Nicholas Bachynsky | |
---|---|
Born | Russia | June 19, 1942
Occupation | Doctor |
Known for | DNP weight loss scheme |
Criminal charge | Drug law violations, fraud |
Details | |
Victims | 14,000 patients |
Country | United States |
State(s) | Texas |
Killed | 1 |
Nicholas Bachynsky (born 1942 or 1943) [1] is a Russian-born American former doctor and convicted fraudster. In the 1980s, he ran a weight loss clinic in Texas where he provided the unlicensed drug 2,4-Dinitrophenol (DNP) to patients under the name "Mitcal"; court filings reported that he had treated 14,000 people with the drug. Many reported adverse effects and at least one died. Bachynsky was convicted and fined for violating drug laws twice in 1986. Despite the convictions, he had earned over $8 million from his medical practice and continued to dispense DNP. [2] In 2008, he was convicted of fraud for his role in a scheme to sell DNP. [3] [4] In 1988, he and some of his family and associates were charged with a variety of insurance fraud charges related to his DNP scheme. Bachynsky pled guilty to Part A of Count I, RICO, and Count 87, conspiracy to defraud the IRS in exchange for the prosecution dropping all other charges. [1]
Quackery, often synonymous with health fraud, is the promotion of fraudulent or ignorant medical practices. A quack is a "fraudulent or ignorant pretender to medical skill" or "a person who pretends, professionally or publicly, to have skill, knowledge, qualification or credentials they do not possess; a charlatan or snake oil salesman". The term quack is a clipped form of the archaic term quacksalver, derived from Dutch: kwakzalver a "hawker of salve" or rather somebody who boasted about their salves, more commonly known as ointments. In the Middle Ages the term quack meant "shouting". The quacksalvers sold their wares at markets by shouting to gain attention.
2,4-Dinitrophenol (2,4-DNP or simply DNP) is an organic compound with the formula HOC6H3(NO2)2. It has been used in explosives manufacturing and as a pesticide and herbicide.
Anti-obesity medication or weight loss medications are pharmacological agents that reduce or control excess body fat. These medications alter one of the fundamental processes of the human body, weight regulation, by: reducing appetite and consequently energy intake, increasing energy expenditure, redirecting nutrients from adipose to lean tissue, or interfering with the absorption of calories.
Thermogenic means tending to produce heat, and the term is commonly applied to drugs which increase heat through metabolic stimulation, or to microorganisms which create heat within organic waste. Approximately all enzymatic reaction in the human body is thermogenic, which gives rise to the basal metabolic rate.
A nucleophilic aromatic substitution (SNAr) is a substitution reaction in organic chemistry in which the nucleophile displaces a good leaving group, such as a halide, on an aromatic ring. Aromatic rings are usually nucleophilic, but some aromatic compounds do undergo nucleophilic substitution. Just as normally nucleophilic alkenes can be made to undergo conjugate substitution if they carry electron-withdrawing substituents, so normally nucleophilic aromatic rings also become electrophilic if they have the right substituents.
Daniel Duchaine was an American bodybuilder. Nicknamed the steroid guru, Duchaine gained worldwide notoriety due to his outspoken opinions on the use of performance-enhancing drugs, and made numerous television appearances discussing the subject on shows such as 20/20, Geraldo, and 60 Minutes. Steroid Nation author and ESPN writer Shaun Assael called Duchaine "a founding father of the steroid movement." Duchaine was a low-carbohydrate diet advocate and promoted his own diet, the "Bodyopus diet".
In the United States, Medicare fraud is the claiming of Medicare health care reimbursement to which the claimant is not entitled. There are many different types of Medicare fraud, all of which have the same goal: to collect money from the Medicare program illegitimately.
The redemption movement is an element of the pseudolaw movement, mainly active in the United States and Canada, that promotes fraudulent debt and tax payment schemes. The movement is also called redemptionism. Redemption promoters allege that a secret fund is created for every citizen at birth and that a procedure exists to "redeem" or reclaim this fund to pay bills. Common redemption schemes include acceptance for value (A4V), Treasury Direct Accounts (TDA) and secured party creditor "kits," collections of pseudolegal tactics sold to participants despite a complete lack of any actual legal basis. Such tactics are sometimes called "money for nothing" schemes, as they propose to extract money from the government by using secret methods. The name of the A4V scheme in particular has become synonymous with the movement as a whole.
Dinoseb is a common industry name for 6-sec-butyl-2,4-dinitrophenol, a herbicide in the dinitrophenol family. It is a crystalline orange solid which does not readily dissolve in water. Dinoseb is banned as an herbicide in the European Union (EU) and the United States because of its toxicity.
Honest services fraud is a crime defined in 18 U.S.C. § 1346, added by the United States Congress in 1988, which states "For the purposes of this chapter, the term scheme or artifice to defraud includes a scheme or artifice to deprive another of the intangible right of honest services."
N,N-Diallyltryptamine (DALT) is a tryptamine derivative which has been identified as a new psychoactive substance. It has been used as an intermediate in the preparation of radiolabeled diethyltryptamine.
Health care fraud includes "snake oil" marketing, health insurance fraud, drug fraud, and medical fraud. Health insurance fraud occurs when a company or an individual defrauds an insurer or government health care program, such as Medicare or equivalent State programs. The manner in which this is done varies, and persons engaging in fraud are always seeking new ways to circumvent the law. Damages from fraud can be recovered by use of the False Claims Act, most commonly under the qui tam provisions which rewards an individual for being a "whistleblower", or relator (law).
An uncoupler or uncoupling agent is a molecule that disrupts oxidative phosphorylation in prokaryotes and mitochondria or photophosphorylation in chloroplasts and cyanobacteria by dissociating the reactions of ATP synthesis from the electron transport chain. The result is that the cell or mitochondrion expends energy to generate a proton-motive force, but the proton-motive force is dissipated before the ATP synthase can recapture this energy and use it to make ATP. Because the intracellular supply of protons is replenished, uncouplers actually stimulate cellular metabolism and oxygen consumption and increase the energy cost of generating ATP. Uncouplers are capable of transporting protons through mitochondrial and lipid membranes.
A caloric deficit is any shortage in the number of calories consumed relative to the number of calories needed for maintenance of current body weight.
2,4-Dinitroanisole (DNAN) is a low sensitivity organic compound. It has an anisole (methoxybenzene) core, with two nitro groups (–NO2) attached.
Terren Scott Peizer is an American businessperson. On June 21, 2024, he was found guilty by a California federal jury of three counts of insider trading and securities fraud, following a nine-day trial. Peizer faces a maximum penalty of 65 years in prison.
Poisoning is the harmful effect which occurs when toxic substances are introduced into the body. The term "poisoning" is a derivative of poison, a term describing any chemical substance that may harm or kill a living organism upon ingestion. Poisoning can be brought on by swallowing, inhaling, injecting or absorbing toxins through the skin. Toxicology is the practice and study of symptoms, mechanisms, diagnoses, and treatments correlated to poisoning.
Outcome Health is a Chicago-based healthcare technology company founded by Rishi Shah. Its registered name is ContextMedia Health LLC. It is majority owned by Littlejohn & Co., a private equity firm. Its founders were indicted and convicted by a federal grand jury on multiple charges of fraud and also sued by the SEC, with veteran tech investor Howard A. Tullman describing Outcome as "our version of Theranos."
Maurice L. Tainter was a pharmacologist and professor at Stanford University. He helped pioneer the use of 2,4-dinitrophenol for weight loss, but the drug was later banned due to its safety profile. In 1943, he left Stanford for a job at Winthrop Company. In 1960, he began working for Sterling Drug.