from the following link:
http://thestraights.com/news/index-page2.htm[NOTE: I believe that Michael, whose posts I have pasted below, is from Canada.]
Editorial: Tips from Micheal. The Alberta Adolescent Recovery Centre in Calgary, Canada (AARC) was to be Miller Newton's first foray, as far as we know, outside of the United States. Dr. Newton never opened AARC, but Dr. Dean Vause, a man trained at his KIDS' facility in New Jersey, did open AARC and continues to operate it today. The AARC Discussion Forum is a forum of former AARC clients. In January 2002 an anonymous poster named Micheal made a series of postings to that discussion forum which we think might be of interest to our readers and so we snagged those posts and reprinted them here. As of April 6, 2002 we do not know who Micheal is and what his qualifications are, other than what he proffers in his postings. We do not necessarily agree with the statements put forth by Michael. They are provided for educational purposes only.
Micheal (1/18/02 2:02:26 pm). Another point of view - a matter of justice. I have observed that there are many on this board who are interested in stopping the abuse at this facility, which I have heard a lot about. It is a familiar story to me: powerful connections, many reported abuses, etc., etc.
I want to share some experiences with you in the hopes that they may be helpful, not as a victim but as a justice officer. I have worked on many cases involving addiction and other similar mental health facilities across North America. I have encountered every type of abuse and fraud known to man and have successfully assisted law enforcement, the media and others, to bring about exposure and justice for those involved.
The first experiential piece of information I would like to relay is that ONLY criminal prosecution has long term benefits. Civil prosecution, which when successful is usually covered by liability insurance, is as much of a deterrent as a parking fine to an automobile driver. They just pay it and get back to business.
In cases where the prosecution becomes serious, the corporation is liquidated and all the assets are transferred to another which is controlled by the same interests. This is done through what is called Nominee Shares. These represent an ownership position taken by party that wishes to remain in the background. The party in question goes through an attorney, who then purchases the stock through a financial institution and this ensures anonymity. In this manner key players protect their assets.
Another technique is to have a separate corporation from the operating company own the property, which is then leased to the operating company at an exorbitant rate. There are many more techniques.
Payoffs to political and other connections are very hard to track. One technique - and, again, there are many - is to take out a credit card on a Cayman Island bank account and then simply provide the card to the party in question. Any purchases made with the card are paid for from the account and no money enters or leaves the country.
However, when there are criminal charges everyone connected suddenly wants to leave the country as they do not want anything to come their way. Moreover, an official criminal investigation can take within its scope far more territory than any other. The most obvious benefit is that the perpetrators have a chance of landing jail time - and that always tends to change things permanently: licenses are revoked, legislation is passed or changed, regulations are stiffened, etc.
The kinds of things you want to look for are persons who have more than one position, usually with more than one corporation. There is also a tremendous amount of money to be made in referrals, where patients or "clients" are referred to other facilities which turn bill a health insurance plan.
I also want to point out that fraud, for one, is a difficult crime for law enforcement to investigate. It is different that any other, because in a typical crime, you have the crime documented and are looking for the perpetrator. In fraud, it is backwards: you have the suspected perpetrator and now you have to find the crime. And finding something that initially is not there can be, for some, a daunting task.
I don't know what all is happening at this particular facility and I am not familiar with your laws up there, but it would appear that, at the very least, an investigation is long overdue.
Good luck to all and remember: tenacity is not everything, tenacity is the only thing.
Michael (1/21/02 12:35:11 pm) Yes, this is an interesting board. Thank you Velvet. I have added this board to my internet shortcuts and have discussed it with a number of colleagues, at least one which said that he was going to check it out.
I am impressed at your perseverance, all of you. I would very much like to see a similar thing happen with other facilities. The light of truth does amazing things.
I had a thought: Is anyone sending any emails or faxes to government and other decision makers about this board? It might be an effective tool to get more people to view it.
I continue to post if I feel I can be of help.
Good luck.
Michael (1/29/02 9:57:25 am) LACK OF CRIMINAL CHARGES. There were two postings since last time I checked. I will responding to the first at this time.
THE QUESTION OF LACK OF CRIMINAL CHARGES:
High level connections are usual when it comes to health facilities, as there is a lot of money involved. I have successfully initiated and concluded criminal investigations and in the course of my duties have dealt with many entities that had "high level connections." There is some truth to this, but for the most part it is merely one block on the investigatory trail. Believe me, when a criminal investigation is in the wind most of these "high level connections" vaporize.
This leaves the question of how do you do it. Here is the answer:
There is a concept in law called Mes rea. This is a Latin term meaning, literally, "a guilty mind." One legal definition of Mens rea is "The state of mind required to constitute a particular crime; the mental element of an offence."
On other words, the intent to commit a crime. Under typical circumstances this is difficult to prove and is the primary reason why criminal investigations are rare. To the police, this is called the "motive."
Law enforcement agencies - especially the Royal Canadian Mounted Police which is the equivalent to state police in the U.S. in Alberta - are very powerful entities and most police officers are good people. They became police officers to uphold the law and many have not forgotten those ideals.
However, in order to get that power to act in the form of an official investigation, you have to fulfill a specific criteria known as "probable cause." This means "Reasonable grounds for belief that an accused person may be subject to arrest or the issuance of a warrant." Probable cause consist of two things: motive and opportunity. It is the former that is typically more difficult to show; the latter is easy.
Now, you do not have to actually do the investigation; that is the police's job. But you have to supply enough information, at least initially, to get the ball rolling. After all, convincing the police that a crime was committed is just half the job. Next the police have to convince their bosses in the justice department, who usually have to give them the green light to start an investigation, that there is merit to the case. There a number of factors to be dealt with here, the topmost being if there is a possibility of prosecution. If the case cannot be prosecuted a district attorney cannot ethically waste taxpayers' money pursuing the case. (This is where your media pressure comes into play, but that is a different matter.)
Money, as one example, is a good motive, one that the police and everyone else can understand. The financial crime that has received the most media attention, at least in the U.S., is fraud. A useful definition of fraud is "A deception deliberately practiced in order to secure unfair or unlawful gain."
The ways and means that this can be done are virtually endless. Health care facilities usually have to have agreements with state (and in some cases federal) regulatory agencies and health insurance providers in order to receive monies from those entities. In some cases these agreements are falsified, in most the parameters of the agreements are simply not met. In some instances providers have agreed to provide specific services, which they do not (for example).
There are administrative reporting requirements, for example, to regulatory and other bodies, that are not met by some corporations: reports are not filed or reports are falsified. After all, no one in his right mind is going to note in the clinical record that the patient was physically abused.
Some of the largest criminal and civil settlements in U.S. history have been for health care fraud. Many of the corporations involved provided addiction services. It appears (and you probably already know this) that your facility may have some connections with facilities that were investigated/prosecuted states-side. Two links I found after doing just a quick search are:
http://fornits.com/straight/people/medi ... nician.htmhttp://fornits.com/straight/the-straigh ... hts-fc.htm[Ed. These links have moved to:
http://thestraights.com/people/medical- ... nician.htmhttp://thestraights.com/the-straights/t ... hts-fc.htm]
I cannot vouch as to the veracity of the data, but it does paint a familiar scene.
I have worked with numerous governments and there are cases upon cases like this. Studying them, even briefly, gives one an idea of what is going on and what to look for. Cases include: Hospital Corporation of America, Columbia Healthcare, Columbia/HCA (which resulted from the merger of the two), Community Psychiatric Centres, Charter Behavioral Health Systems, Magellan Health Services and many others.
I will leave you with a September 1 , 2001, article excerpt: "In December 2000, DOJ reported that the nation's largest for-profit hospital chain, HCA-The Health Company (formerly known as Columbia/HCA) agreed to pay $840 million in criminal and civil fines and penalties to resolve allegedly unlawful billing of federally and state funded health care programs."
You can read the entire article here:
http://www.taf.org/news.html I hope this helps.
Michael
[ This Message was edited by: N.I. on 2004-12-22 13:57 ]
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