California Herbal Doctor Arrested on Charges of Fraud
By SUZANNE SATALINE
OCTOBER 8, 2009, 7:44 P.M. ET.
A California doctor accused of selling herbs as a cure to terminally ill cancer patients was arrested Thursday at her home in Northridge on multiple federal criminal charges, including wire fraud.
Christine Daniel, a family physician in Mission Hills, Calif., and an ordained Pentecostal minister, is accused of selling the herbs from 2001 to 2004 for more than $1 million, telling people on a religious television show that the herbs had a "60% cure rate" and that "people are living today because of our treatment."
An attorney for Dr. Daniel couldn't be reached for comment in the case. A woman who answered the phone at Dr. Daniel's office, Sonrise Medical Clinic, hung up.
The investigation into Dr. Daniel's practice was the subject of a page-one story in The Wall Street Journal on Jan. 24, 2007. Some patients and their survivors said in interviews that they trusted Dr. Daniel and purchased the herbs because she was a Christian and a physician.
Federal authorities had identified at least 55 people who drank Dr. Daniel's mixtures. At least three dozen who took the regimen died, some after bypassing conventional therapies.
"You can't be selling stuff and representing that it cures human diseases unless it has been vetted and approved" by the federal government, said Joseph Johns, an assistant U.S. Attorney in Los Angeles.
Write to Suzanne Sataline at suzanne.sataline@wsj.com |
