Corruption is so endemic in Lebanon that you find it across all social strata, all economic sectors, and across the sectarian divides. In fact, otherwise religious enemies will rally together wherever money is to be made. The quintessential mindset of the average Lebanese is to "outsmart" the system by any means necessary. It's more vital than breathing. The Lebanese can't help it: They must go around the rules and the laws to prove the worth of their existence.
Now you may wonder what do they do with all the money they have. There any many Lebanese billionnaires around the world. Since much of that money is ill-gotten, it rarely is used to promote the welfare of the country and its people. It is generally used for two objectives: Self-promotion and a superficial tacky snotty lifestyle.
The whole country has collapsed under the weight of the rampant corruption: Power outages because the government electric grid Mafia and the private generator Mafia are fighting over gasoil bribes. The banks have collapsed because the Mafia bosses withdrew their billions of illegal money from the banks. The Water Authority is in cahoots with the private water delivery Mafia: By cutting off the main water supply, it forces people to resort to deliveries by the water delivery truck Mafia which charges them triple the price and splits the proceeds with the corrupt government authority. Everything runs like this in Lebanon. Private schools and universities, essentially all religious affiliates, are in constant warfare to discredit the public school and university system: They deny financing to the public sector, forcing people to send their children to the private sector, then turn around and demand that government pays for tuitions and teacher salaries.
These poor conditions force people to emigrate. Having corruption in their bloodstream, they navigate the more or less orderly and organized societies of their host countries, and immediately pick up the scent of a corruption paradise. Rules and laws? We know how to go around them, we were trained in the best corruption haven on earth.
Remember Michel Temer of Brazil?
Remember Dr. Larry Nassar?
A few examples of proud Lebanese exports to the world: Lemons, bananas, zaatar, apples, canned chickpeas, and the top Lebanese export of all: ISO-certified corruption.
This is what Wikipedia says about "Dr." Farid Tanios Fata. The Fata family hails from the town of Beit-Shabab in the Matn. The Fatas are reputed members of the Syrian Socialist Nationalist Party (SSNP), a renegade Fascist party that is an ally of the terrorist organization of Hezbollah, that believes that the Syrian "race" is superior to the Arab "race" (the SSNP was founded by a lover of Adolf Hitler as a clone of the Nazi Party. See: https://lebanoniznogood.blogspot.com/2022/06/dying-nazis-of-near-east.html], and that conducts most of its politics with extreme violence - just like Hezbollah - specializing in bombings and assassinations of political opponents, including the assassination of Prime Minister Riyad Solh (1951) and President Bashir Gemayel (1982).
Excerpts Per WIKIPEDIA:
Farid Tanios Fata (فريد طانيوس فتى, born 1965) is a Lebanese-born former hematologist/oncologist and the mastermind of one of the largest health care frauds in U.S. history. Fata was the owner of Michigan Hematology-Oncology (MHO). He was arrested in 2013 on charges of prescribing chemotherapy to patients who were healthy or whose condition did not warrant chemotherapy, then submitting $34 million in fraudulent charges to Medicare and private health insurance companies over a period of at least six years.
Fata pleaded guilty in 2014 to charges of health care fraud, conspiring to pay and receive kickbacks, and money laundering. On July 10, 2015, he was sentenced to 45 years in federal prison.
Farid Fata was born in Lebanon in 1965 to a Melkite Catholic
family. After obtaining a medical degree there in 1992, he emigrated to
the United States to begin his medical career. Fata served residencies and fellowships in several medical centers in the US.
Fata struck out on his own in 2003, opening Michigan Hematology–Oncology (MHO) in Rochester Hills, Michigan. Over the next decade, MHO grew to seven locations throughout Metro Detroit—in Rochester Hills, Bloomfield Hills, and other locations in Michigan. Fata became a naturalized U.S. citizen in April 2009.
Fata specialized in treating blood cancer. He owned his own laboratory, pharmacy and radiation treatment facility. At its peak, Fata's practice was treating 17,000 patients at its clinics. Fata acquired a sterling reputation as one of the best cancer specialists in the Detroit area. He was known for his aggressive approach to treatment, giving higher doses of chemotherapy drugs at a more frequent rate—a protocol he called "European protocol".
Fata's wife, Samar, helped run the business side of his practice as chief executive officer and chief financial officer of his companies. While authorities believe she was a party to the fraud, she was able to move back to Lebanon after her husband's arrest; they have since divorced.
Fraud
Concerns about Fata cropped up as early as 2007, when Maggie Dorsey sued Fata for malpractice. Dorsey had been diagnosed with cancer in 2004, and seven months of chemotherapy had made it difficult for her to walk. She then learned that she did not have cancer. The case was settled out of court in 2009. In 2010, veteran oncology nurse Angela Swantek went to MHO for an interview, but was stunned to see practices that her experience told her were "plain wrong". Swantek believed that Fata was pumping patients with drugs in hour-long chemotherapy sessions that should normally last much shorter periods, thus allowing him to prescribe unnecessarily high volumes of drugs. Swantek believed Fata was deliberately billing patients' insurance companies for more money, a classic fraud scenario. She complained to state authorities, but got no response until 2011, when she got a form letter under the authority of Bureau of Health Professions Acting Director Rae Ramsdell, of the State of Michigan's Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs, saying that there was no evidence to support an investigation into Fata.
[Read the Wikipedia page for more examples of Dr. Fata's superior fraud procedures]Indictment
Fata was originally held on $170,000 bond. However, federal authorities found evidence that he and his wife had assets of $9 million not yet seized, and feared that the high liquidity of these assets could make him a high flight risk. They persuaded federal judge Sean Cox to raise Fata's bond to $9 million. He was confined to jail pending trial; had he been released, he would have been confined to his home in Oakland Township and barred from practicing medicine.
Federal investigators amassed evidence that Fata had bullied or deceived 553 people into getting chemotherapy treatments they did not need, causing the patients' insurance companies and Medicare to pay $34 million in fraudulent and unnecessary claims. They also found that Fata took kickbacks from two local hospices and poured Medicare and private insurance proceeds into his own diagnostic testing facility, where he ordered unnecessary tests. On the basis of these findings, Barbara McQuade, the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan, obtained a series of superseding indictments against Fata. They culminated in a 23-count indictment charging Fata with health care fraud, conspiracy to take and receive kickbacks, money laundering, and unlawfully procuring naturalization. The last charge was added because McQuade contended Fata had concealed the extent of his fraud from immigration authorities when he applied for citizenship. If he had been convicted on all charges, Fata would have faced a maximum of 175 years in prison, plus the prospect of having his naturalization revoked.
Guilty plea
Facing the prospect of spending the rest of his life in prison and the prospect of deportation to Lebanon if he were ever released, Fata pleaded guilty before federal judge Paul Borman on September 20, 2014. He pleaded guilty to thirteen counts of health care fraud, one count of conspiracy to pay and receive kickbacks, and two counts of money laundering. In return, the immigration charges were dropped. Nonetheless, McQuade sought the maximum possible sentence of 175 years in prison. Her office denounced Fata as "the most egregious fraudster in the history of this country", calling his crimes more egregious than those of Bernie Madoff.
Sentencing
Fata's sentencing hearing began on July 3, 2015. At the hearing, dozens of Fata's victims revealed how the unnecessary chemotherapy treatments had harmed them.
On July 10, 2015, Fata addressed the court for the first time. He said he was "horribly ashamed" of his behavior, and admitted giving in to a "self-destructive" quest for power and wealth. Borman was unmoved and sentenced Fata to 45 years in prison, saying that Fata had committed "huge, horrific" crimes.
Fata is serving his sentence at Federal Correctional Institution, Williamsburg in Salters, South Carolina. His earliest possible release will be December 11, 2050. Alternatively, if he had been a decent man, he could have retired back in Lebanon in Beit Shabab to live a comfortable and decent life. But he chooses to continue lying and deceiving. In May 2018, Fata requested that his guilty plea be tossed based on the assertion that he received poor legal advice that resulted in his guilty plea and that he has always maintained his innocence, despite his admission of guilt during his sentencing hearing. He stated in the filing, "My guilty pleas were not the result of my actually being guilty. From day one to the present, I have steadfastly maintained my innocence."
HOW CAN THE LEBANESE NOT BE PROUD OF SUCH EXEMPLARY INDIVIDUALS WHO MAKE LEBANON'S REPUTATION SHINE AROUND THE WORLD?
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