SF Lawyer & wife Bilk Schools & Insurers $400,000 on son's autism

[RamboLiberal]

Don't you hate people like this who already have it all and want more via out and out fraud?

A former partner at a well-known law firm and his marketing consultant wife were arrested Wednesday on felony charges of bilking the San Francisco school district and private insurers out of about $400,000 via fraudulent bills for treatment of their autistic son, officials say.

The San Francisco couple, Jonathan S. Dickstein and Barclay J. Lynn, both 43, surrendered Wednesday and are expected to appear in court this morning for arraignment on 30 counts of fraud, theft and conspiracy, authorities say.

They were briefly jailed Wednesday on $100,000 bail each but were released on bond.

"This was an elaborate scheme to defraud the school district and insurance companies out of a lot of money," said Chief Assistant District Attorney David Pfeifer. "They used this scheme to make money off their child's special needs - that's terrible."



Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/08/26/MNUI1F3CFL.DTL&tsp=1#ixzz0xjaXxeW9

[Angry Dragon]

1. They deserve a life sentence without parole

[surrealAmerican]

7. That sounds excessive to me.

I'd say five to ten years plus a million dollar fine would be ample.

[Angry Dragon]

10. I was in a generous mood when I wrote that

[d_r]

2. they'll end up getting out of it

They'll say that it was all perfectly legitimate and they founded the company to help children in need, and they'll "work something out" with prosecutors. My bet.

[Cronus Protagonist]

3. If they had only been able to steal several million more, they would be free

And might even be eligible for TARP money.

[KamaAina]

4. And now school districts will point to this as proof*

that all special needs parents are out to cheat them. This provides them with a convenient excuse for failing to provide the services they are required to by law. :grr:

[Odin2005]

9. Yup.

[earth mom]

5. Innocent until proven guilty. Or did some of you forget that?

This story pisses me off because at the end there is an assumption that the child did not have autism in the first place.

It actually sounds like the couple screwed up to me, not that they set out to rip off everyone. They should make restitution but not be roasted over the coals like some Wall Street con artist. Even though Wall Street con artists rarely if ever pay for their crimes!!!

Parents of children with autism are DESPERATE to help recover their kids-and they soon get overwhelmed and frustrated by all the red tape because NO ONE wants to help these kids and that's A FACT.

It pisses me off that some people want these parents to fry in hell for this, yet could give a damn that the powers that be have stolen their own tax dollars time and time again and are about to steal their Social Security-yet they think this is worse offense! :wtf:

[Odin2005]

8. "NO ONE wants to help these kids and that's A FACT." That's BS.

But of course you would think thank because you think there is a massive vaccine conspiracy. :eyes: And saying that we need to be "recovered" is offensive.

[SomeGuynTexas]

6. Won't this type of fraud be a thing of the past with new healthcare?

The old days of specialized individual care for special needs kids is more of a "thing in the past" rather than a future standard.

[Zorra]

11. Things are definitely not looking good for the home team.

An attorney that was a partner in a well-known law firm would definitely have a pretty good idea of what is and what is not legal, so "We just goofed up on the paperwork" probably ain't gonna fly.

That said, autism, depending on how it manifests, can literally be mind blowing for a parent.