Prosecutors seek $9 million bond for cancer doctor
DETROIT -- If a $170,000 bond sounds too high, try $9 million.
That's the latest predicament facing Farid Fata, the Oakland County, Mich., doctor charged with, among other things, intentionally misdiagnosing healthy patients with cancer and pumping them with chemo to make money.
In a court filing Monday, prosecutors asked a judge to bump up Fata's bond from $170,000 to $9 million, alleging the doctor has more than $9 million in hidden assets stashed away that could be used for a getaway.
But Fata's lawyer argues that the $170,000 bond figure set last week is already too steep, and that his client — who remains locked up — can't cover it.
"Defendant cannot currently pay expenses, salaries or compensation to three physicians, 50 nurse practitioners, medical assistants, clerical and billing staff. This will result in the immediate closure of his business and create significant debt and irreperable financial damage to him and others," Fata's lawyer, Christopher Andreoff, wrote in a filing Monday in U.S. District Court.
In the filing, Andreoff requested Fata's bond be dropped to no more than $25,000, arguing his client is broke because the government has seized or frozen nearly all of his assets. He also asked the court to remove certain bond conditions, including one that would prohibit Fata from practicing medicine while his case is pending, and another that would require him to wear a tether and and be on 24-hour home confinement.
Andreoff argued that his client should still be allowed to practice medicine, noting that neither his license to prescribe medicine nor practice medicine in Michigan have been revoked.
"Consequently, (Fata) should be permitted to continue his medical practice ... since he is presumed to be innocent of the charge until proven otherwise," Andreoff wrote.
The issue will be taken up at a bond hearing Tuesday at 9 a.m. in U.S. District Court.
Andreoff also disputed the government's claims that his client has millions in hidden assets, stating that the money he does have will not cover eight months of expenses for his wife and three children.
The government isn't buying any of it.
"Dr. Fata is a wealthy individual with vast resources at his disposal," federal prosecutors wrote in Monday's filing. "The government's investigation to date has revealed that Dr. Fata has in his or his wife's control over $9 million in assets not yet seized by the government that are either liquid or can be easily cashed out and used to engineer flight from this country."
Fata, 48, is charged with running a $35 million Medicare fraud scheme that involved billing the government for medically unnecessary oncology and hematology treatments and misdiagnosing healthy people with cancer. Fata owns and operates Michigan Hematology Oncology Centers, with several offices in the Detroit area.
According to the government, Fata has a patient load of 1,200 people and has received $62 million from Medicare; he billed for more than $150 million.
Contributing: Zlati Meyer