Man Claiming to be a Doctor Pulls Off One Million Dollar Scam Directed at Terminally Ill Patients
by Many people diagnosed with a terminal illness are so desperate for the slightest chance of hope that they place trust in anything telling them what they want to hear. Sadly, there are people waiting in line to take advantage of that trust.
Alfred T. Sapse is an 84-year-old man from Las Vegas. He presented himself as a retired foreign physician that had studied at Filatov Institute of Eye Diseases and Tissue Therapy, a prestigious clinic in the Ukraine. It is unclear if he ever actually had a license to practice medicine elsewhere, but he was not and has never been licensed to practice medicine in the United States. But, that did not stop Sapse from forming Stem Cell Pharma Inc. in May 2005.
It turns out that the company was just a ploy to make investors and patients think that he was running a legitimate pharmaceutical company. See one of his press releases here. Here is the company website, which ironically is still up and running.
His plan- to convince patients that he could cure their incurable diseases. Sapse was convincing enough to get over 100 chronically ill patients to undergo experimental stem cell implant procedures. Sapse specifically claimed to be able to extract stem cells from placentas and surgically implant them into the patients’ abdomen as a treatment for multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy, etc… Aside from the fact that Sapse is not a medical doctor, he failed to tell the patients that the procedure could make symptoms worse and/or they could get a life threatening infection.
Sapse hired a pediatrician that did not have any stem cell training to perform 34 of the procedures in 2006. In 2007, Sapse moved to Mexico. There, he hired another physician to perform the procedure on more than 100 additional patients. During all this time, Sapse never followed up with any of the patients, collected any data, performed any laboratory research, or performed any clinical studies. $700,000 of the approximated $1 million dollars in investor and patient funds was spent on gambling and his lavish lifestyle.
Readers will be happy to know that the FDA Criminal Investigation Office arrested Sapse on July 15, 2010. He is charged with seven counts of mail fraud, 13 counts of wire fraud, and criminal forfeiture.
I can not impress upon patients enough….check your doctor out. Do not rely on what he tells you. Look him up on the internet. Search his office for his certifications. Look for published research by the doctor. Most importantly, do not let desperation outweigh your common sense.
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Post CommentCHAN LEE PENG
On July 23, 2010 at 12:26 pm
This was terrible. One should check first before believing someone claimed to be a doctor.