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America's most wanted: doctor found living in tent on Mont Blanc
Guardian ^ | 17 December 2009 | John Hooper

Posted on 12/26/2009 6:45:02 AM PST by csvset

On 21 September 2004, Michelle Weinberger woke up on the 79ft powerboat that she and her husband, Mark, owned as it rocked gently in the waters of a marina on the Greek island of Mykonos.

"I put my hand on his side of the bed, and I remember feeling it empty," she later told the US television channel NBC. Weinberger leapt from bed in alarm to find that her husband had vanished, taking with him his passport and money he had stashed secretly on board.

It was the beginning of a five-year flight from justice that ended this week even more strangely than it began, almost 6,000 feet up in the Italian Alps. Two officers of the paramilitary Carabinieri, led by a mountain guide, trudged up to the southern slopes of Mont Blanc to find one of America's most wanted fugitives living in a tent. He was surviving in temperatures as low as -18C on dried and tinned food and snow he melted on a portable stove.

Dr Mark Weinberger, a 46-year-old ear, nose and throat specialist, was tonight in a secure ward at the Molinette hospital in Turin recovering from a wound he sustained when he tried to take his own life at the Carabinieri station in Courmayeur, below Mont Blanc.

The US authorities have 40 days in which to apply for his extradition. He faces trial on 22 counts of healthcare fraud, having previously been indicted by a grand jury.

Brought up in a prosperous New York suburb, Weinberger was educated at the University of Pennsylvania and the UCLA medical school. He later worked with one of Chicago's most renowned plastic surgeons before opening his own practice, the Weinberger Sinus Clinic, in Merrillville, Indiana.

(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; US: Illinois
KEYWORDS: busted; fraud; italy; manhunt; weinberger
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To: nuconvert
my thoughts also, I guess they didn't want it to sound like they had a lot of money yacht vs powerboat...that could be a canoe with an outboard engine on it.....:O)
21 posted on 12/26/2009 9:14:31 AM PST by goat granny
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To: Scotsman will be Free

I think the cut off is around 32 feet or so...below that people just smile politely...


22 posted on 12/26/2009 9:49:08 AM PST by willyd (Reducing Taxes Reduces our Carbon Footprint)
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To: willyd

Could be. I don’t consider my 16’ duckboat to be a yacht except when the alternative is humping dekes a ways through crappy terrain.


23 posted on 12/26/2009 9:54:00 AM PST by Scotsman will be Free (11C - Indirect fire, infantry - High angle hell - We will bring you, FIRE)
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To: csvset

Seems like in his planning with the survival gear and such he could have put a few bucks in a bank account somewhere warm to cover his “retirement” ...


24 posted on 12/26/2009 9:56:36 AM PST by spodefly (This is my tag line. There are many like it, but this one is mine.)
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To: spodefly
I'd probably settle for a houseboat type arrangement, hopefully in a temperate zone in a port city where not too many questions are asked, (if there is indeed such a place).

A simple low key life. As long as I had access to the web and somewhere to cook my own meals, I'd be set.

25 posted on 12/26/2009 10:04:15 AM PST by csvset
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To: sportutegrl

You are thinking of a book written by I.P. Freely called “The Yellow River”.


26 posted on 12/26/2009 10:42:07 AM PST by Vendome (Don't take life so seriously... You'll never live through it.)
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To: Maine Mariner
Well in the world of 150-300 foot mega yachts, no!

Under today's new standards, I don't think a 150' yacht is considered 'mega" anymore.........if it is then its considered real small...

Just for the heck of it, search for mega yachts on the net. There are some really incredible yachts out there. I can't imagine having enough money to go out shopping for any of those things or to commission to have one built.....

27 posted on 12/26/2009 11:01:19 AM PST by Hot Tabasco (I want a hoochie-mama for Christmas, only a hoochie-mama will do............)
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To: csvset
he whipped out a tiny knife ... and plunged it into his throat. But despite being an expert surgeon, he missed the artery he appeared to be aiming for

I hate it when that happens.

28 posted on 12/26/2009 12:07:33 PM PST by my_pointy_head_is_sharp (I long to hear: "Wake up. It was only a bad dream.")
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To: sten

Man! Is that supposed to be a smile? It looks more like a sneer. He’s creepy!


29 posted on 12/26/2009 1:09:15 PM PST by jackibutterfly
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To: cpa4you

Heck, Weird Al is A OK!


30 posted on 12/26/2009 1:09:58 PM PST by jackibutterfly
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