Surgeon, Eye Clinics Convicted of Fraud

A federal jury Friday convicted a California-based chain of laser eye clinics and the surgeon who co-founded them on charges of defrauding the Medicare program by billing for surgeries that were never performed.

Dr. Antoine L. Garabet, 45, of Glendora and Laser Eye Centers were found guilty of four counts of mail fraud stemming from a scheme involving two victims. The federal jury acquitted Garabet and the chain of six similar counts concerning three other patients.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Larry Ng said Garabet told elderly Medicare patients that they had eye problems that could lead to blindness, and persuaded them to sign consent forms agreeing to undergo laser eye surgery for treatment of glaucoma or other retinal diseases.

Then, Ng said, “he basically did a light show for them. He went through the motions, to make it appear that he was doing something.”

“It’s not so much the monetary amount but a doctor’s violation of trust, of abusing his patients,” said Ng, of the U.S. attorney’s public corruption and government fraud section. “It was unconscionable.”

Garabet, the chain’s president, co-founder and chief surgeon, was accused of cheating Medicare between 1995 and 1997. The indictment did not specify how much money, if any, Medicare lost through the scam.

Garabet’s lawyer, Richard Marmaro, and the attorney for the eye centers, Jack DiCanio, could not be reached for comment.