i thought, i need to do something for them. >> do no harm. >> welcome to "dateline," everyone. i'm lester holt. for most cancer patients, the disease is the enemy. in this story, the enemy was the doctor. it's a case with hundreds of victims, millions in profits, and it was something as common as a broken leg that helped break open one of the biggest medical crimes in the country. three little words -- you have cancer. >> he told me that i was terminal and that i was going to die. >> you cling to family, close friends, and your doctors. the people you trust. >> i was very scared. >> but in one unprecedented case, that cancer diagnosis came wi a nefarious twist. >> he almost took my husband, then he almost took my best friend. >> tonight, we'll bring you

years to expose. >> it is the most egregious case of fraud i've never seen in my life. >> and could it have been stopped sooner before so many were hurt? >> how can somebody miss that red flag? i don't understand it. >> you would never guess that 54-year-old monica flagg had any serious health issues. fair to say you had an active lifestyle. >> we were very active. >> a lot of traveling. >> we had a lot of fun. >> she loves gardening and spending time on the water with her husband, steve. that is when she's not busy running her home health care business. but eben with her busy life, monica said she always took god care of her health. take me back to the spring and summer of 2012. you had a doctor's appointment, had some blood work done. tell me about that.

year. i'm real faithful to my health. i had ne back to my primary care, and for about three years, she had been watching my blood. >> an elevated m protein can in rare cases develop into cancer. >> she said i think you need to see one of the best doctors around and find out what's going on. let's just get a professional opinion from a hemetologist. see farid fata, who specialized in blood cancers. oncology. here he is in a promotional deo for his clinic. >> i received my medical training at the memorial cancer center in new york. >> he was very highly recommended in the community. >> you were told this was the best? >> absolutely. and i talked to several people, and people said he's the best

he's aggressive, but he's very good. >> dr. fats name was on the list of top docs in detroit veral years in a row, and the practice was one-stop shopping for cancer care. he owned his own testing lab, pharmacy, and radiation treatment facility. on monica's first visit to his clinic, dr. fata diagnosed her with something he lled smoldering myeloma, something that could turn into full-blown cancer. >> it was awful. >> you go to dr. fata, and this is a serious illness. >> correct. >> dr. fata told her his approach would be aggressive. she would be closely monitored with blood tests and painful bone marrow biopsies. and over the next few months, monica spent hours and hours at the clinic, hooked up to i.v. ips, getting immune boosters to keep the cancer at bay.

change. i had never seen a doctor that many t tes in my entire life. >> luckily, monica had excellent insurance that would cover most of the bills, which quickly started adding up to tens of thousands of dollars in just a few months. but monica h h been assured that with dr. fata, she was getting the best care money could buy. >> i really felt that, in a sense, he was doing god's work. >> george was dr. fata's office manager. he worked under his wife, samar, who ran the business side of the practice. >> 50 foot ceiling, artwork, grand piano. i thought to myself, oncology bought all of this? >> so your inial impression is this is an incredibly successful

i really wondered how he did it. >> dr. fata lived here in a ritzy suburb of detroit. one reason he was so#successful was that his practice was so busy. at its peak, he was treating 1,700 patients in six clinics in the detroit area. >> it was huge, especially for basically a single physician, the amount of people walking in and out the door was incredible. >> nurse mary saturley worke for him and said he gave higher doses of drugsgsore frequently. he called it a european prototol. >> it felt like it was way more than patients i had previously treated were getting. >> i would think there's a point where you're thinking it's not >> right( and so, you know, having the

knowledge being a physician. >> monica was taken aback by how dr. fata was treating her precancerous condition, and was often annoyed she would have to wait hours to see the doctor did you give him a bit of a pass, the fact that you had to wait for him? >> initially, yes. >> what was your impression with dr. fata, personally? >> he was very difficult to understand. he was very soft spokeke we had to ask him repeatedly to explain. >> monica was frustrated enough to go back to her primary care physician to get a second opinion. >> she convincedede he's the best there is. >> so she continued to see dr. fata. after about eight months, he gave her difficult news. her condition was no longer

he was sitting and said you now have full-blown myeloma, and this is what you have to do. >> we need to eat it is what he said. >> how did you react to that? >> i was very scared. >> multiple myeloma is a cancer of the blood that can be fatal. but dr. fata explained that he would try to keep her alive with a lifetime regimen of chemotherapy, a toxic cocktail of drugs that can cause irreversible side efcts. sadly, we all know people who have gone through chemotherapy. when you were told you were going to need it, but f your lifetime, how did you process that? >> it brought back a lot of -- i had a sister that had breast cancer. and the horror that she had to go through.

lung cancer. >> and you knew exactly what chemotherapy was. >> i knew what was in store, absolutely. >> but with those three words -- you have canr -- she prepared to start chemotherapy, putting her trust and life in dr. fata's hands. coming up, something puzzling inside the clinic. >> he hahacameras and microphones placed in the ceiling and walls. >> wait a minute, you're saying there were cameraso keep an eye on what people were doing? >> yes. >> a a another doctor makes an alarming discovery. >> he kept looking at me straraely. >> i could not believe what i (knocking on door) honey? i'm dying my hair mom. hairye? no, not in my bathroom. relax mom. honey, just let me in. no! tiffany! no! tiffany!!! it's just purple. teenage daughter?

kill 99.9% of germs and destroy dirt and grime. you only need scrubbing bubbles disinfectant cleaners for 100% problem solved. we work hard so you don't have to. sc johnson a family company. there's moving... and there's moving with move free ultra. it has triple-action support for your joints, cartilage and bones. and unlike the big osteo-bi flex pills, it's all in one tiny pill. ve free ultra. get your move on. is that ice creaea no, it's, uh, breyers gelato indulgences. you really wouldn't like it. it's got caramel and crunchy stuff. i like caramel and crunchy stuff. breyers gelato indulgences...

geico mototoycle, great rates for great rides. my son and i used to watch the red carpet shows on tv now, i'm walking them. life is unpredictable being flake free isn't. because i have used head and shoulders for 20 years. used regularly, it removes up to 100% of flakes keeping you protected live flake free eor life hey there, heard the good news? spray 'n wash is back... and even better. it's powerful formula removes everyday stains the first time. which is bad news for stains, and good news for you.

degree motionsense is the world's first deodorant activated by movement. as you move, fragrance capsules burst to release extra freshness all day. motionsense. protection to keep you moving. degreeit won't let you down. (politely) wait, wait, wait! you can't put it in like that... ... you have to rinse it first. that's baked- on alfredo. baked-on? it's never gonna work. dish issues? trust your dishwasher with cascade platinum. it powers... ...through... your toughest stuck-on food. better than finish.

monica flagg had just been diagnosed by her oncologist, farid fata, with blood cancer. full-blown, multiple myeloma. >> steve asked him at one point, what are our options? and he said, you need to start this drug immediately. >> or? >> or you will die. >> he said you would die? >> absolutely. >> before starting chemotherapy, monica and her husband, steve, booked a vacation to costa rica. we just needed to get away and regroup and come back and start our life of cancer. >> how was tt trip?

>> wonderful. >> but in the back of your minds was, we get back, here we gogo i'm going to be on chemo. >> right. >> yeah. >> monica had her frustrations with dr. fata and his aggressive style of treatment, but decided to stick with him. after all, he was considered the best cancer doctor in michigan. and very hands-on. there were two other oncologists working for him. but monica was always treated by dr. fata personally. >> it seems like it's very simple. >> he worked under dr. fata in an outer suburb an hour away from the main hub near detroit. dr. fata was so hands-on, that he even personally treated patients who lived much closer than where dr. maunglay works.

patients all together. >> it wasn't just under clinical control dr. fata maintained. inside the practice, the office manager said tt he went to great lengths to ensure everything was done his way. >> he had cameras and microphones placed in the ceiling, walls, and him and his wife would periodically review that to ensure people were in the right place and saying the right things. >> wait a minute, a lot of businesses have cameras for security purposes so you don't steal stuff. you're saying there were cameras here to keep an eye on what people were doing? >> yes. >> did you find that at all unusual? >> well, i did find it unusual, but myself and a lot of others thought it was just something that he required because he was the kind of person that was very controlling. >> it was under the direction of

her first dosef chemotherapy on july 1, 2013. a nurse delivered the cocktail of chemo drugs, and sent her home to rest. how did you feel afterwards? >> i was sad. i was frustrated. >> when you went home? >> it was really emotional for steve and i. >> given what she had seen her family members go through with chemotherapy, monica was bracing herself for the side effects to take hold. >> we just sat outside to talk about the day. no phones. >> but it started to rain, so monica rushed inside to close the windows, and tripped over her suitcasesestill out from their trip to costa rica. >> went flying up in the air. when i came down, when i came down, i hit the suitcase and fell.

snap. >> monica had broken her leg in two places. and steve, you're thkingngoh, no, now this. >> yeah. i remember at the hospital, i thought i have chemotherapy in the morning, and have to deal with this. it was horrible. just horrible. >> as monica recovered in the hospital, dr. fata left on a short vacation to his country of lebanon while monica recovered. in his absence, a young doctor, who worked in his clinics, was making rounds on all the practice's cancer patients. >> and when i met the doctor, he explained to me who he was. he just kept looking at me very strangely. i found it very strange. >> strange because he had been puzzling over monica's chart, confused by the results of her blood work. >> just by looking at the chart, i could not believe what i was seeing. >> the information in front of

he asked monica a series of questions, a the-- >> the next day i went to the office to look at all the -- and reports of dr. fata, clinic notes. >> and staring at the records, he came to an unnerving and inescapable conclusion. he went back to the hospital to see her, and told her everything she believed about her cancer s wrong. did he say the words, monica, you don't have cancer? >> yes. he told me, you do not have cancer. coming up, no cancer? how could that be possible? >> i didn't believe him. >> just a wild story, and you're not buying it? >> i'm not buying it. >> why would anybody believe me

>> this is just wrong. monica flagg had just gotten the shock of her life. after beginnnng chemotherapy for a potentially fatal condition, shwas told she did not have

i think about that moment, what it must have been like to have someone tell you you don't have cancer. i mean, you want to shout it to the world? >> i did. i called everybody i knew. it was -- i was extremely happy. but i had a lot of anger. >> anger becauau this young doctor, soe maunglay, alsoso seemed to be telling her thaha her misdiagnosis was no innocent mimiake. after reviewing her charts, he concluded that dr. fata had been lying to monica all along. if i see a patient one time and make a decision quickly on a very busy day, anybody can make but this patient has been follow for a long time. >> he said to me, you need to find a new doctor. i will help you get your records. i don't want you to see dr. fata again.

suspicious of his boss? it turns out, he had questions about dr. fata's aggressive treatment style for mont. he says he saw dr. fata giving chemo to patients who were far too frail for the treatment. >> i always felt like, you know, some of the patients are too old, some of the patients are getting therapy, and they appear to be too sick. there was a lot of discussion about that. dr. fata was the go-to guy i@ you wanted aggressive treatment. >> dr. moung lay thought he was overereating many patients. but monica's case appeared to be more egregious. her treatment was completely unnessary. at this poinin he had already decided to resign. but the idea of publically criticizing such a highly regarded doctor seemed like career suicide. >> why would anybody believe me?

>> so at first he said nothing. then the office manager went to see him about his impending departure from the practice. >> asked him why? he said, i'll tell you, but not here. >> i said not in the hallway because of dr. fata's meras. >> they went downstairs to a room where they were sure no one was listening or recording. dr. maunglay told george dr. fata was giving chemotherapy to a patient who didn't have cancer. >> i didn't believe him, because quite frankly, i knew of all of the other hands that were involved in patients. >> surely somebody would have said something. and here comes this dr. maunglay with this wild story. >> wild story. this is left field stuff. >> and you're not buying it? >> i'm not buying it. i thought he was trying to get out his contract. i thought maybe he wanted to take the other nurse practitioners away and start up his own practice. so at that point, i didn't think anything of it. then i began -- it was a few

of the comments that other practitioners made while i was there. >> george has no medical training, but he was aware that dr. fata's unusually aggressive treatment was sometimes a point of conflict in the office. >> nurses came to me and said i didn't necessarily agree, or doctors saying i don't fl comfortable with the treatment plan that dr. fata had. >> so suddenly all of these conversations -- >> these conversations come to mind. and i started to think maybe, maybe dr. maunglay has something. >> as monica absorbed the news she was not going to die from cancer, she was looking back at her time with dr. fata and realized she had doubts all along. the news confirmed all those suspicions and all those red flags that were going off in your head. >> absolutely. >> about him. >> as soon as i heard it, i was convinced that, you know, he was a bad doctor.

something is going on bigger than her case. >> what was going on inside those cancer clinics? if monica wasn't the only one, how many more of dr. fata's patients were being mistreated? coming up -- >> it was cry. >> i thought, these patients have no idea. >> here's the question, why would anyone treat people for cancers they didn't have?

know exactly what he's doing. dr. maunglay suspected his boss, an eeemed cancer doctor, was a fraud. >> to tell you the t2uth, i did not know who to trust. >> he had no idea that he was not the first medical

about dr. fata. >> my biggest concern were for those patients. >> back in 2010, angela swantech, an experienced oncology nurse, first saw dr. fata's clinic. she was there applying for a job, and would spend a day shadowing one of fata's nurses. tell me what that day was like. >> that was the first time i got a glimpse of the infusion room. as she watched the nurses work, she saw potent cancer drugs being infiesed the wrong way. >> she says patients were getting drugs at higher doses and for longer time periods she lieved was medically necessary.

consequences to their health. to be clear, the things that you observe, are these things that are just unusual or just plain old wrong? >> they are plain wrong. >> you're not supposed to do them that way? >> no, no. there's no gray area with chemotherapy. it has a specific route over a specific time. >> angela turned down the job, and left as quickly as she could. so when you left that office that day, you're driving off, what are you thinking about this place? >> i was horrified. i remember getting into my car, and i thought to myself, these patients have no idea, the horrible care that they are receiving. >> she never saw any patient files. but came to her own conclusion about what was behind dr. fata's treatment plans. >> so i thought to myself, oh, my gosh, i know exactly what he's doing. he is keeping these patients in the chair so he can bill the insurance company for more money.

>> in 20 minutes. >> and now, three years later, dr. maunglay was thinking the same thing. monica's cancer diagnosis looked like part of a scheme to bilk patients and insurance companies. monica's treatment would have cost close to $200,000 a year. >> a 50-year-old, professional woman who is healthy, most likely has good insurance. so dr.r.ata would have given this treatment until she died, maybe one decade, all unnecessary treatment. he chose her for a reason. >> the office manager was mulling over the allegations he had heard from dr. maunglay, that dr. fata was prescribing toxic drugs to patients who didn't need them. >> i asked him if he could give me the name of the drugs. he said there's too many drugs.

and he gave me the name of the drug called ibig. >> it's a powerful drug with serious side effects that should only be given to patients with specific immune system deficiencies. given to the wrong patient, it can be dangerous. george went to trustst and experienced nurse, nancy saturley, and asked her what she new about how the doctor was administering the drug. >> she kind of went blank and became sorrowful and then started to cry. >> it was crazy. it was that all these people were getting this medicine and they never qualified for it. >> as it turns out, mary had recently discovered almost none of the patients she was treating with ibig needed it. >> only two people really have needed this out of just one week, have needed this drug. >> out of 40? >> out of 40. >> she persuaded dr. fata to stop prescribing that drug, but

much more going on. the office manager recalls you saying, are we in trouble? what were your concerns? >> are people going to think that we had anything to do with what he was doing behind closed doors? that we tried to do the best we could for them. care. administering this. >> yes. >> and so you were worried that there might be blowback because you were part of it? >> uh-huh. >> and monica, who was still recovering from a broken leg, had no idea what her case had set in motion. after your conversation with dr. maunglay, which he gave you the news you didn't have cancer, were you aware of what was transpiring over the next several week >> no. >> but a lot was happening. >> my head was swimming. >> george made copies of all the practice's financial records and took them to an attorney who was

cases. together, they tipped off the >> i remember the case came in on a friday afternoon. we had just received a tip from a whistleblower that there was a for a patient that didn't have cancer. most of us were skeptical. about whether that would be try. >> just in case those stunning claims were true, she launched a team of investigators. what they found would surprise everyone. it seems like each story i hear is worse than the next one. coming up -- >> i lost all my teeth. >> i had to have a liver transplant. >> htold me i was going to die. >> heart stopping stories, and a staggering revelation. >> i said that patients were being harmed, and he needs to be investigated. >> could all their pain have

when "dateline" continues. (cell phone rings) where are you? well the squirrels are back in the attic. mom? your dad won't call an exterminator... can i call you back, mom? he says it's personal this time... if you're a mom, you call at the worst time. it's what you do. if you want to save fifteen percent or more on car insurance, you switch to geico. it's what you do. where are you? it's very loud there. are you taking a zumba class? don't use windex to make windows spotless and clear! go see my big fat greek wedding 2 and learn how to use windex the right way on weird stuff! not on windows! who's got tickets? i do! i'm okay! can a toothpaste do everything well? this clean was like pow! it added this other level of clean to it. it just kinda like...wiped everything clean. 6x cleaning my teeth are glowing. they are so white. 6x whitening i actually really like the 2 steps.

step 2, whitens. every time i use this together, it felt like... ...leaving the dentist office. crest hd. 6x cleaning, 6x whitening i would switch to crest hd over what i was using before. pet moments are beautiful, unless you have allergies. then your eyes may see it differently. only flonase is approved to relieve both your itchy, watery eyes and congestion. no other nasal allergy spray can say that. complete allergy relief or incomplete. t your eyes decide. flonase changes everything. i can't believe it has 40% fewer calories than butter. i can't believe it's made with real, simple ingredients. i can't believe... we're on a whale. i can't believe my role isn't bigger. real ingredients. unbelievable taste. enjoy i can't believe it's not butter!

too late, we're about to take off. these dissolve fast. they're new liquid gels. and you're coming with me... you realize i have gold status? mucinex sinus-max liquid gels. dissolves fast to unleash max strength medicine. let's end this. don't use windex to make windows spotless and clear! go see my big fat greek wedding 2 and learn how to use windex the right way on weird stuff! not on windows! who's got tickets? i do! i'm okay! dove men+care. the strength test. like leather, skin is stronger when it's hydrated. that's why dove men+care bodywash has a unique hydrating

someone's hacked all our technology. technology... say, have you seen all the amazing technology in geico's mobile app? mobile app? look. electronic id cards, emergency roadside service, i can even submit a claim. wow... yep, geico's mobile app works like a charm. geico. expect great savings and a whole lot more. story to tell about the once esteemed cancer doctor, farid fata. >> we had complete trust in him. >> when i would say, it's got to stop, he would say, she's going to die. >> here at the concord hotel

patients and loved ones gather regularly to lend support to one another. i met with 25 of them who came to tell me their stories. some were sick, but were grossly overtreated. while others like monica never had cancer at all, including patty hester. >> when i got the diagnosis, my world was shattered. he told me that i was terminal and i was going to die. >> your family at one point decided to take e u on a trip? >> yeah. >> almost a farewell trip? >> yeah, we went to disney world. and it was really hard. because i knew my sister's little girl, she's 5, i wanted her to remember me well. >> you thought you had a death sentence? >> i did. >> robert never had cancer, either. >> but then you find out you don't have cancer, when the doctor said you don't have

whole world felt gone. >> tracy's husband david had a precancerous condition, and he had chemotherapy for seven years. he suffered horrible side effects. his quality of life was robbed. >> he was full of infection. his immune system was gone. he lost both his legs. >> her husband passed away last spring. >> he was being poisoned. i don't think he had a chance. as long as he was with fata. >> cindy's mother was also treated too aggressively. she died within a few months of meeting dr. fata. >> i look at my mom's picture every day, and i only have a picture to apologize to. the guilt never goes away, even though i know it wasn't my fault. my sister knows it wasn't her fault.

guilty. >> chris almost died of heart failure as a result of excessive chemo. >> i spent close to two weeks in icu, in isolation, and had my heart stopped and started three times. i mean, it was -- my stem was shutting down, and it was all due to the poisoning of the amount of chemo. >> like chris, many of the victims are still dealing with lasting consequences of the unnecessary drugs. >> i lost all my teeth. all but one now. and i'm still trying to figure out how to pay for dentures. but everything is just falling apart on me. >> teddy howard is another patient who never had cancer. >> i had to have a liver transplant. as a result of the chemo? >> as a result of the chemo. now i'm taking an enormous amount of pills to stay alive. >> all of them were initially

credentials. and what they thought was an impressive work ethic. >> he was at the hospital at 6:00 in the morning. he was at the hospital at midnight. now i know why. because no one would cover for him. and now it all makes sense. >> he had the same business model for everyone how he was going to maximize his dollar amount out of everybody. >> if you don't get the treatment, you're going to d d. >> he diagnosed you with cancers with the kind you can't hold up a cat scan and say here's the tumor. the kind you couldn't get, see for yourlf with your own eyes. so it was a matter of absolute trust. >> yes. >> they have mr reason to be frustrated. dr. fata could have been stoed years earlier. you called it a chemo mill. what did you mean by that? >> jt the volume. so it was like get them in, get

>> it was back in 2010 that oncology nurse angela swantek spent her morning in the clinic for that job interview and left horrified. but she did not go quietly. even though she had no idea some of fata's patients didn't even have cancer, sheheaid a formal complaint about what she saw to michigan's health department. and i read your report. you cut right to the chase. >> i listed specific drugs. i said patients were being harmed, and that this physician was doing more harm than good. i even put he needs to be investigated by medicare and blue-cross, blue-shield. >> this was serious and urgent, because lives were at stake. so i assume you heard from the state right away? >> no, i didn't. >> you didn't get a call? >> no phone call. no follow-up. nobody interviewed me. >> a letter in the mail? >> nothing. >> after more than a year,

what was that communication? >> the letter, first of all, the letter had my last name spelled incorrectly. so i had a feeling they didn't even look, they didn't even do their due diligence. the first sentence was, some time ago you filed an allegation against the above-named physician. we did a thorough investigation and found no evidence to -- of the violation of the public health code, so the case is closed. thank you. sorry. >> in the years s at followed angela's 2010 complaint, dr. fata's practice grew by leaps and bounds. how many -- show of hands, how many of you had interactions with dr. fata since 2010? virtually all of you. >> i would question how many people are alive that saw him before 2010.

taken seriously, if the state had acted on her concerns, thought about where that would have left you. >> none of it would have happened. i would be living life like i knew it back in 2012. >> and so would have others. >> absolutely. absolutely. >> but three years later, after monica's broken leg, her chance encounter at the hospital and a tip from the office manager, federal prosecutors were finally on the case. monica and everyone else in this room was hoping for justice. coming up -- >> he lied to everybody. his lies knew no boundaries. >> you call it murder. >> murder.r. >> would there be justice for these victims? >> i'm so disappointed right

say. after investigators were tipped off by whistleblower george karache, prosecutor barbara mcquade's office wasted no time in trying to get to the bottom of what had been going on inside dr. fata's cancer

it turns out he was one of the top medicare billers in the entire country. >> as we reviewed files and tried to make sense of hisis strategy with treating each patient, each time we looked at it, the only strategy that made sense is how do you maximize his payment. and then when we looked at it through that lens, it made sense. after just a few days, federal agents raided dr. fata's clinics, froze his bank accounts, and put hiin handcuffs. you had enough to charge him, but did you realize at that ment, the day he was arrested, how egregious this all was? >> well, as the investigation went on, it became even more apparent how egregious it was, the depth and scope of it. >> it turns out there were hundreds of victims who were overtreated with poisonous drugs, or who were treated for a cancer they never had. the government's final total -- at least 553. you have built a lot of your

how does this rank? >> this is the most egregious life and that i'm aware of in the entire country. fata billed medicare for $525 million, and lined his own pocket with $17.6 million from fraudulent payments from the vernment and insurance companies. he was reinvesting his dollars in many of his clinics. he had grown from one to six clinics. he built his own radiation treatment facility and a pharmacy, all of those facilities helped enable his scheme because he could refer his patients to his own clinics for those unnecessary treatments.% >> was that also part of how he was able to shield himself by keeping everyone inside his sphere? >> i think that was part of the scheme. and also part of the scheme for maximizing profits. if he's sending people to his

treatment facility or own testing center, fewer questions from the outside about why someone needs those treatments. >> and questions that were asked on the inside were explainin away? >> well, people often, didn't inside people know this. at one point when he was questioned about something he called a maintenance protocol about whether that was necessary, he fabricated his own study and showed it to his colleagues and said look, this is the protocol i'm following. so his lies knew no bobodaries. >> she charged him with health care fraud, conspiracy, and money laundering. he pleaded guilty to 16 counts. what keeps many victims up at night is that dr. fata was never charged with a crime directly related to the harm he caused them. you say murder, the prosutors call it fraud. >> plat out murder. >> it was fraud, however, it's

he disabled so many people. just the fraud as far as i'm concerned is a very small part of it. >> why fraud? why not murder. >> we didn't have a statute that we could use. also, there is no evidence that he intentionally set up to kill people. so we did the next best thing, which is charging him with statutes that exposed him to life in prison. >> you couldn't find evidence that he was giving this to kill people. >> right. i think his goal was to prolong their lives as long as possible and use`them as a commodity to make money. >> the victims also asked specific questions about dr. fata's wife, samar, who ran the business side of the practice. samar fata declined to speak with "dateline," as did her husband. she left their home in michigan and is now living in this house in lebanon, according to relatives. and she recently filed for divorce. was she ever a suspect in all of

>> certainly a suspect, but many people have suspected her involvement. we never found any evidence of criminal wrongdoing. >> some of the victims we spoke to have filed civil lawsuits against dr. fata and his clinics. some of the susus name affiliated hospitals, and all the health care professionals working in fata's clinics, including dr. maunglay and mary saturley. those suits have not been resolved. but it's the state agency that didn't take any action after the complaint that has drawn ire from dr. fata's victims. >> for all we understand, the government ignored the report. you know, she could have broken the case right there and saved a lol of lives. >> long before you came into the picture. >> yes. and it didn't happen. >> the bureau of professional licensing told "dateline" there was not enough information

allegation. in a statement -- investigators have recover about $13 million of dr. fata's $17.6 million in fraudulent profits. whistleblower george karache and his attorney are entitled to $1.7 million in that money for alerting federal authorities. the rest is slated to go to the victims. individuals are waiting to hear how much, if any, restitution they will receive. last july, they were able to have their day in court. one by one, they stood before the judge and told their stories with dr. fata just a few feet away. >> the day of sentencing was very, very tough for me. to listen to people reiterate who they were and where they are

>> after the two dozen victims spoke, dr. fata appealed to the jujue, saying tearfully, i misused my talents because of power and greed. i ask the court for mercy. if it was an apology, monica's husband steve wasn't moved. >> total waste of time. to hear him crying, and then sit down and stop crying immediately, first thoughts is it was a show. >> prosecutors asked for the maximum under the law, 175 years. to the dismay of many victims, the judge decided to send the 50-year-old to prison for 45 y yrs. >> this is seemingly a very light sentence for the magnitude of this crime and the people thatat affected. >> i'm so disappointed, i don't know what i would say. >> fata is behind bars, and has appealed. and monica realized how lucky she is, after a broken leg, and

ififou hadn't broken your leg, if dr. maunglay dn't looked at your charts, a lot of this may not have unfolded this way. how do you process that? >> obviously i thank god i broke my leg. it shouldn't have happened. i have tripped and fallen on things before. i'm very active. and how i broke my leg that day is a gift from god. >> that's all for this edition i'm le thanks for joining us. this sunday. the republican establishment has tried persuasion. >> mr. trump is a con man, a fake. >> it's tried schoolyard tactics. >> and you know what they say about men with small hands. >> and still, donald trump keeps winning.

a rally. [ shouting ] >> as trump warns of violence if he's denied the nomination. >> i think you'd have riots. >> but can he stopped? democrats cry foul. >> the senate will continue to observe the biden rule so that the american people have a voice in this momentous decision. >> why can't they do what they're supposed to, do their jobs? >> mitch mcconnell and harry reid exclusively join me. do you like buzzer beaters like this one from friday night? well, we've got the trump-atology buzzer beater possibilities for what could be a wild republican national convention.

of telemundo and nbc news, molly ball, joy ann reid, and robert costa of the "washington post." welcome to sunday. it's "meet the press." >> announcer: from nbc news in washington, this is "meet the press" with chuck todd. good sunday morning. let's agree on this much about the 2016 campaign. the rise of donald trump is basically paralleled the fall of the republican establishment. the more the establishment cries "never trump," the more the voters snub them. on tuesday night, in spite of millions of dollars of negative ads and high profile criticism by mitt romney and others, trump won four of five primaries and he nearly tripled his delegate lead over ted cruz. republicans are desperate to u u any means necessary, candidate collusion, delegate jujitsu, rules changes, anything, to deny

last night in tucson, arizona, an anti-trump protestors was set upon and baten up as he was being escorted out of the rally. police arrested and charged the man who assaulted the protester who we see in that video. this was the scene earlier in the day yesterday in arizona where protestor blocked a road to a trump rally. so the rise of trumpism and the undoing of the republican establishment has been years in the making. it began in 2007 when conservatives killed president bush's punish forsh for immigration reform. in 2008, and john mccain was clobbered by barack obama. in 2010, the tea party revolt. they chose to ride the tiger instead of fight it. more recently became the falls of kantor, boehner, and the prevention of kevin mccarthy getting a promotion, all at the hands of a resurgent populist conservative movement.

to stop donald trump. but how? >> you have the establishment. they don't know what they're doing. they don't have a clue. >> reporter: the stop trump movement is limping forward. although republican opponents have the will to defeat the frontrunner, it's not clear they have a game plan. there have been meetings. a confab in washington two blocks from the white house, calling for a unity ticket. another meeting of big donors in florida. and new ads from outside group. >> ask donald trump why he sides with hillary clinton. >> reporter: the "stop trump" group spent $13 million and trump increased his lead. many voters are not comfortable with trump. 29% of primary voters in florida said they would seriously consider a third party candidate. so did 35% in battleground florida and 40% in battleground ohio. what's the alternative? >> fore to win 123737 delegates,