Live4you.org charged with wire fraud
Liver4you.org provides on its website as follows:
Living donor kidney transplant is done in two medical centers located in the Philippines. These centers operate in full compliance with the Philippine Ministry of Health and meet all international standards applicable worldwide for transplant centers.
Our major advantage is that we specialize only in legal, living donor kidney transplants.
Living donor kidney transplants are recognized as being of higher quality since they provide the best possible match between donor and patient.This maximum matching significantly increases the lifespan of the kidney, eases its acceptance and acclimation into the body, reduces from the beginning the dose of anti-rejection medicine, and, therefore, prevents most of the side effects of these medicines.
Our medical centers and operating and treatment rooms are equipped with the most advanced Western equipment in the world.
According to Grant Gross, Online Organ Donor Broker Charged With Wire Fraud, PCWorld, March 19, 2009:
The operator of Liver4you.org is facing wire fraud charges for an alleged scheme to use the Web site to entice people needing organ transplants to wire tens of thousands of dollars to the Philippines in exchange for nonexistent surgeries, the U.S. Department of Justice said.
Jerome Howard Feldman appeared Thursday in U.S. District Court for Guam after his Feb. 2 arrest in Manila on immigration violations. Feldman was indicted on Feb. 11 by a grand jury in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York. * * *
Feldman faces up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to US$250,000 on the wire fraud charges. Also pending against Feldman are federal health care fraud charges in Florida from 1999, and racketeering, money laundering and stolen property charges filed in Florida in 2001.
The indictment accuses Feldman of posing as a doctor in the Philippines who was arranging organ transplants.