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 now. >> after the two dozen victims spoke, dr. fata appealed to the judge, saying tearfully, i misused my talents because of power and greed. i ask the court for mercy. if it was an apology, monica's >> 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 years. >> this is seemingly a very light sentence for the magnitude of this crime and the people that's affec

>>> 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 clinics. 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 his 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 >> after just a few days, federal agents raided dr. fata's clinics, froze his bank accounts, and put him in handcuffs. you had enough to charge him, but did you realize at that moment, 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 career chasing fraud. ho