Isabel Kesari Gervais, Naturopathic Doctor Defrauding, Alabama 2015

Convicted Naturopathic Doctor Sentenced to 75 Months in Prison

Birmingham, AL - In a shocking case of medical deceit, Isabel Kesari Gervais, a 61-year-old woman who falsely claimed to be a naturopathic doctor, has been sentenced to 75 months in prison for defrauding patients at a Hoover clinic in 2015.

According to court records, Gervais pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud affecting a financial institution, one count of aggravated identity theft, and one count of making false statements in July 2017. As part of her guilty plea, she acknowledged that she operated multiple clinics in Alabama, Georgia, Arkansas, and Kansas using her current name and various aliases over the last 15 years.

The Alabama and Arkansas medical boards investigated her fraudulent activity, and Arkansas state authorities prosecuted her. She has faced civil monetary claims and actions in multiple states, but until today, she has never been sentenced to significant prison time. To avoid legal action and detection, Gervais had abandoned rental properties, changed locations, changed business names, and adopted aliases.

Gervais opened the Euro Med Klinic in Hoover in 2015 as Dr. Starr, claiming she had years of experience and was licensed to practice medicine in Alabama and throughout the world. She promised patients, including cancer sufferers, that she could provide various medical services, including DNA tests that she did not have the technology to conduct. Gervais ran some tests on patients, prescribed various substances, and, through her misrepresentations about licensure and qualifications, fraudulently induced patients to pay her thousands of dollars.

As part of her scheme, Gervais misappropriated the identity of one patient at the Hoover clinic in order to charge the patient's credit card without consent. She also misappropriated the identity of another individual and used it fraudulently to set up a post office box, according to court records.

Gervais must forfeit $108,146 as proceeds of illegal activity. The U.S. Postal Inspection Service investigated the case, which Assistant U.S. Attorney Erica Williamson Barnes prosecuted. U.S. District Judge Madeline Hughes Haikala sentenced Gervais, saying that she will spend deserved time in a real prison cell.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndal/pr/claimed-naturopathic-doctor-sentenced-75-months