Jeff Patton lost $3,300. Rochelle Therrien lost $400. Vessie Moore lost a whopping $14,000. These are a few people whose finances were destroyed when they visited Richard “Nate” Schott, the former dentist who pleaded guilty to swindling nearly $1 million from insurance companies.
Schott’s been ordered to forfeit the $932,000 he stole from insurance companies, but individual victims aren’t entitled to restitution. United States attorneys prosecuting the case against Schott are only representing the insurance companies he defrauded, like TennCare and related benefit programs, not individual victims who paid out of pocket.
“I don’t think it’s fair that an individual who made (money) fraudulently can steal from people who pay out of pocket,” Therrien said after learning prosecutors were representing insurance companies and not victims.