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This episode of Swindled may contain graphic descriptions or audio recordings of disturbing events which may not be suitable for all audiences. Listener discretion is advised. I can't read small print. I have to use a magnifying glass to see. It's like somebody's flashing bright lights in my eyes. There's times when my eye will burn and hurt so bad that I wish I didn't have an eye there to hurt.
73-year-old Louise Hickman had an obstruction in her left eye, a cataract maybe. Louise said she had to tilt her head and read the newspaper at an angle. So Louise Hickman went to the Gabrielle Eye Institute, closest to her house in South Bend, Indiana. Dr. Gabrielle told her she needed an eye lift procedure to fix her issue. Louise was skeptical but trusted the opinion of the respected ophthalmologist and agreed to the surgery.
when she returned the next day for a follow-up visit. Dr. Gabrielle analyzed his handiwork and delivered the bad news. "Louise, something is wrong," he told her. "We're going to have to do it again."
So Louise Hickman had a second surgery which also proved ineffective. In fact, Louise described to Dr. Gabrielle how her condition had actually worsened. Now she had double vision which prevented her from reading any small print without a magnifying glass. She was also seeing flashing lights on occasion and she could no longer cry out of her left eye because of a film that developed around it that she constantly had to clear.
Dr. Gabrielle recommended that Louise see a different specialist, and she did. The new doctor performed a third operation on her eye, only to discover that there was so much scar tissue from the previous surgeries that a wrinkle had developed in her retina. The only solution Louise remembered the doctor telling her was to "remove the eyeball to cut out the wrinkle, then put the eyeball back in."
Louise Hickman opted out. She accepted her fate. She would just have to live out her remaining years with one good eye. A few weeks later, a visitor knocked on Louise Hickman's door. It was an investigator with the Indiana Attorney General's Office. He had a badge and a medical chart, and he asked if he could come inside.
The investigator explained that an outside doctor had reviewed her files and determined that she never needed those surgeries. He told Louise that she was one of 18,000 cases they were investigating, all patients of Dr. Philip Gabrielle. I'm 73 years old. I haven't got that much longer to put up with poor vision in my one eye. But when I think you might have done this to children, I actually cry.
because what can they do dr phil gabrielle was the founder of the gabrielle eye institute an ophthalmology clinic with three locations in northeastern indiana near the michigan border philip's wife marcy also worked at the clinic behind the scenes they met in college at thomas jefferson university in philadelphia they had been inseparable ever since and had left a positive impression on their community
Phil was nicknamed Doughboy because his laugh sounded like the Pillsbury character. Marcy was an avid collector of Betty Boop memorabilia. Together they were award-winning ballroom dancers and massive animal lovers. The couple did not have children, but they did have three Siamese cats whom they adored more than anything else on Earth. Their names were Lynxie, Chrissy, and Hannah. It was a quaint little life that was soon turned upside down.
On May 10, 2007, federal agents from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, along with officials from the Indiana Attorney General's Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, raided the Gabrielle's home and clinics at 7.30 a.m. No arrests were made, but a significant number of documents were seized.
The investigation plodded along for the next two years. The Gabriels felt like they were living under the constant threat of indictment. At one point, they were even offered a plea bargain. If Philip pleaded guilty, Marcy could walk, the feds promised. The couple refused because they maintained they had done nothing wrong.
So on Friday, June 12, 2009, Philip and Marcella Gabrielle were formally indicted by a federal grand jury charged with 15 counts including healthcare fraud, wire fraud, making false statements, and conspiracy. Dr. Gabrielle was accused of falsely diagnosing patients with visual ailments to convince them that surgery was needed. In some cases, the patients had no serious issues whatsoever.
Even if they did, Dr. Gabriel wouldn't have known, because investigators alleged he had failed to perform the most basic diagnostic tests and procedures to determine if surgery was actually required. There were cases where he was replacing patients' perfectly healthy lenses with artificial lenses. Some of the patients were children. They were all billed the same.
Marcy Gabrielle would record false data on patients' charts to support these "medically necessary procedures." She'd also alter the results of post-LASIK surgery vision tests to support the clinic's false advertising claims of a 100% success rate.
Not true, the Gabriels maintained. They released a public statement, quote, The Gabriels agreed to turn themselves into authorities on the following Monday, June 15, 2009.
However, when that day arrived, Sue Manusak woke up to a voicemail from Phil Gabrielle. Sue was the Gabrielle's best friend and cat breeder. She was alarmed by what she had heard. On the recording, Phil said he and Marcy couldn't take any more pain. He said they were done fighting. He said that the cats were at home and that he and Marcy could be found at the Elkhart office.
Manoussac immediately called the police, to Gabrielle's lawyer and Marcy's brother who had a key to the building. They all convened at the Elkhart clinic around 9:20 am. As soon as the door was unlocked, they heard a gunshot and the police rushed in. They found Dr. Philip Gabrielle's lifeless body on the ground with a single gunshot wound to his head.
Marcy's body was nearby with multiple gunshot wounds to the chest. Later that day, the local CBS affiliate WBST received a letter from the Gabriels addressed to the station's general manager.
The Gabrielles' letter included a list of thank yous to their lawyers, medical professionals, and patients who supported them in the face of a quote, unjust indictment, for which there was quote, Continuing the fight was not an option for them anymore. The Gabrielles explained in the note,
Once a criminal indictment is filed against a physician, they read, his or her medical career is, in all practical senses, finished. If we can't provide care, our purpose is gone. Another reason they were giving up, the Gabriels wrote, is because they had exhausted all of their resources. Sumanusak later revealed the couple's legal fees had exceeded $2.5 million. They were having trouble paying their bills.
We both have been blessed with the knowledge of why God put us here. That is to help people see. Seeing that our medical work in this regard is done, our last act hopefully will open the eyes of a country to a federal legal system that entails far too much power to local officials without appropriate oversight. Exonerations of doctors has done nothing to change this. Hopefully investigation into this case may
Regardless, we have chosen not to participate in this travesty any longer. In conclusion, we wish to thank you all again. We are at peace with our decision." The following day, employees and patients held a vigil at the Gabrielle Eye Institute's Elkhart office where the bodies were found. "I think he was innocent," Barbara Copeland told the Times of Northwest Indiana. "I don't care what anybody says. The man's just a decent human being.
William O'Brien, a 90-year-old former patient of Dr. Gabriel's, felt differently. O'Brien told the Times he was never informed that an infection had developed in his eye after surgery at the clinic. "He knew my eye was infected, but he wasn't telling me," O'Brien said. "The only reason I found out was from the pharmacist when picking up the medication Dr. Gabriel had prescribed for me."
In response to the Gabriels taking their own lives, William O'Brien had his own theory. The Gabriels best friend, Suma Nusak, just couldn't believe it. She said the couple weren't driven by money. They drove old cars, lived in a fixer-upper. None of it made sense.
As for why the couple chose to kill themselves at the office, Sue assumed it was because of their cats. They wouldn't have done anything to upset the cats. On July 17th, 2009, a federal judge formally dismissed the fraud and conspiracy charges against Phil and Marcy Gabrielle since they were, you know, dead.
But charges against the organization remained. And in October 2009, the recently shuttered Gabrielle Eye Institute pleaded guilty to making false statements in connection with the delivery and payment of health care benefits and was ordered to pay more than $205,000 in restitution. And that's how one of Indiana's most sensational health care fraud cases concluded, with a premature finale and an unestablished motive. I know, I'm disappointed too.
Luckily for us, at the same time, the final act of Indiana's most notorious case of healthcare fraud was just beginning to bloom in a tent on a mountain in a resort town in northwestern Italy. A renowned ear, nose, and throat surgeon vanishes when multiple accusations of malpractice begin to surface on this episode of Swindled.
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Michelle Kramer nearly lost a leg when she was 13 years old after a drunk driver ran her over.
Ever since, she has been infatuated with doctors. They were like superheroes without the capes put on Earth to aid its hapless inhabitants. That infatuation formed the basis of Michelle's initial attraction to the older man in the black satin shirt who had approached her at Club Glow in Chicago in 1999. He said his name was Mark S. Weinberger.
Dr. Mark S. Weinberger. He was a 36-year-old, twice-divorced, Ivy League-educated ear, nose, and throat specialist who was raised in Westchester County, New York. The son of a physicist, a philosophy major who graduated from UCLA's David Geffen School of Medicine before accepting a prestigious fellowship at the University of Illinois at Chicago, his skills were unmatched.
Dr. Weinberger told Michelle Kramer that he still lived in Chicago, but he had opened his own practice a decade earlier in Merrillville, Indiana, about an hour away. It was a calculated decision. Northwest Indiana was rife with steel mills and oil refineries, and because of the pollution, there were thousands of blue-collar workers and nearby residents with sinus problems, and most of them had union-sponsored health insurance. Dr. Weinberger was already earning more than $1 million a year.
Michelle Kramer wasn't impressed by his wealth. She came from a middle-class family and she had her own ambitions. The 25-year-old graduate student was pursuing a PhD in psychology and working as a counselor at a Chicago hospital. Mark and Michelle had plenty of nerdy things to discuss and bond over besides material possessions.
Within a month of meeting, the couple moved in together. They were engaged in less than a year. Mark Weinberger had planned an extensive proposal in Rome. He'd always had a thing for Italy. In fact, Mark Weinberger and Michelle Kramer were planning to get married there, but then Michelle's father got cancer. The diagnosis was grim, so they moved the wedding to Chicago so her father could attend.
Mark Weinberger wasn't happy about the change. Michelle told Vanity Fair that her soon-to-be husband pushed back, "You can't let dying people change what the living are going to do." But he relented, and the newlyweds eventually had a party in Italy anyway for their third wedding celebration. Just a few months after they married, Michelle Kramer's father died. She was paralyzed with grief and also disturbed by Mark's complete lack of concern.
"He didn't really seem to be able to empathize," she told Marie Claire magazine. "It was like he was just going through the motions." Michelle told the magazine that she rationalized his behavior away, telling herself he was just a typical self-centered guy.
Mark was just highly driven, charming but dismissive, and blunt, yet a complete mystery. It reminds me, we were swimming from the boat to a beach at one point with our dog, and I was struggling, and I felt like I couldn't make it the whole way. And he turned around and he looked at me, and he just kept beelining for the shore. And there was no sense of, he's going to come back and help me. And we were married at that point, and I remember thinking, who are you?
Dr. Mark Weinberger was a local celebrity. The interstates in northwest Indiana were plastered with billboards for the Weinberger Sinus Clinic. He referred to himself in the ads as the Nose Doctor. He had a flashy website and a toll-free phone number to his office. 1-800-SINUSES. Business was booming.
In 2002, Dr. Weinberger expanded his practice by building a state-of-the-art clinic in Maryville. According to his own marketing materials, the office quote, "defines the cutting edge of technology in nose and sinus care." Dr. Weinberger spent the last 10 years planning, designing, and building the first digitally integrated subspecialty clinic dedicated exclusively to nose and sinus care.
All the diagnostic and treatment technology is integrated into a single system through a customized network and software designed by Dr. Weinberger with the goal of providing the safest, most effective, and most comfortable sinus care anywhere. Dr. Weinberger was one of the only ear, nose, and throat doctors with an in-house CAT scan machine. His father, Fred Weinberger, had loaned him $1 million to buy it.
Mark could have easily paid him back. The Weinberger Sinus Clinic raked in almost $30 million over the next three years. But he never did. Once he opened a surgery center, things exploded financially. It became private jets, it was like a rap video.
In November 2002, the Weinbergers purchased a $2.4 million five-story townhouse condo in the historic Gold Coast neighborhood of Chicago. There was an elevator, but Mark kept a laptop and a cell phone in every room because he didn't want to waste his time retrieving them. Mark Weinberger didn't like wasting time at all. Michelle told Vanity Fair that when a waitstaff or cashier handed her husband change, he would just throw it on the ground.
You can imagine how he treated the maids, private chefs, personal trainers, and massage therapists he employed. Not to mention the attendance on the private flight service the Weinbergers frequently used, or the staff that maintained their $4 million 80-foot yacht on which Mark and Michelle would spend 10 days a month traversing the seas. Sometimes they'd go to Europe, other times they'd visit the Bahamas where Mark had purchased some undeveloped property.
We had a private jet, we had an 80-foot yacht, we had a five-story townhouse, a brigade of drivers, 10-day trips a month to the Mediterranean or the Caribbean, ridiculous shopping sprees. We had private drivers. He hired chauffeurs and he had a fleet of different cars, Mercedes and an SUV, and he would have his sushi lunches even chauffeured out to him that were made from one of the best sushi restaurants in Chicago.
Dr. Weinberger also hired a personal chauffeur to drive him the hour to his office in Maryville and back. The driver often had to turn around immediately and head back to Chicago to pick up sushi from Mark's favorite restaurant in time for the doctor's lunch. Since we're on the topic, Dr. Weinberger would reportedly scold his female nurses for their meal choices. If they ate pizza, he would warn them with disgust that they were getting too fat. Mark Weinberger also monitored his wife's weight.
Meanwhile, Michelle was still grieving her father and studying for exams. Mark was more concerned about other things. She said one night at a restaurant, no less, he handed her a pornographic DVD of tips on how to give more enthusiastic head.
It was Mark Weinberg's world. Everyone else was just on their knees. The doctor's ego was a bit out of control, Michelle Kramer had to admit, but she genuinely loved him. And admittedly, she enjoyed the trappings of wealth.
Even when it came in the form of a $1,000 weekly marital allowance paid in cash on the kitchen counter like a high-end escort. There's no such thing as a free lunch, as they say. But they also say life is short. So, it's entirely okay to enjoy the finer things in life. Live deliciously, we beg you. But please,
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Your first visit to Dr. Weinberger was the beginning of September of 2011? Right, that would have been about September. And that was great because he said, "Well, no problem, that's probably sinuses." And he had this little thing that he could put up my nose to kind of drain the sinuses and that did help a little bit. And plus, I was having a lot of problems money-wise because I didn't... I had very bad insurance.
Phyllis Barnes began experiencing difficulty breathing and swallowing in the summer of 2001. The 47-year-old lifelong smoker had been dealing with a sore throat and hoarseness for months. Sometimes she would even cough up blood.
Phyllis went to see Dr. Mark Weinberger, the nose doctor from the billboards, on September 6, 2001. He performed a CT scan on her right there in his impressive facility and found that Phyllis' sinuses were crowded with nasal polyps. Dr. Weinberger recommended endoscopic surgery to remove them. Phyllis Barnes found relief in the fact that Weinberger actually had a plan. The doctor she had visited previously thought her issue might be allergy-related, but it wasn't.
On October 11, 2001, Dr. Mark Weinberger performed a Caldwell-Luck procedure on Phyllis Barnes. Instead of the more modern approach of widening the sinus passages, Weinberger opted to drill new openings in Phyllis' skull behind her cheekbones to allow the mucus to drain more efficiently. He promised her it would provide indescribable relief.
But it didn't. On a follow-up visit, Phyllis Barnes told Dr. Weinberger that her problems persisted. Weinberger reportedly dismissed her concerns and said she just needed to give the surgery time to work. So Phyllis tried that, but her condition only worsened. "It felt like somebody was hanging me by a rope," she later said. Phyllis worried that she might have pneumonia because she could feel it in her lungs now.
Unfortunately, Mark Weinberger was an ear, nose and throat doctor, not an ear, nose, throat and lungs doctor. He suggested she try a different specialist. What he told me is he could not treat me. And I remember that very clearly because I was like, "What else am I supposed to see if I can't heal? You're my doctor. I mean, what else am I supposed to do? I'm sick."
A few weeks later, in December 2001, Phyllis Barnes was gasping for breath at home. Her 16-year-old daughter, Shawn, had to call an ambulance. At the hospital, Phyllis learned that sinuses were the least of her worries. Doctors found a large tumor in her larynx. Phyllis Barnes was diagnosed with stage 4 throat cancer, a condition that even the most novice ear, nose, and throat doctor should have been able to recognize months ago.
Unfortunately, Dr. Mark Weinberger had not bothered to give Phyllis Barnes a throat exam at all. He simply ordered a CAT scan on her sinuses and immediately recommended surgery within minutes of meeting her. Nor had he bothered to visit her directly after the surgery. Dr. Weinberger didn't have time. According to Vanity Fair, he reportedly saw more than 100 patients a day, spending an average of three minutes with each of them, even though the average ENT exam was supposed to last 20 minutes.
After her diagnosis, Phyllis Barnes had emergency surgery to remove her vocal cords and voice box. She had additional surgeries to get a voice prosthesis. From now on, Phyllis would only be able to speak through a hole in her neck. I know my voice does not sound normal and I don't like to listen to my voice on the answering machine.
In October 2002, Phyllis Barnes sued Dr. Mark Weinberger and her previous doctor for failing to diagnose her cancer and carrying out an unnecessary operation on her sinuses that was paid for by her insurance company. In the filings, her lawyer, Kenneth J. Allen, wrote, "...with such obvious abnormality, Dr. Weinberger would almost have had to intentionally ignore this situation in order to have missed it as badly as he did."
Phyllis Barnes realized her days were numbered. The lawsuit wasn't for her. It was for her daughter, Shawn, a soon-to-be orphan. Shawn's father had died from brain cancer just months earlier. What's your biggest concern in life? That's my daughter. I am my only daughter. My daughter's only surviving parent. I just want to make sure that she goes to school. I just want to be able to live and see those things happen.
Phyllis Barnes was not able to see those things happen. She died on September 16, 2004, at age 50. Sean Barnes inherited a small life insurance payout and the family mortgage. In time, the lawsuit would proceed. And that lawsuit bothered Mark Weinberger, but probably for all the wrong reasons. The months following, his stress level shot through the roof, and he became increasingly paranoid.
Mark's moods would swing violently and rapidly. He started snapping at patients and retreating to his office for long periods of time, and just overall appeared more disheveled.
He installed video cameras in every room. He asked Michelle how she felt about dropping everything and moving to an island.
She thought he was joking. I mean, she knew about the Phyllis Barnes lawsuit, but she took her husband's word for it that it was nothing. Just the result of ambulance chasing lawyers and jealous doctors. Mark told her that he was being targeted for his success and wealth and that he planned to battle it out in court. And Michelle believed him. He wasn't a lousy doctor, she told Marie Claire. The man I married wouldn't hurt people.
Oh yes he would. That's according to the lawyers who represented a seemingly endless amount of patients whom Dr. Mark Weinberger had mistreated.
Patients like William Boyer, an amateur boxer turned heavy equipment operator who, like Phyllis Barnes, had new holes drilled into his skull. The surgery did nothing to alleviate his condition. Boyer said he agreed to the operation after Weinberger showed him images of bloody, pus-filled polyps in the sinuses. Images that were later determined to have been completely phony.
Patient Marzetta Williams of Gary, Indiana underwent the same procedure. Weinberger blamed her persistent cough on polyps and a deviated septum. After the surgery proved ineffective, Williams saw a different doctor who discovered that she was just allergic to dust mites and that the operations performed on her were utterly unnecessary.
Dr. Mark Weinberger even performed his unnecessary outdated sinus surgery on children like 9-year-old Kayla Thomas. Even though 9-year-olds do not have fully formed sinus cavities and rarely do they have polyps large enough to require surgery,
As the trend goes, Kayla's mother took her daughter to a different doctor when the condition persisted. The other doctor found that Kayla's condition was the result of a brain tumor. A brain tumor that could not be fully removed because of the scar tissue left behind by the Weinberger surgery. Dr. Mark Weinberger performed hundreds, potentially thousands of completely unnecessary sinus surgeries. He mutilated people for money, a lawyer later said, describing Weinberger's practice.
But to be fair, sometimes Dr. Mark Weinberger didn't do anything at all. Sometimes he would simply put the patient under, let them wake up, and then bill insurance companies for a list of operations that would be physically impossible to complete in the appointment's allotted time slot. And there was no one to stop him. Dr. Weinberger was the only surgeon in the building. He performed the CAT scans himself. There was no separation of duties, no second opinions, no one around who would question him.
According to court documents, at least 90% of the patients who came to see Merrillville's famous nose doc were recommended surgery during their very first appointment. But now Dr. Mark Weinberger's game was over. He realized that for certain in the summer of 2004 when a lawyer started requesting patient files. It was only a matter of time and the countdown had begun.
Michelle Kramer wasn't privy to the extent of Mark's troubles but says in retrospect she could feel her husband pulling away. He was entirely in his own head and disconnected. She said he barely showed any emotion when she miscarried after five months of pregnancy.
But that's also kind of just who he had always been. And he would do other things to make up for his emotional shortcomings. For instance, he told Michelle he wanted to plan a last-minute trip to Greece on the yacht to celebrate her 30th birthday. He told her to invite a few friends and promised her an experience that, quote, only movie stars have. We were supposed to stay on our yacht and have this huge blowout birthday celebration. Everybody was just really excited.
They set sail on September 18th, 2004, two days after Phyllis Barnes died. They docked in Mykonos on September 23rd. Michelle Kramer says she'll never forget that night. She said before bed, Mark asked her, "You really do love me, don't you?" "Of course I do," she replied. Then Mark clicked his wedding ring against hers as he routinely would and whispered, "Never say bye-bye." When Michelle woke up at 6:00 a.m. the next morning, Mark Weinberger was gone.
She assumed he went for an early morning jog in the city, but after a few hours she began to worry. She thought maybe he had broken an ankle or got hit by a car or who knows. Michelle put on her own running shoes and went looking for him. She checked certain shops and cafes. There was no sign of him. Michelle Kramer returned to the docked yacht and found the ship's captain. "Oh yeah, I know where Mark is," the man assured her. He said he was flying to Paris for the day to pick up your birthday present.
How exciting, Michelle thought. But when the sun set and Mark Weinberger still had not returned, she started getting that sinking feeling. The following day, Michelle was able to track down the phone number for the Greek cell phone Mark sometimes used. She called it from an unfamiliar number. "Hello," the chipper voice on the other end answered. "Mark?" Michelle asked and waited. Silence. And then he hung up. "It was supposed to be like one of the best trips of my life and it turned out to be a nightmare."
When Michelle Kramer realized her husband, Dr. Mark Weinberger, was not coming back, she started searching the yacht for clues.
Inside the safe, Michelle found her passport and 1,000 euros, which was not even close to covering the $40,000 in docking fees Greek officials were saying she owed. The boat was seized. Michelle had to borrow money from her friends and family to get a flight home. Back in Chicago, living in the empty condo was creepy. Weeks passed with no sign of Mark, no explanation.
After a few months, Michelle Kramer felt compelled to defend her missing husband since he wasn't around to defend himself. She spoke out publicly through the Chicago Tribune. "He really cared about his patients," Michelle told the newspaper. "His attitude was that he was already convicted."
Michelle Kramer also used the opportunity to issue a plea to Mark. "If he would just contact me, we can work this out," she said. "I would do anything to help him. I hope he's safe and I still love him. We can relocate. We can live on an island in a hut. I don't care. And I don't know if he realizes that. It's a nightmare," Michelle continued. "I hope I wake up and my life goes back to the way it was two months ago, but it never would."
As more time passed, reality began to set in for Michelle Kramer. From the information she had gathered, it was obvious Mark Weinberger had been planning to do this and he was never coming back. Perhaps the fact that she found a book he left behind called "How to Be Invisible" was a dead giveaway, but she still wanted to know why. Michelle went to Mark's office and collected the scraps from his paper shredder. She spent three days piecing all the documents together.
She had learned he had recently traded cash for diamonds up to as much as $1 million. In addition, she found a handwritten note of the name of a hotel in Paris. Michelle also heard about a room at his clinic where Mark had been storing dozens of shipments in recent months. It was obviously camping equipment: backpacks, sleeping mats, outdoor cutlery, and such. Dr. Weinberger's employees had started referring to it among themselves as "the scary room."
Dr. Weinberger's employees also shared that he had taken over the company's bookkeeping in recent months. In retrospect, with the consolidated information, it was pretty clear that he did not want to be found. But Michelle Kramer was not giving up, and she was hot on his trail.
Michelle had obtained Mark's credit card statements. There were $50,000 in new charges for hotels and casinos in Monaco and France. She immediately hopped on a plane, but when Michelle arrived at the hotel in Paris, she was informed that the man she was looking for had left the day before. She had just missed him. Michelle Kramer spent her 30th birthday alone in Paris before returning home.
Michelle took a second trip to France a few weeks later, this time with more anger. She told Marie Claire that she bought a wig and handcuffs from a sex shop and crawled every bar in Paris. If she found them, she planned to handcuff him to a pole or something and call the police. "In a crazy situation, you can either retreat and give up or act crazy to survive," she told the magazine. Again, Mark Weinberger was nowhere to be found.
Kenneth J. Allen, the lawyer representing the family of Phyllis Barnes in the malpractice lawsuit, was assisting in the search. He hired a private investigator to follow up on reports that Weinberger was in China and rumors that he was on his way to Israel, which does not extradite American Jews. That private investigator came back empty-handed. Other rumors suggested that the doctor's wife, Michelle Kramer, was somehow assisting in his escape.
Other rumors suggested that maybe she'd killed him, but that gossip fizzled quickly when people realized that Michelle had been victimized herself. Mark Weinberger had left his wife saddled with $6 million in debt and drained their shared checking accounts. The house was repossessed through foreclosure. His remaining assets were eventually auctioned off. Michelle filed for bankruptcy and filed for divorce.
Mark's father, Fred Weinberger, who had apparently lent his son his last million dollars, also filed for bankruptcy. Fred asked the court-appointed receiver of his son's assets to repay the loan plus interest, but was denied. Quote,
Not that the company had any assets left either. Weinberger had allegedly siphoned $2 million from his business, leaving only $7,000 in the checking account. The Weinberger Sinus Clinic was forced to close its doors, and over 40 people lost their jobs.
In absentia, Dr. Mark Weinberger's medical license was permanently revoked by the state of Indiana in 2005. In total, nearly 350 patients filed malpractice lawsuits against him, alleging that he had performed unnecessary surgeries on them. In 2006, Mark Weinberger was indicted by a federal grand jury for 22 counts of health care fraud for billing the insurance companies for procedures never performed.
But still, nobody knew where Mark Weinberger was hiding. Michelle Kramer didn't care anymore. She had spread awareness about her missing ex-husband on major media programs like The Oprah Winfrey Show and Larry King Live. She also successfully pushed for the story to be covered on America's Most Wanted, but then she moved on with her life.
Michelle resumed her pursuit of a PhD in psychology, probably more interested than ever. She moved to Alabama for an internship to work with injured war veterans. Michelle spent 12 hours a day with the patients. It helped put things in perspective.
Then randomly, on an exceptionally cold day in December 2009, Michelle received a phone call from a producer at America's Most Wanted. They told me to sit down, that they had some really big news. And at that point, I felt like I was punched in the stomach. And then I just sat down and tears started pouring out of my eyes. And I couldn't figure out if they were tears of anger or joy. And I called my mother and let her know that it was over and that he was caught.
Sometime in early 2009, Monica Spiconia met Mark Stern at the tiny grocery store where she worked in Courmayeur, a resort town in northwest Italy at the foot of Mont Blanc, the highest peak in the Alps. The long-haired American, who had shopped there on more than one occasion, seemed to share Monica's passion for music and outdoor activities.
Mark Stern told her that he was a divorced Wall Street stockbroker who had served his time in the rat race and got out as soon as he could afford to. He was no longer a slave to money. In fact, Mark didn't even own a bank account. He paid for everything with cash. Now, Mark explained to Monica, he was living a simple, stress-free life. He ended up in Cormier by essentially throwing a dart at a map, he said. That's freedom, so...
Let's ski. Mark Stern and Monica Spiconia fell in love quickly. She felt safe with Mark because he didn't even blink an eye when he discovered Monica was transgender.
And Monica was perfect for him because she didn't blink an eye when he told her that he planned to live in the mountains by himself in a tent for the summer to write a book about survival.
Of course, he would still see her when he hiked into town for food or supplies. Sometimes Monica would visit Mark at one of his three base camps on the mountain. This is my little city I started building. Yeah. Okay, so this is base camp here. And that is the planned expansion over there. So the city is growing a little.
After Mark Stern survived the summer, he had the urge to stay even longer, through the fall and into the winter. It was exhilarating, but Monica soon found out that there was another explanation. On December 10, 2009, Monica Spiconia's friend sent a link to the America's Most Wanted website. There was a profile of a wanted man named Dr. Mark Weinberger. He looked just like her boyfriend, Mark Stern.
"My whole world collapsed," Monica told Vanity Fair. After giving it some thought, she decided to turn him in. It wasn't the first time the local police had heard the name. A few months earlier, an angry landlord had contacted them because Mark Weinberger had stopped paying rent on his apartment. And as part of the application process, the rental company had made a photocopy of the man's passport.
Mark Weinberger had used his real passport. Monica confirmed it was the same man and told police exactly where they could find him on Mont Blanc. After waiting out the severe weather, the police set off in a snowmobile searching for Mark Weinberger. Climbers and mountain guides were happy to point them in the right direction of the crazy man camping in sub-zero temperatures.
When they found his camp, the police approached the man and asked for identification. Mark Weinberger was cooperative. He told them he was a 46-year-old divorced surgeon who just wanted to live a quiet life. He willingly let them take him into custody. At the police station, Weinberger asked to use the bathroom. He sat on the toilet in front of an officer standing guard who couldn't prevent Weinberger from producing a hidden knife and slashing his own throat.
The expert surgeon narrowly missed his own jugular and survived. While recovering in the hospital, Weinberger also tried pulling a plastic bag over his head to end it all, but failed. He would actually have to face the misery he had left in his wake.
And a fugitive doctor from Indiana known as the Nose Doctor has been found living in the Italian Alps. Dr. Mark Weinberger had been on the run for five years. He's accused of actually scheming to overbill insurance companies for procedures that were either not needed or sometimes they weren't even performed. Police say he stabbed himself in the neck when he was arrested. He's under medical supervision at the prison ward in an Italian hospital right now as we speak.
Mark S. Weinberger was extradited to the United States on February 25, 2010. In October 2010, he pleaded guilty to all 22 healthcare fraud charges against him. Damages were estimated at $318,000. Specifically, you would bill private health benefit providers for procedures costing between $16,740 and $2,600 that were not in fact performed
on various private health benefit customers. Do you want me to run through each? I understand what they're alleging. Okay. If the judge accepted his plea, Weinberger would receive a maximum of only four years in prison. His victims were outraged. Such a lenient sentence would be a travesty. The judge was still deciding. In the meantime, lawsuits involving almost 350 former patients were moving forward.
The reality is Dr. Weinberger was a fraud. He was unnecessarily so a fraud, I should say, because Dr. Weinberger had a practice where he was making up to $200,000 a week with surgery, living on the Gold Coast, commuting with a chauffeur-driven limousine, jaunting in the Mediterranean on his 80-foot yacht with his wife. All of that
inexplicably, inexplicably, that greed is what caused us to be here today. We're looking forward to having Dr. Weinberger held accountable for his
In March 2011, Phyllis Barnes' lawsuit against Weinberger and a previous physician assistant was finally heard by a jury.
The family of Phyllis Barnes was seeking millions in medical bills, projected lost lifetime earnings, loss of affection and motherly love, and millions more in punitive damages. Kenneth Allen, the lawyer representing the Barnes family, argued that Dr. Mark Weinberger was responsible for Phyllis' death because he missed an obvious diagnosis. Had Weinberger done his job, Phyllis could have received treatment earlier and might still be alive today.
Weinberger's defense disagreed. Billis probably would have died anyway, they argued.
Mark Weinberger was deposed for the case but pleaded the fifth 150 times. On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer based upon my Fifth Amendment privilege. After six days of trial, the jury returned a verdict. Mark Weinberger was found liable. The other defendant was not. The Barnes family was awarded $3 million in compensatory damages and $10 million in punitive damages.
later reduced to Indiana statutory cap for malpractice suits of $1.25 million and $9 million respectively. This is what you deserve. You got what you deserve. And the reality is we're going to collect it from you one way or the other, brother. That's what I'd say to Mark Weinberger.
Weinberger's insurance companies were on the hook for a small portion of the damages, but they tried to fight it. The insurance companies claimed they were absolved of their obligations since Weinberger fled the country. Eventually, a judge would have to decide. Also, the state of Indiana would collect a vast portion of the punitive damages to fund the Victim Compensation Fund, which would help pay Weinberger's other victims since his assets were depleted long ago.
In other words, it would take a while before Sean Barnes saw a payout from the verdict, but the accountability was still sweet. Having this verdict come out in our favor, kind of, it doesn't justify what she went through, but it at least puts...
Wienberger's victims scored another win a month later when the judge rejected the plea deal in this criminal case. Wienberger earned $27 million over three years and was only being charged on 22 counts for $318,000.
"That's a rather strong income take for one doctor," the judge said. "Based on that and other cases, I'm not confident the scope of fraud was limited to the 22 counts the government investigated.
The judge also acknowledged the outrage of the victims but reminded them that it should be settled in a civil setting. This case has nothing to do with how good of a doctor the defendant was or wasn't, he said. This is simply an insurance fraud case. Nothing more, nothing less. Weinberger believes that he's the smartest man in the room and today he discovered he's not.
Mark Weinberger agreed to a revised plea deal shortly after that capped his sentence at 10 years instead of 4. He was sentenced on October 12, 2012. For the first time since his capture, Weinberger spoke in public. "I'm sorry. I lied. I stole. I betrayed a sacred trust. I have no excuse. There is no excuse. I let so many people down.
Mark Weinberger was sentenced to seven years in prison. He was released in five. Mark was last spotted living in Florida, playing with crypto and still calling himself a doctor. He was now known as the "Yoga Doctor."
Yeah, you and every other weird old man at the park. For real though, Mark Weinberger is selling an online class called Superhero Yoga Moves for Dorks. It costs $197 and will help you quote, This is not an endorsement by the way. I haven't tried it. But clearly, he is on a new path.
Mark Weinberger's victims have tried to create new paths of their own. In 2013, the bulk of the civil lawsuits were settled for a total of $66 million, which came out to about $195,000 each. I guess that's what our dignity is worth. Now we know. The real victims are not the banks or the insurance company that was defrauded. The real victims are the people that were harmed.
Swindled is written, researched, produced, and hosted by me, a concerned citizen, with original music by Trevor Howard, a.k.a. Deformer, a.k.a. The Scary Room. For more information about Swindled, you can visit swindledpodcast.com and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and TikTok at swindledpodcast. Or you can send us a postcard at PO Box 6044, Austin, Texas 78762. But please, no packages. We do not trust you.
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My name is Christopher from Durham, North Carolina. My name's Oscar from Indiana. My name is Ohio Furfur, and you might have guessed, I am from Ohio, and I'm a very concerned citizen and a valued person.
I just bring on the corrupt MFers. I just had it with them and love the way you bring them out to our attention. Have a good summer. Bye. In fact, I can figure out how to say it with you.
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