Over the course of his career, Dr. Farid Fata duped at least 553 patients into undergoing unnecessary or excessive chemotherapy and made over $17 million in fraudulent income. Today, Dr. Fata was sentenced to 45 years in prison.
Arrested in 2013, Fata pleaded guilty in September to charges of healthcare and financial fraud. On Friday in court, he apologized to his victims in tears, stating “I stand before you so ashamed of my actions.” For years, the oncologist totally rejected medicinal ethics by telling healthy patients that they needed extremely painful and expensive chemotherapy and prescribing futile treatment to terminally ill patients, causing them to die in excruciating pain. By billing patients and insurance companies for the medication and treatment, Fata was able to make a great deal of money, at the price of moral insolvency. He used tactics such as intimidation, condescension, and even forgery to conceal his deception when others noticed that something was off.
Many past patients and their relatives believe that the sentence was insufficient, in light of the incredible suffering that his victims experienced and the years that some lost to superfluous chemotherapy. The maximum sentence was 125 years; Christopher Andreoff, Fata’s attorney, asked the judge for 25 years.
It is expected that 50-year-old Fata will spend most or all of his remaining life serving out his sentence.