A doctor who netted millions of dollars by putting more than 500 patients through unnecessary and grueling cancer treatments and then billing insurers has been sentenced to 45 years in prison.

Dr Farid Fata, who worked in suburban Detroit, Michigan, poisoned around 550 victims – many of whom did not actually have cancer – by giving them excessive chemotherapy and other treatments.

His actions wrecked his patients’ health, with many sustaining chronic health problems such as brittle bones and fried organs. Other victims lost their homes and jobs, and were forced into bankruptcy.

On Friday, Fata broke down in court as he was sentenced to more than four decades in prison for what the judge described as a ‘huge, horrific series of criminal acts’ that had affected hundreds.

The doctor had remained stone-faced earlier in the week as his former patients had appeared in court to detail the shocking consequences of being put through unnecessary chemotherapy.

But during his sentencing, Fata – whose business, Michigan Hematology Oncology, had many upscale offices in the area – repeatedly broke down in loud sobs as he begged for mercy.

Speaking publicly for the first time since he was arrested in August 2013, the oncologist said: ‘I misused my talents, yes, and permitted this sin to enter me because of power and greed.’

He added: ‘My quest for power is self-destructive.’

Fata, who turned and apologized to his victims in the courtroom, admitted his patients had knocked on his door ‘seeking compassion and care’, but he had ‘failed them’, according to NBC News.

Sentencing Fata, U.S. District Judge Paul Borman said the 50-year-old defendant had ‘shut down whatever compassion he had as a doctor and switched it to making money’.

Fata pleaded guilty last year to fraud, money laundering and conspiracy.

Because he did not strike a deal with prosecutors, Borman had needed much of the week to hear details about the treatments. Patients and relatives had hired a bus to get to court to watch.

‘He preyed on our trust, our exhaustion, our fears,’ said Ellen Piligiam, whose late father, a doctor, was administered powerful drugs he didn’t need for a tumor in his shoulder.

Federal prosecutor Catherine Dick had asked for a 175-year prison sentence. ‘It is not mob justice. It is appropriate for this crime,’ the prosecutor told the judge, referring to the extraordinary request.

However, Fata’s defense team had sought 25 years for the disgraced doctor, saying he had been abandoned by his family – who are no longer in the U.S. – and had not been visited since his arrest.

Outside court, many former patients were disappointed with the punishment, deeming it too short.

‘Prosecutors did a fantastic job – and he got 45 years. It’s a lifetime sentence for the rest of us,’ said Monica Flagg, 53, who was treated for cancer before doctors examining a broken leg found she had no cancer. ‘What about all the grave markers out there that all the victims’ families have to look at?

Liz Lupo, meanwhile, held a picture of her mother, Marianne Lupo, who died in 2007 at age 62.

She believes Fata’s treatments hastened her death. ‘It’s not justice at all,’ Lupo said. Another woman tearfully told ClickOnDetroit.com: ‘It just wasn’t enough.’

The government identified 553 victims of Fata’s crimes, including one man who lost both of his legs due to excessive treatment. Meanwhile, Medicare and insurance firms paid out millions.

Fata’s clinic, Michigan Hematology Oncology, had seven offices in the Detroit area and a related business that performed tests to look for cancer. Testifying for the government, two experts from Harvard medical school said they were troubled after looking at a small portion of patient files.

The court heard Fata administered ‘stunning’ doses of a powerful, expensive drug to his patients, exposing them to life-threatening infections. According to Dr Dan Longo, a Harvard medical professor, a drug called Rituximab can weaken the immune system if overused on patients.

It’s typically given eight times for aggressive lymphoma. One patient got it 94 times. Another got it 76 times.

There were more than 9,000 unnecessary infusions or injections.

‘There is an aggressive approach to treating cancer,’ said Dr Longo.

‘This was beyond. This was over the top. It’s a stunning number of injections of that drug.’

According to federal prosecutors, Dr. Fata, of Oakland Township, ‘systematically defrauded Medicare by submitting false claims for services that were medically unnecessary.’ He apparently defrauded the federally funded healthcare program out of roughly $35million over a two-year period.

Following Fata’s 2013 arrest, Angela Swantek, an oncology nurse who spent time at one of Fata’s clinics, said she first complained to investigators about the doctor’s wrongdoings as early as 2010.

‘I don’t know how he’s gotten away with it for this long,’ she told ABC News.

‘I was disgusted. I got in the car, I was still sitting in the parking lot and I was truly almost in tears just because of what I saw and how patients were getting their chemotherapy.’

Fata will get credit for about two years served in custody since his arrest in 2013. His stay in the federal prison system also could be shortened with good behavior.

RELATED: Office manager told Feds his boss was falsely diagnosing cancer and forcing patients into bankruptcy

Posted by Sophie Jane Evans for The Daily Mail, July 10, 2015.

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