In case you missed it earlier today, the Flint water crisis is now the subject of a federal criminal investigation. Anyone who thinks this could disappear into the ether should take heart in one thing. The U. S. Attorney leading the investigation has already proven that she isn’t the least bit afraid of going after big game.
Barbara McQuade, the U. S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan, has been part of the investigation since January 5. However, it was only Monday that it emerged that the probe has expanded to a full-blown criminal one. McQuade is fresh off what was, until now, the biggest case of her career—the conviction of disgraced cancer specialist Farid Fata for operating one of the largest health care frauds in history.
For those who don’t recall, Fata was arrested in 2013 for giving patients unnecessary chemo treatments and sticking insurance companies with the tab. After a yearlong probe, McQuade amassed evidence that Fata had tricked or bullied more than 550 people into getting chemo they didn’t need, and saddled Medicare and private insurance with $34.7 million in bogus claims.
On paper, Fata had the resources to bottle this up for years. But in 2014, he folded like a cheap suit, and pleaded guilty to health care fraud, taking kickbacks from two hospices, and money laundering. Had Fata gone to trial, McQuade was going to charge the Lebanon-born Fata with lying on his application for citizenship in 2008—specifically, falsely claiming that he had never committed a crime. If he’d been convicted on that, he risked having his citizenship revoked—and with it, deportation to Lebanon.
Faced with this loaded gun pointed at him, Fata had little choice but to plead guilty. But McQuade was in no mood for mercy. She wanted him sentenced to 175 years in prison, the maximum possible sentence. He only got 45 years, but at his age it is effectively a life sentence.
If McQuade can make someone with Fata’s wealth adopt the posture of a supplicant begging for mercy, there’s reason to hope she will press the investigation of the tragedy in Flint hard. Hopefully she will ensure that everyone responsible for what we now know is a criminal act—and I mean EVERYONE—goes to prison.