MANILA, Philippines – A fugitive Filipino doctor got off scot free after a US court dismissed the fraud charges filed against him for duping more than a million dollars from a military health program.
 
Associated Press (AP) reported that US Federal District Judge Barbara Crabb of the Western District of Wisconsin formally dismissed the case against Dr. Alberto Marzan due to lack of evidence.

Marzan was one of the many accused of defrauding the US military’s Tricare program in the Philippines that insures current and retired service members and their dependents worldwide.

According to the AP report, Marzan recruited dozens of military retirees and their dependents to falsely claim they received expensive services at his clinic so he could bill the program.

Marzan had submitted false claims of $1.5 million for undelivered medical services such as hospitalization, radiology diagnosis and prescription drugs. The false claims were reimbursed for more than $1 million between 1990 and 1996, the report stated.

Those whom Marzan recruited in the scheme were given part of the claims he received.

The report also quoted Assistant US Attorney John Vaudreuil, who said the indictment was dropped after a routine review of the office's outstanding fugitive cases.

Vaudreuil said witnesses who were no longer available, including one who died, and the age of the case plus the long-distance travel, would have made prosecution impractical.