SOUTH BEND -- In an unusual situation, the Gabriele Eye Institute, PC, pleaded guilty Wednesday to a criminal charge in U.S. District Court.
The corporation admitted that Dr. Philip Gabriele performed unnecessary procedures and that his staff altered patients' charts, even though Gabriele killed himself in June.
Gabriele's wife, Marcella, was also found dead with her husband in their Elkhart clinic June 15. Authorities ruled her death a homicide.
Their deaths came just days after a federal grand jury indicted them.
In the plea, the Gabriele Eye Institute's equipment will be sold in order to pay $205,109 in restitution to Medicare, Indiana Medicaid and Anthem. It will also forfeit half the proceeds from the sale of the company's Mishawaka headquarters.
St. Joseph Circuit Court appointed 1st Source Bank to handle the company and the Gabriele estate, and it was one of the bank's representatives who admitted to the crime on the corporation's behalf in front of U.S. District Chief Judge Robert Miller.
Since Robert Roundtree, 1st Source vice president and senior trust officer, had no personal knowledge of the events, Miller merely made sure Roundtree had authority to act on behalf of the eye institute.
After that, Drew Adams, deputy Indiana attorney general, read aloud the details of the crime:
* Philip Gabriele falsely diagnosed cataracts, either exaggerating the seriousness of existing ones or diagnosing patients with ones that weren't there, then performed unnecessary surgeries. His staff changed the charts to make them look accurate.
* Dr. Gabriele falsely diagnosed drooping eyelids, had charts altered, and misinterpreted tests, then performed more extensive surgeries than needed.
* The business performed false advertising, claiming success rates of 98 to 100 percent for certain procedures.
* Because of the unneeded surgeries, the company received $205,109 from patients, Medicare, Indiana Medicaid and Anthem.
At the sentencing Jan. 20, the U.S. Attorney's office will recommend only restitution and no fine, "because of the limited resources of the corporation," said Donald Schmid, the assistant U.S. Attorney handling the case.
After the hearing Schmid said he had no comment on the case.
Roundtree and the company's attorney, George Horn, ignored a request for comment after leaving the courthouse.