Cancer Doc Wants Feds To Keep Hands Off Email
DETROIT (WWJ/AP) - Lawyers for a Detroit-area cancer specialist are asking a judge to stop prosecutors from using certain emails as evidence at his fraud trial.
Dr. Farid Fata is charged with intentionally misdiagnosing patients and ripping off Medicare through unnecessary treatments. A federal judge is holding a hearing Tuesday in a dispute over evidence.
The government says Fata used a Hotmail account to execute his alleged crimes, including orders to staff and inquiring about a $3 million castle in Lebanon, his native country.
Fata's trial is set for Oct. 14. He owned Michigan Hematology Oncology, which had many offices in suburban Detroit.
According to the government, some of Fata's patients were exposed to powerful drugs over and over, despite having no cancer. In a first superseding indictment, prosecutors say Fata gave one of his patients 155 chemo treatments over two-and-a-half years – even though the patient was cancer-free. Other patients, they say, were pumped with unnecessary blood therapy and iron treatments.
Fata has denied all wrongdoing.
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