Friday 30 September 2022 10:48 PM NYC doctor faces prison for $31M insurance scheme where he did surgery on ... trends now
A New York City doctor pleaded guilty to being part of an evil scheme that involved performing unnecessary surgery on poor and destitute patients, some of whom were drug addicts, in order to scam insurance companies.
Dr. Sady Ribeiro, 72, a pain-management doctor and surgeon, pleaded guilty Thursday to one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud in relation to a convoluted insurance scheme that earned him millions.
Ribeiro follows Adrian Alexander, 77, in pleading guilty to the scam.
Alexander was the owner of a litigation funding company who was also at the head of the trip-and-fall scheme, which enticed more than 400 homeless- and drug-addicted patients to submit to surgeries they did not need so that the men could take payouts from the insurance companies.
According to a federal indictment, Ribeiro and Alexander spearheaded an extensive insurance fraud scheme through which participants staged trip-and-fall accidents and subsequently filed fraudulent lawsuits that enriched both men to the tune of $31 million.
Emergency Medical Technicians help an elderly homeless man off the street and into an ambulance on Canal Street in Lower Manhattan
The NYC homeless crisis has increased significantly in recent years
Homeless people in New York were targeted by Ribeiro and his colleagues to become fraudulent patients participating in their insurance scheme
Ribeiro performed unnecessary surgeries on close to 200 destitute patients
Ribeiro and Alexander recruited patients to stage or falsely claim to have fallen at locations across New York City; the accident sites would frequently be at places like sidewalk cellar doors, potholes and cracks in city sidewalks.
The patients were then directed to specific personal injury attorneys who filed fraudulent lawsuits against the site owners or their insurance companies. The patients were also instructed to receive ongoing medical care and chiropractic treatment from specific medical professionals, including Ribeiro.
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