Canadensis Chiropractor Sentenced To Prison On Tax And Fraud Charges

The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced that a Canadensis chiropractor was sentenced today, in federal court in Scranton, by United States District Judge Robert Mariani, to serve 15 months in prison on charges of aiding the preparation and filing of a false federal income tax return and false statements relating to healthcare matters.

According to United States Attorney Peter Smith, Dr. Maria Giacalone-Hewson, age 43, a resident of Canadensis who operated Canadensis Healthcare, Inc., pleaded guilty to the tax and fraud charges in September of 2013.

A criminal Information was filed against Giacalone-Hewson on July 15, 2013.  The charges against her arose from the filing of a 2006 federal income tax return that falsely claimed her taxable income was $89,754, when, in fact, she had taxable income of $1,151,928, and owed at least $363,566 in taxes for that year.  Giacalone-Hewson was also held accountable at sentencing for taxes of $113,821 that she owed for tax years 2007 through 2010.

The criminal Information to which Giacalone-Hewson pleaded guilty also charged her with making false statements relating to healthcare matters.  At the time of her guilty plea, Dr. Giacalone-Hewson admitted that she made false statements in connection with payment for health care benefits by submitting false written statements claiming that chiropractic and other services were provided to certain patients when no such services were in fact provided.

In addition to the prison term, Judge Mariani ordered that Giacalone-Hewson be supervised by a probation officer for three years following her release from prison.

The investigation was conducted by the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation, the United States Secret Service and the Northeastern Pennsylvania Insurance Fraud Task Force.  The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney William S. Houser.