The Secret Service is investigating a disgraced dentist and at least two of his business associates in connection with the abrupt closure of Select Dental in Howard Beach in November, the Daily News has learned.
The dental practice, known for its once-ubiquitous ads on cable TV, allegedly targeted clients without insurance and financed their dental work with medical credit cards.
Customers were apparently billed for exorbitant fees - as much as $25,000, all up front - for poor and incomplete dental work. Then the company skipped town.
The Secret Service, known primarily for protecting the President, is involved in the case because it also is in charge of investigating counterfeiting and financial crimes that cross state borders.
The masterminds behind the alleged scheme were Gary Anusavice - a dentist whose license was suspended in Rhode Island in 2005 - and his associates, Joseph Robbio and Mike Rinaldi.
"They wanted to get people financed and then get rid of them," Linda Donnaruma, a former clerk in the Howard Beach office, told The News. "These people had bank accounts everywhere."
Select Dental was incorporated in June 2005 in Delaware under the name NYDSS Inc., with headquarters in Rhode Island.
The company reputedly began to operate a "dental mill" - a derogatory term in the industry for practices that aggressively try to attract a high volume of clients.
Anusavice, Robbio and Rinaldi allegedly forged mounds of paperwork, sometimes in the names of two dentists who worked at the office, Donnaruma told investigators and The News.
Around the time Anusavice set up Select Dental, he was being disciplined by the Rhode Island Board of Health.
According to his summary suspension in November 2005, Anusavice was found to have engaged in "credit card fraud, a bait-and-switch scheme with regard to dental services being provided to patients, billing patients for services not rendered," plus a litany of other shady practices.
The board also deemed his practice "an immediate danger to the public health, welfare and safety" of his patients.
The dentist has a shady track record that extends back to the 1990s in Massachusetts.
Anusavice operated several offices in the Worcester area, generating hundreds of complaints, according to published reports. He also was cited for bilking insurance claims, fraud, malpractice and operating while his license was suspended.
He was sentenced to four months in prison in 1999 for filing a false income-tax return.
According to another source familiar with the federal probe, Anusavice is linked to 11 other practices in Illinois, Florida, Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
Four of those practices - operating under the name Rosewood Dental in the Chicago area - closed in October in the same fashion as Select Dental.
Magna, a dental lab on Cross Bay Blvd. that did work for Select Dental, recently secured a $43,000 judgment against it, but has been unable to collect.
"We don't know what kind of assets they have," said Magna's attorney, Jay Press. "We're unable to find any open bank accounts."
An attorney at Select Dental's law firm - Barton, Barton and Plotkin - asked a judge in December 2007 to be taken off the case because his firm could not find the client.
Multiple phone calls to reach Anusavice, Robbio and Rinaldi through a number of different offices were unsuccessful.
Meanwhile, Select Dental's victims are still suffering.
"They were supposed to fix my teeth, but I can't have hard food anymore," said Joanne McCauley, who along with her husband, Michael Alvarez, was charged $19,000 for shoddy dental work. "I'm trying to have a sense of humor about it."
The dental practice, known for its once-ubiquitous ads on cable TV, allegedly targeted clients without insurance and financed their dental work with medical credit cards.
Customers were apparently billed for exorbitant fees - as much as $25,000, all up front - for poor and incomplete dental work. Then the company skipped town.
The Secret Service, known primarily for protecting the President, is involved in the case because it also is in charge of investigating counterfeiting and financial crimes that cross state borders.
The masterminds behind the alleged scheme were Gary Anusavice - a dentist whose license was suspended in Rhode Island in 2005 - and his associates, Joseph Robbio and Mike Rinaldi.
"They wanted to get people financed and then get rid of them," Linda Donnaruma, a former clerk in the Howard Beach office, told The News. "These people had bank accounts everywhere."
Select Dental was incorporated in June 2005 in Delaware under the name NYDSS Inc., with headquarters in Rhode Island.
The company reputedly began to operate a "dental mill" - a derogatory term in the industry for practices that aggressively try to attract a high volume of clients.
Anusavice, Robbio and Rinaldi allegedly forged mounds of paperwork, sometimes in the names of two dentists who worked at the office, Donnaruma told investigators and The News.
Around the time Anusavice set up Select Dental, he was being disciplined by the Rhode Island Board of Health.
According to his summary suspension in November 2005, Anusavice was found to have engaged in "credit card fraud, a bait-and-switch scheme with regard to dental services being provided to patients, billing patients for services not rendered," plus a litany of other shady practices.
The board also deemed his practice "an immediate danger to the public health, welfare and safety" of his patients.
The dentist has a shady track record that extends back to the 1990s in Massachusetts.
Anusavice operated several offices in the Worcester area, generating hundreds of complaints, according to published reports. He also was cited for bilking insurance claims, fraud, malpractice and operating while his license was suspended.
He was sentenced to four months in prison in 1999 for filing a false income-tax return.
According to another source familiar with the federal probe, Anusavice is linked to 11 other practices in Illinois, Florida, Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
Four of those practices - operating under the name Rosewood Dental in the Chicago area - closed in October in the same fashion as Select Dental.
Magna, a dental lab on Cross Bay Blvd. that did work for Select Dental, recently secured a $43,000 judgment against it, but has been unable to collect.
"We don't know what kind of assets they have," said Magna's attorney, Jay Press. "We're unable to find any open bank accounts."
An attorney at Select Dental's law firm - Barton, Barton and Plotkin - asked a judge in December 2007 to be taken off the case because his firm could not find the client.
Multiple phone calls to reach Anusavice, Robbio and Rinaldi through a number of different offices were unsuccessful.
Meanwhile, Select Dental's victims are still suffering.
"They were supposed to fix my teeth, but I can't have hard food anymore," said Joanne McCauley, who along with her husband, Michael Alvarez, was charged $19,000 for shoddy dental work. "I'm trying to have a sense of humor about it."
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