allergies or a cold. yeah. it could have been a number of things. her voice was raspy. she had a sore throat. but perhaps the most troubling symptom for phyllis, a lifelong smoker, was that she had recently begun coughing up blood. i believe when she went to dr. weinberger she told him she was a smoker. i don t think she tried to hide that from anybody. how did she find out about mark weinberger? i believe one of her co-workers may have seen billboards. the nose dr. uh-huh. in hindsight, going to the self-proclaimed nose doctor may have been a mistake. but since phyllis had a long history of sinus problems, seeking out a sinus specialist for her breathing problem seemed logical. the first time i heard about him was when she called me. she was going to have sinus surgery and she needed a ride to
this was his backyard. and though he may not look like a working class hero in his tailored suits, ken allen says his father was a steel worker, like many of weinberger s former patients. in fact, allen says he worked in the mills himself as a teenager. that s him behind the wedding mask. a lot of my colleagues as lawyers somehow think they morph into something different once they get a law degree and all of that. and i know who i am. i knew where i came from, and i don t forget that. though hard to prove, ken allen believes his lawsuit on behalf of phyllis barnes and her subsequent death are what caused mark weinberger to flee. weinberger realized at that juncture that his gig was up. he knew, having killed someone, that it was not something he could easily sweep under the rug. and so, with prosecutorial zeal, this personal injury attorney hired private investigators to chase down
prescription surgery. 18 months after he had vanished, a federal grand jury indicted weinberger in absentia on 22 counts of health care fraud. by now, the state of indiana had revoked his license. the fbi had issued a warrant for his arrest. the clinic was sold. weinberger s ex-wife michelle said it was clear to her little effort was being made to actually find him. the fbi has a huge list of people they re looking for. there s terrorists on the list. here is a white collar criminal who just is hiding out in europe, and they made it clear to me that he wasn t their number one priority. though the fbi posted its arrest warrant with interpol an
have to have surgery and then how i would have to be taken care of afterward i understood. but there was a problem. valerie says the university of chicago doctors told her scar tissue from the weinberger sinus surgery prevented them from removing more than 5% to 10% of the tumor. her neurosurgeon, neurologist and endocrinologist and all said, why? they said, a 9-year-old doesn t have polyps that need to be removed. in time, more than 350 of weinberger s former patients would join in lawsuits against him while he was lounging in the cafes and casinos of europe. almost all of them accused him of the same things, misdiagnosing real problems and performing unnecessary surgeries. mark weinberger ran a surgery mill. he saw up to 100 patients or more a day. he did 100 or 150 surgeries a month. and he made a lot of money. how do you see 100 patients in a day? you give every patient the same diagnosis and you give every patient the same
seen. he definitely withdrew. suzette says that wasn t the only strange thing going on that summer. suddenly, shipments of camping gear began arriving at the weinberger clinic. one of his treatment rooms in one wing of the building was full of camping equipment. i really didn t see him as being much of a camper. he s more four seasons hotel type. right. but he was almost frantically packing it up. what kinds of equipment did he have? there were several backpacks. there were just bags that were stuffed with things that you couldn t see. and then there were the strange men with thick european accents that some employees reported seeing coming into the offices with briefcases to meet privately with weinberger. michelle later learned those men were diamond dealers from new york. i think he bought about maybe $500,000 worth of diamonds before he left. 500,000. uh-huh. and where did the diamonds go? with him, i suppose.