Posted on 01/12/2004 2:06:34 PM PST by EsclavoDeCristo
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TV PRIEST CORAPI WINS MILLIONS AS AWARD
The Redding Record reports that Father John Corapi, a popular speaker and TV preacher, will share an $8.1 million award with a friend who along with him tipped off the FBI that two heart specialists were allegedly performing unnecessary surgeries at Redding Medical Center in the state of California.
The money will be awarded within thirty days, according to a U.S. Attorney.
The Rev. Corapi, 56, who appears on the Catholic network, EWTN, and who moved away from Redding this past summer under what were rumored as mysterious circumstances -- perhaps due to death threats -- and his longtime friend and Las Vegas-based accountant, Joseph Zerga, 61, will receive the award under the federal False Claims Act based on their whistle-blower complaint.
"That sealed complaint was filed in U.S. District Court in Sacramento less than a week after FBI agents raided the offices of Drs. Chae Hyun Moon, 56, and Fidel Realyvasquez Jr., 55, on Oct. 30, 2002," notes the paper. "Corapi and Zerga reported the alleged unnecessary heart procedures that July to the FBI, which began a Medicare fraud investigation. No criminal charges have yet been filed in the case, which remains under investigation by the FBI and other agencies."
The award comes out of a record $54 million settlement between the federal government, Redding Medical Center and its parent corporation, Tenet Healthcare Corp.
"They are the ones who got this stopped," said their attorney. "If it weren't for them, that grist mill would still be going on East Street."
Father Corapi was seen by a doctor who performed cardiac catheterization on him and then recommended he undergo immediate heart bypass surgery at the medical center. He sought the opinions from out-of-area physicians, who said that he did not need it.
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