MADISON, Wisconsin (AP) – A Filipino doctor accused of defrauding a US military health care program out of $2 million nearly a decade ago claims his right to a speedy trial has been violated.
Dr. Diogenes Dionisio, who ran a clinic near Manila, was indicted in 2004 on charges that he submitted fraudulent claims to the military’s Tricare program in 1999 and 2000. But he was not arrested until March when he stepped off a plane in the US territory of Guam, where he was beginning a family vacation.
Dionisio said in court documents that he had no idea he had been indicted four years earlier and was baffled when he was arrested and held in various jails for a month before he could speak with an attorney.
“That isolation and not knowing where I was going, and not understanding the nature of the charges against me, caused me much anguish and anxiety,” he said in an affidavit.
Dionisio’s lawyers have asked a federal judge to dismiss the indictment since US authorities never sought his extradition and made no other attempt to find him.
They say the delay violated his right to a speedy trial because his old medical records have been destroyed and he cannot recall many of the treatments cited in the indictment, making it impossible for him to prepare a defense.
Dionisio, 57, is accused of performing medical services for Tricare beneficiaries, submitting inflated bills and splitting the excess payments with patients. He is charged with participating in a kickback conspiracy and filing false claims.
Prosecutors say in court documents they did not seek extradition because Filipino authorities have rarely fulfilled their requests.
They argued the only practical way to arrest Dionisio was to wait for him to step foot on US soil. He also has not proven that his defense has been impaired by the delay, they added.
Dionisio’s case is the latest in a long-running investigation into fraud involving Tricare, which insures 9.2 million current and retired service members and dependents worldwide.
Federal prosecutors in Madison, Wisconsin, are handling the probe because Madison-based WPS Health Insurance is the subcontractor that pays overseas Tricare claims.
Much of the fraud has originated in the Philippines, where US military bases were located until the early 1990s.
In the biggest case, a judge earlier this year ordered a Philippine health care company to pay the government the $99.9 million it had stolen from taxpayers through inflated and fraudulent claims.
Dionisio said he was interviewed by US postal inspectors in 2001 at his clinic but was under the impression it was a routine billing review, not a criminal investigation. Prosecutors say he confessed during that 2001 meeting.
A judge is expected to rule on Dionisio’s motion in the coming weeks. If the indictment stands, his trial is scheduled to begin Oct. 27.
Dionisio has been living with relatives in Skokie, Illinois, since his release from custody in April.