Here’s a sad but interesting addition to some of my other articles about getting scammed in the Philippines, or more properly, how not to get scammed.

The sad part is that unlike a majority of schemes that I have observed, this one was not based on pandering to the racial preferences or the greed of the intended victim, but sadly preyed upon a devoted spouse’s desire to keep her life partner alive.  Too bad boiling in oil is no longer a legal form of punishment for the creep who perpetrated this one..

Online Organ Transplant Broker Charged With Fraud

Posted on Sunday, 22 of March , 2009 at 7:02 pm

SYRACUSE—An online organ transplant broker appeared in U.S. District Court in Guam last week to address wire fraud charges pending in the Northern District of New York.

Jerome Howard Feldman, aka “Michael Adams,” “Dr. Mitch Michaelson,” and “Alberto Gomez” was arrested Feb. 2 in Manila, Philippines for immigration violations and removed to Guam.

Feldman was indicted by a federal grand jury in Syracuse on Feb. 11 for allegedly carrying out a scheme to defraud desperately-ill victims who paid large sums of money and traveled to the Philippines based on false promises from Feldman that they would receive organ transplants.

On Thursday, Feldman admitted his identity before U.S. Magistrate Judge Joaquin V.E. Manibusan, and will be removed to Syracuse to face the wire fraud charges.

The investigation of Feldman began on June 26, 2008, when the DeWitt (NY) Police Dept. received a complaint from a woman concerning an organ transplant broker.

Based on information on the website “www.liver4you.org,” the woman communicated by e-mail with a “Dr. Mitch Michaelson,” who induced her husband to travel to a Philippine hospital to receive a liver transplant.

The victims were persuaded to transfer by wire, a total of $70,000 into an account in the name of “Alberto Gomez” at a bank in DeWitt, which “Dr. Michaelson” promised would cover all medical bills for the transplant procedure. “Dr. Michaelson” also specifically identified another doctor who would be performing the organ transplant in the Philippines. On July 11, 2008, the husband died of liver failure at a Philippines hospital without receiving a transplant.

Doctors treating the husband told the victim that nobody at the hospital had ever heard of  “Dr. Mitch Michaelson” and that the doctor identified by “Dr. Michaelson” would not have performed the transplant surgery, as the victim had been promised.

After her husband’s death, “Dr. Michaelson” stopped all communication with the victim. Additionally, the widow was required to pay in excess of $20,000 in hospital fees incurred from her husband’s hospitalization in the Philippines, which “Dr. Michaelson” had falsely promised to cover with the funds wired at his direction.

Following a joint investigation by members of the DeWitt Police Dept., the Albany Division of the FBI and the New York State Police, several other victims of the same organ transplant scheme were located. In total, approximately $400,000 was wired into the “Gomez” account in the DeWitt bank account by victims of the scheme.

The investigation also revealed that “Dr. Mitch Michaelson” and “Alberto Gomez” were aliases of Jerome Howard Feldman, a U.S. citizen living illegally in Manila, Philippines, under the name “Michael Adams.” 

If convicted of the wire fraud charges from the Northern District of New York, Feldman faces up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. Also pending against Feldman are federal healthcare fraud charges in the Middle District of Florida from 1999, and racketeering, money laundering, and stolen property charges filed by the Florida Attorney General in 2001. 3-22-09

The first time I saw a verifiable case of a foreigner getting scammed in the Philippines was many years ago, right after I had joined a large Yahoo Group which focused on Living in the Philippines. One member of the group wanted to buy a small motorcycle.  he had a particular make and model in mind.  After a lot of discussion between members the view became very strongly held that if the motorcycle-seeker just did what an average person would do and go to the name brand dealer near where he lived and ask the price … or even buy the motorcycle, he was going to get screwed for sure … the so called ‘Long Nose Tax’ (wonder why so many Americans use this term in public, anyway.  Am I the only one who finds it racially offensive, like “Jewing a person down” or being an “Indian Giver”)?  Hmm….

Anyway, into the discussion came a knight in white shining armor … or was it a “white” knight?  Another American member of the group just happened to have a nearly new motorcycle, same make and model, that he had bought butt decided not to use … and as a fellow American he would be happy to help out his friend by selling it for only $1500 cash, plus a fee for shipping it.  “Wow, gee thanks”, was the response, “So good of you to me out this way so I don’t get scammed.”

Long story short, the promised bike arrived but there was a minor problem,  So the purchaser took it to the name brand dealer for service.  Luckily the problem wasn’t major and it was fixed right away, fairly cheaply.  but guess what the original guy found out when he was looking around the dealership and chatting with the folks there?  The exact same model that he had paid $1500 USD for, plus shipping, plus repairs was on sale at the dealer for the equivalent of $1200 USD, brand new, full factory warranty with a bonus of a helmet and three years of license plates and insurance.   Hmmm.

You know, the moral of this story is, you just can’t trust some of those Filipinos.  But more importantly, you just can’t trust some of those Americans, Australians, Brits, Germans, Dutch, Finns, Swedes, Norwegians, Kiwis, etc., etc., etc.  People do not become trustworthy because of the language they speak or the color of their skin.  And if you base your dealings on skin color here in the Philippines, as so many nervous or misguided folks do, the opportunities for being scammed multiply all out of proportion.  You have to attend to your own affairs and trust no one without verification, no matter who they are or what color their passport might be.

The poor lady in the story saw a way to help her ailing husband.  The case was troubling to me from the start because of the cash up front and the assurance that the transplant could  ‘happen’, no matter where it was supposed to take place.  Organ transplants are a great thing, but they are complex medical procedures and only a battery of tests and the performing surgeon’s opinion is going to give a true yea or nay to surgery, especially over the phone.  No reputable surgeon in any country would conduct medicine that way.

Second, the fact that it was alleged to happen in the Philippines could be viewed as either a plus factor (cost savings) or a minus factor (far from home, possible language or culture clashes, etc.)  (actually, as a side note, I believe a law was passed last year that said foreigners can’t have organ transplants in the Philippines, but maybe the law didn’t push through, I may be mistaken there).  At the very least, wouldn’t you pick up the phone and talk to the performing surgeon?  Call the business office at the hospital and find out how the costs were going to be handled?  What your husband would be fed, how could you come and stay by his side, etc?

I am not trying to ‘dump’ on the widow lady in the article.  L
ord knows the poor woman has suffered enough.  But just so her husband didn’t die in vain, read this through and learn from it, so that something similar doesn’t happen to you or your loved ones.

• Conduct a little ‘due diligence’ on any deal.  Especially for a medical or legal professional, check with the accrediting agency they claim to be certified by ,,, no honorable doctor is going to take offence at someone verifying his medical credentials are in order.
• Conduct business as much as possible with principals only.  Why would you deal with an ‘agent’ or ‘arranger’ that claimed to represent a hospital in a foreign country.  It’s easy and very cheap in today’s world to pick up the phone and call someone at the source.  And if the language issue or something like that makes you upset, back out right away .. if you can’t deal with the person before a contract is signed or a medical procedure gets started, how will you ever deal with them if something goes wrong?
• Get everything in writing.  The Philippines for example live son fax machine.  If you don’t have one, your bank, your lawyer, your family doctor or even your local 7-11 store does … get it in writing so you can have the time to und4erdtand it ,,, and have anybody who claims to be representing a doctor or hospital fax you a copy of his/her ID … it’s common practice for people on the up and up.
• Most importantly, don’t fall for the magic “I can make it happen” fixer sort of offer.  Not only do “fixers” often slow a deal down, they can literally kill the deal, or in this case., contribute to killing the patient.

It doesn’t matter what you think of his politics. President Ronald Reagan gave one of the best pieces of advice ever that can be applied to deals here in the Philippines:  “Trust, but Verify”.

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