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Press Release

Alaska Doctor Sentenced For Wire Fraud

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, Eastern District of Louisiana

NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA – U.S. Attorney Peter G. Strasser announced that DR. ANDREW J. VAN ATTA, age 37, from Wasilla, Alaska, was sentenced today to three years of probation for a fraudulent scheme in which VAN ATTA impersonated other doctors while submitting paid surveys.

VAN ATTA pled guilty on November 18, 2019, to the one-count indictment that charged him with committing wire fraud from January of 2017 through May of 2018. According to court documents, starting in January of 2017, when VAN ATTA was a medical student, and continuing after he graduated, VAN ATTA used multiple email accounts and PayPal accounts to impersonate numerous other physicians while filling out surveys with a survey company that paid VAN ATTA for surveys that the victim company believed were completed by various other physicians. The company paid VAN ATTA a total of over $114,000 for the surveys completed under the fake names.

Judge Susie Morgan sentenced VAN ATTA to three years of probation. Judge Morgan will hold a restitution hearing for October 27, 2020.

U.S. Attorney Strasser praised the work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Assistant United States Attorney Nicholas D. Moses is in charge of the prosecution.

 

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Updated July 31, 2020

Topic
Financial Fraud