Man charged with attempting to defraud a Brooklyn law enforcement agent
An Illinois man has been arrested and charged on Tuesday on allegations that he defrauded a Florida company and attempted to defraud and undercover Brooklyn law enforcement agent. The defendant is currently detained in Illinois, and removal proceedings have been set in motion to have him brought to Brooklyn federal court to stand trial.
According the complaint, Howard Leventhal, 56, entered into an agreement with Paragon Financial Group, a Florida-based company, that for an advance of $800,000, Paragon could collect on the monies Canada’s Health Department purportedly owed to Leventhal’s health company, Neovision, USA Inc. Leventhal allegedly informed Paragon that Neovision had created a medical device for the Canadian government and was owed money on that contract. The device was called the Heltheo’s McCoy Home Health Tablet, which Leventhal claimed can instantaneously and effectively deliver detailed patient data to physicians and other licensed medical care providers.
Leventhal, to further his fraud, supposedly created fake online domain names to resemble Canada’s Health Department’s website and assumed the identity of various Canadian Health Department officials, including that of former Deputy Health Minister Glenda Yeates, the complaint asserts.