Canadian Deputy Health Minister Impersonator Pleads Guilty in $25 Million Fraud Scheme

BROOKLYN, NY—Earlier today, Howard Leventhal, 56, pleaded guilty to wire fraud for defrauding and attempting to defraud a number of individuals and entities of millions of dollars by falsely claiming that his company, Neovision USA Inc. (Neovision), had a lucrative contract with Canada’s Department of Health (Health Canada). Leventhal also pleaded guilty to aggravated identity theft, which carries a mandatory two-year term of imprisonment, for stealing the identity of Glenda Yeates, Health Canada’s former deputy minister of health. When sentenced on April 3, 2014, Leventhal faces up to 22 years in prison, $1,050,819.78 in forfeiture and restitution, and a fine of more than $2 million. According to court filings and facts presented at the plea hearing, Leventhal told potential investors that Neovision had written agreements with Health Canada, whereby Neovision would provide Health Canada with “Heltheo’s McCoy Home Health Tablet,” a device ostensibly named after the fictional Dr. Leonard McCoy of TV’s Star Trek series. (Leventhal claimed that Heltheo’s McCoy Home Health Tablet could instantaneously and effectively deliver detailed patient data to physicians and other licensed medical care providers.) The written agreement provided by Leventhal to potential investors was purportedly signed by Glenda Yeates, Canada’s former deputy minister of health, on behalf of the government of Canada. For example, in May 2012, Leventhal used this agreement and entered into a factoring agreement with Paragon Financial Group Inc. (Paragon), a Florida company, whereby Paragon advanced Neovision $800,000 in exchange for Paragon’s right to collect a larger sum of money purportedly owed to Neovision by Health Canada. Leventhal also used the purported agreement with Health Canada to solicit more than $25 million from other potential investors, including an undercover law enforcement agent posing as a high net worth individual. Contrary to Leventhal’s representations, (1) there was no agreement between Health Canada and Neovision, (2) Health Canada did not owe Neovision any money, and (3) Deputy Health Minister Glenda Yeates’ signature on the agreement was a forgery. To conceal his scheme, Leventhal assumed the identities of Health Canada representatives, including that of former Deputy Health Minister Glenda Yeates. Further, Leventhal created and used domain names, telephone numbers, and e-mail addresses that closely resembled those actually used by Health Canada. For example, Leventhal created and used http://healthcanada.com.co and http://hc-sg-gc.ca in place of Health Canada’s true domain name http://hc-sc.gc.ca.