Former Doctor Sentenced to 5 Years Probation for Nearly $750,000 Theft

A former podiatrist who admitted to defrauding the health care system will not go to prison.

Michael Akyuz of Greece was sentenced to five years probation despite stealing almost three-quarters of a million dollars.

U.S District Court Judge Charles Syragusa called it a unique, exceptional family circumstance that led him to impose a lesser sentence today.

The recommended sentence for his crimes was 41 to 51 months in prison, but 44-year-old Akyuz will not have to spend a day behind bars.

Akyuz admitted to health care fraud and mail fraud while he was a podiatrist. Over the course of five years, the former foot doctor tended to elderly patients in nursing homes and retirement communities. While he billed Medicare for complex expensive procedures, in reality, he did little more than clip their toe-nails.

The total cost to tax-payers was almost three-quarters of a million dollars.

Akyuz said he took the money to take care of his family’s health care costs. He has four children with varying degrees of autism.

Akyuz will also have to make restitution.

Full Article and Source:
I Team 10 Update: Former Foot Doctor Avoids Prison

Medical Professionals to Try to Spot Elderly Fraud Victims

State regulators, social service workers and several medical organizations are teaming up to help health care providers identify and protect older patients who are vulnerable to financial abuse and scams.

“Our goal is to improve the communication among medical professionals, older Americans, (their) adult children and state securities regulators in order to head off financial swindles before the damage is done,” said Don Blandin, president of the Investor Protection Trust, one of the groups behind the new campaign.

The effort to curb the financial exploitation of seniors was announced on World Elder Abuse Awareness Day. It comes as a new survey by the trust shows that one in five Americans over age 65 – more than 7.3 million people – reported being victimized in a financial swindle at some point in their life.

In fact, the survey of more than 2,000 adults found that half of older Americans were ripe for potential financial victimization. For example, of 590 respondents age 65 and older, 37 percent reported being solicited by phone for money, while 16 percent said they weren’t confident making big financial decisions by themselves.

Elder financial abuse can assume many forms, including telemarketing or mail fraud, contracting and repair scams, or bad advice from financial services professionals such as insurance salesmen and accountants. It can also include identity theft, abuse of guardianship or even Medicare fraud.

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Medical Professionals Will Try to Spot Elderly Fraud Victims

Doctors Enlisted to Look Out for Elderly Fraud

Older people are one of the hottest targets for scams, and lack of financial knowledge makes them all the more vulnerable.

The issue is so important that the North American Securities Administrators Association will soon start a campaign aimed at reducing financial fraud against the elderly.

“A very large number of [elderly] fraud victims are suffering from diminished mental capacity,” said Denise Voigt Crawford, association president and Texas state securities commissioner. “It makes them more vulnerable to pitches by fraudsters.”

The association’s campaign will include the creation of a pocket guide to help doctors determine whether their patient is a victim of investment fraud.

Among the signs are whether a patient is having trouble paying bills because he or she is confused by them or is giving away money he or she can’t afford.

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<a href="
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/bus/columnists/pyip/stories/DN-moneytalk_17bus.State.Edition1.105c8f37.html”>Doctors Enlisted to Look Out for Elderly Fraud

Sisters Raging Custody Battle

A child-custody battle is being fought – not by parents but by two sisters.

On the one side is the twins’ mom, Dr. Robin Recant, a physician with the city Health Department’s sexually transmitted disease bureau. She’s a single mom and former mental patient who claims that her unmarried, childless sister is trying to steal her kids.

The sister she’s at war with is former Criminal Court Judge Donna Recant, who was censured by the state Commission on Judicial Conduct in 2001 for, among other things, chaining a defense lawyer to a bench for being “disrespectful” and handcuffing a defendant for blowing bubble gum.

Donna, who left the judgeship in disgrace in 2005, now has temporary custody of the twins, and she wants to keep them. She insists this is the only way to protect the children from the unstable, paranoid woman who gave them life.

But Robin Recant swears that her sister has wanted to take her kids away from the day they were born.

According to Robin — her sister bullied and threatened her into signing over temporary guardianship of her children.

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TUG-OF-LOVE SIBS’ RAGING CUSTODY WAR IS TOTAL INSANITY

Sanity an Issue in Parental Kidnapping Case

A lawyer for the man who calls himself Clark Rockefeller argued that “pure madness” from a longstanding and worsening mental illness drove his client to kidnap his 7-year-old daughter last summer, and urged jurors to dismiss the diagnosis of a prosecution psychiatrist who found the defendant was legally sane.

Defense attorney Jeffrey A. Denner implored jurors to reject the testimony of Dr. James A. Chu, a clinical psychiatrist. Denner said that Chu’s 2 1/2-hour meeting with the defendant in jail was woefully inadequate for an accurate diagnosis and that Chu was unqualified because he has no forensic background and works mostly as a hospital administrator.

In contrast, he said, the defense’s two mental health witnesses, the psychiatrist Dr. Keith Ablow and psychologist Catherine T.J. Howe, both have extensive training in forensics and spent 28 hours with Rockefeller over 14 separate sessions before diagnosing him with narcissistic personality disorder and grandiose delusions.

Assistant Suffolk District Attorney David A. Deakin urged the jury to look past the “preposterous diagnosis” by the defense experts. Deakin asserted that Rockefeller had never been diagnosed with a mental illness before his arrest in the abduction and is really a “self-centered, controlling, and manipulative man who was angry” at his ex-wife, Sandra Boss, when she won custody of their daughter, Reigh, and moved with her to London in December 2007.

Deakin: “This is not a case about madness. It’s a case about manipulation. Don’t let him get away with that. Don’t let this insanity defense be the culminating manipulation in a lifetime of lies designed to try to get what he wanted.”

Full Article and Source:
Lawyers attack diverging diagnoses

More information:

Doctor says ‘Clark Rockefeller’ faking crazy

First Wife of ‘Clark Rockefeller’ to Testify at Kidnap Trial

‘Crockefeller’ to Court: My Ex-Lawyer Said Too Much to the Media

>Sanity an Issue in Parental Kidnapping Case

>

A lawyer for the man who calls himself Clark Rockefeller argued that “pure madness” from a longstanding and worsening mental illness drove his client to kidnap his 7-year-old daughter last summer, and urged jurors to dismiss the diagnosis of a prosecution psychiatrist who found the defendant was legally sane.

Defense attorney Jeffrey A. Denner implored jurors to reject the testimony of Dr. James A. Chu, a clinical psychiatrist. Denner said that Chu’s 2 1/2-hour meeting with the defendant in jail was woefully inadequate for an accurate diagnosis and that Chu was unqualified because he has no forensic background and works mostly as a hospital administrator.

In contrast, he said, the defense’s two mental health witnesses, the psychiatrist Dr. Keith Ablow and psychologist Catherine T.J. Howe, both have extensive training in forensics and spent 28 hours with Rockefeller over 14 separate sessions before diagnosing him with narcissistic personality disorder and grandiose delusions.

Assistant Suffolk District Attorney David A. Deakin urged the jury to look past the “preposterous diagnosis” by the defense experts. Deakin asserted that Rockefeller had never been diagnosed with a mental illness before his arrest in the abduction and is really a “self-centered, controlling, and manipulative man who was angry” at his ex-wife, Sandra Boss, when she won custody of their daughter, Reigh, and moved with her to London in December 2007.

Deakin: “This is not a case about madness. It’s a case about manipulation. Don’t let him get away with that. Don’t let this insanity defense be the culminating manipulation in a lifetime of lies designed to try to get what he wanted.”

Full Article and Source:
Lawyers attack diverging diagnoses

More information:

Doctor says ‘Clark Rockefeller’ faking crazy

First Wife of ‘Clark Rockefeller’ to Testify at Kidnap Trial

‘Crockefeller’ to Court: My Ex-Lawyer Said Too Much to the Media

Forced Chemo

A judge ruled that Daniel Hauser must get medical treatment for his cancer.

Hauser, 13, has refused chemotherapy, against the advice of doctors, in his fight against Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Hauser and his family have instead opted for “alternative medicines” as his treatment.

District Judge John Rodenberg issued a 60-page ruling saying Hauser has been “medically neglected” and is in need of child protection services.

Colleen and Anthony Hauser will maintain custody of their son, but have until May 19 to get an updated chest x-ray for Daniel and select an oncologist.

Full Article and Source:
Daniel Hauser Must Get Cancer Treatment

More information:
The Hauser’s believe that the injection of Chemotherapy into Danny Hauser amounts to an assault upon his body, and torture when it occurs over a long period of time. They believe that it is against the spiritual law to invade the consciousness of another person without their permission.
Forced Chemo – Hauser Family Statement on Ruling

A court-appointed attorney for Daniel, Philip Elbert, called the decision unfortunate. “I feel it’s a blow to families. It marginalizes the decisions that parents face every day in regard to their children’s medical care. It really affirms the role that big government is better at making our decisions for us.”
Minn. judge rules teen must see cancer doctor

>Forced Chemo

>

A judge ruled that Daniel Hauser must get medical treatment for his cancer.

Hauser, 13, has refused chemotherapy, against the advice of doctors, in his fight against Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Hauser and his family have instead opted for “alternative medicines” as his treatment.

District Judge John Rodenberg issued a 60-page ruling saying Hauser has been “medically neglected” and is in need of child protection services.

Colleen and Anthony Hauser will maintain custody of their son, but have until May 19 to get an updated chest x-ray for Daniel and select an oncologist.

Full Article and Source:
Daniel Hauser Must Get Cancer Treatment

More information:
The Hauser’s believe that the injection of Chemotherapy into Danny Hauser amounts to an assault upon his body, and torture when it occurs over a long period of time. They believe that it is against the spiritual law to invade the consciousness of another person without their permission.
Forced Chemo – Hauser Family Statement on Ruling

A court-appointed attorney for Daniel, Philip Elbert, called the decision unfortunate. “I feel it’s a blow to families. It marginalizes the decisions that parents face every day in regard to their children’s medical care. It really affirms the role that big government is better at making our decisions for us.”
Minn. judge rules teen must see cancer doctor

Futile Care Law

Those who want to extend the time some hospital patients may live before their life support is cut off are worried that their proposal is running into a wall at the Capitol.

Legislation by state Rep. Bryan Hughes would require life-sustaining treatment to continue for patients whose condition is deemed futile by doctors until a transfer to another medical facility can be arranged, if their family requests it.

Currently, hospitals can stop life support after 10 days in certain cases if the patient is terminally or irreversibly ill and cannot express treatment wishes.

Hughes: “No other state in the country has a law that Draconian. The balance of power is completely shifted against the patients and the families.”

Hughes’ bill is being pushed by Texas Right to Life and groups for the disabled, including the Coalition of Texans With Disabilities and Not Dead Yet of Texas, also back Hughes’ proposal, as does the American Civil Liberties Union.

Full Article and Source:
Texas legislators fighting futile-care law fear roadblock

More information:
Patients’ Rights Bill Stalled in Texas – Bill Backed by Disability Advocates, Right to Life and ACLU

Texas Lawmakers See Competing Bills to Scrap, Defend 10-Day Futile Care Law

>Futile Care Law

>

Those who want to extend the time some hospital patients may live before their life support is cut off are worried that their proposal is running into a wall at the Capitol.

Legislation by state Rep. Bryan Hughes would require life-sustaining treatment to continue for patients whose condition is deemed futile by doctors until a transfer to another medical facility can be arranged, if their family requests it.

Currently, hospitals can stop life support after 10 days in certain cases if the patient is terminally or irreversibly ill and cannot express treatment wishes.

Hughes: “No other state in the country has a law that Draconian. The balance of power is completely shifted against the patients and the families.”

Hughes’ bill is being pushed by Texas Right to Life and groups for the disabled, including the Coalition of Texans With Disabilities and Not Dead Yet of Texas, also back Hughes’ proposal, as does the American Civil Liberties Union.

Full Article and Source:
Texas legislators fighting futile-care law fear roadblock

More information:
Patients’ Rights Bill Stalled in Texas – Bill Backed by Disability Advocates, Right to Life and ACLU

Texas Lawmakers See Competing Bills to Scrap, Defend 10-Day Futile Care Law