WHAT??? U.S. District Court Judge Richard Story gave Shanthaveerappa credit for the 400 days he has served in home confinement ....

Doctor gets probation for insurance fraud
June 17, 2008
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Doctor gets probation for $650K insurance fraud
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, January 23, 2008

By BILL RANKIN

Stone Mountain doctor initially charged with injecting his patients with commercial-grade weed killer was sentenced Thursday to five years’ probation for health care fraud.

Totada R. Shanthaveerappa, 73, who was suspended by the state medical licensing board after his indictment in 2005, treated terminally ill patients at his clinic in Stockbridge.

He pleaded guilty in October to defrauding insurance companies out of $650,000 for submitting false and misleading claims. Shanthaveerappa paid the entire amount of fraud in restitution.

Federal sentencing guidelines called for a sentence of between 24 and 30 months in prison and federal prosecutors recommended a term within that range, Assistant U.S. Attorney Randy Chartash said. But U.S. District Court Judge Richard Story gave Shanthaveerappa credit for the 400 days he has served in home confinement and gave him a probated sentence, Shanthaveerappa’s lawyer, Don Samuel, said.

“We are very happy with the judge’s decision,” Samuel said. “This doctor is an incredibly compassionate man who’s helped countless people who had incurable cancers and whose children had terminal diseases. He provided hope.”

Among Shanthaveerappa’s initial charges was illegally giving patients Dinitrophenol (DNP), a weed killer and insecticide. But Shanthaveerappa did not plead to this charge.

Samuel said the doctor gave DNP to five patients who had been diagnosed with Lyme Disease. “None of them were injured by it and he stopped it after those five patients,” Samuel said.

U.S. Attorney David Nahmias said …

Shanthaveerappa “posed a threat to the public health, safety and welfare by treating patients with unapproved procedures and drugs. He then submitted bills to the patient’s insurance companies that disguised and mischaracterized the types of treatments and drugs he actually used.”