under seal on August 5, 2013 by Michigan resident George Karadsheh under the qui tam provisions of the federal False Claims Act and Michigan Medicaid False Claims Act, seeks to assist the government in recovering millions of dollars fraudulently obtained through Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement programs. The Acts allows private individuals with knowledge of fraud against the government to file lawsuits on the government’s behalf. While a False Claims Act case remains under seal, the identity of the whistleblower, or relator, is required to remain confidential to allow the government an opportunity to investigate the allegations without the defendant's knowledge.
Fata gained notoriety after his Rochester Hills clinic was raided on August 6, 2013 as a result of information provided by Karadsheh (including a list of employees and physicians, and their knowledge) that Fata was engaged in Medicare fraud. Karadsheh, a non-physician, was formerly employed as the practice manager at Fata’s Michigan Hematology-Oncology P.C. (“MHO”). Karadsheh first learned of defendants’ fraudulent conduct when several of Fata’s employees approached him with their fears. After realizing that neither they nor the other physicians who worked with Fata in the practice, had or were going to report Fata, Karadsheh quickly notified the government because of his concern of grave patient harm. Karadsheh was terminated from MHO on August 7, 2013 because (he believed) the Fatas suspected his involvement with authorities.
Government investigation swiftly confirmed a horrifying practice where Fata prescribed and administered medically unnecessary aggressive chemotherapy, cancer treatments, intravenous iron and other infusion therapies to unsuspecting patients in order to increase his billings to Medicare and other insurers. Between August 2007 and July 2013, Fata submitted approximately $225 million in claims to Medicare. Fata also admitted to soliciting kickbacks from Guardian Angel Hospice and Guardian Angel Home Health Care in exchange for his referral of patients to those facilities, and of using the proceeds of the health care fraud at his medical practice to promote additional health care fraud at United Diagnostics, where he administered unnecessary and expensive PET (positron emission tomography) scans for which he billed a private insurer.
Haron said: “This is a story of human suffering, greed, lies, fear, cover-ups and a system of checks and balances that failed. Fata was duty and honor bound to protect life and act as a force of stability, trust and hope for his patients, but instead he renounced these ideals and any sense of humanity he possessed in the name of greed. We cannot comprehend the depth of pain and sadness patients endured upon becoming aware of his horrific acts, but hopefully the action taken by Mr. Karadsheh will help in the healing process and bring some measure of comfort to Fata’s victims, knowing that Fata will never harm another person again.”
Representing Karadsheh are Michigan attorneys David L. Haron and Maro Bush, who have helped recover more than $350 million in government monies as a result of False Claims Act lawsuits.