INQUISITR.COM / News & Politics

Judge Postpones Sentencing Dr. Farid Fata, Extends Deadline For Victim Impact Statements

By Dawn Papple
Published on: 06:07 PST, Jan 27, 2015

Judge Paul D. Borman postponed the sentencing of Farid Fata, the Michigan oncologist from Lebanon who admitted in court to wrongfully and intentionally diagnosing healthy people with cancer in order to collect their insurance money. Some of Fata’s victims died as a result of unwarranted chemotherapy. The sentencing has been postponed, and a new date has not been set yet, according to a federal webpage set up to update the public on Farid Fata’s case.

In the case of “U.S. V. Farid Fata: Court Docket 13-CR-20600,” the judge accepted Victim Impact Statements. They were previously due at the beginning of this month. With the postponement of the sentencing, the federal judge also will be accepting additional and late Victim Impact Statements against Farid Fata. Family members and individuals who were victimized by Farid Fata’s fraudulent and dangerous diagnoses of cancer are encouraged to share their stories with the judge for consideration in sentencing.

Statements provided to Sandy Palazzolo, Victim-Witness Coordinator for the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Michigan, are not inherently considered part of public record, so patients and family members needn’t fear their private health information will fall into public hands, according to court information; however, information found within Sentencing Memorandums can be referenced in court. People filing statements can choose various degrees of anonymity. The National Center for Victims of Crimes has tips for preparing these statements available online.

Farid Fata’s case gained national attention after the previously prominent Michigan cancer doctor methodically followed each admittance of guilt with the statement, “I knew that it was medically unnecessary.” Fata owned Michigan Hematology Oncology, with multiple offices throughout Detroit’s suburbs. The doctor stated his plea in the absence of a plea deal, according to CBS News.

The degree of betrayal felt by his victims, their families, and the public was expressed on his practice’s Google listing and on social media.

“DR. FARID T FATA is a merciless criminal who should be sentenced to death for the unnecessary poisoning that he subjected his patients to, [sic]” one Google user wrote. Comments on a previous Inquisitr story clearly showed that similar sentiments abound about people’s desires for Fata’s sentencing, including wishes that Fata’s sentencing could include unnecessary chemotherapy and torture.

Farid Fata’s wife, Samar Fata, reportedly fled the country to Farid’s native Lebanon with their three children, according to the Lebanese Examiner, which also claimed that in 2010 Fata planned to buy a three million dollar castle in Adma, Lebanon.

U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade said previously that she will ask the judge to sentence Fata to life in prison and called Fata’s case “the most egregious” case of health care fraud she has witnessed. Farid Fata’s new sentencing date will be announced on the court’s website immediately after it is set.

[Photo via the Lebanese Examiner]

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