On February 14 of this year, a judgment against Howard Beach’s Select Dental was reached, and the firm was ordered to pay $43,099.40 to Lance Prosthetics, (doing business as Magna), a dental lab on Cross Bay Boulevard.Since then, not a penny has been paid by Gary Anusavice and his associates, Joseph Robbio and Mike Rinaldi, all of whom are currently under investigation by the Secret Service.
The trio abruptly abandoned their practice in mid-November of last year - leaving confidential patient records behind in the unlocked building at 159-21 Cross Bay Boulevard.
Those records, which were logged as evidence by the Secret Service, have since been returned to Select Dental patients, thanks in part to efforts by Assemblymember Audrey Pheffer and Congressmember Anthony Weiner.
“People are out time, money and work on their teeth,” said Jo Ann Shapiro, a spokesperson for Pheffer. “The investigation is moving forward.”
Jay Press, who represents Magna, told The Queens Courier, “I got a judgment against them and they just disappeared.”
Press went on to say that Select Dental put in counterclaims. “They said there was a problem with [Magna’s] work when they never complained about the work my clients did,” he said.
The judgment is good for 20 years, according to Press, who admitted there is “little” he can do.
“Unfortunately, corporations go in and out of business and disappear,” he said.
Reports indicate that Anusavice, Robbio and Rinaldi had been incorporated in Delaware in 2005 and had headquarters in Rhode Island.
He and his associates allegedly forged paperwork engaged in credit card fraud and billed patients for work that was never done.
When Select Dental was established, it was reported, Anusavice - who has been linked to dental offices in at least four states, had his license suspended and served four months in jail for tax fraud - was being investigated by the Rhode Island Board of Health, which found his practice to be unsafe.
At the Howard Beach office, as in the other states, patients were allegedly overcharged, often for dental work that was not completed.
Marie Marotta, who, along with her husband Jack, had been patients of Select Dental since September 2006, claims they paid for dental work that was never done.
The couple, who took out extended credit on procedures that were never ultimately performed, had paid $2,500 of the $5,000 total bill when Select Dental abruptly went out of business.
On January 31 of this year, the firm of Barton, Barton & Plotkin, LLP, moved to withdraw because they weren’t getting any cooperation from their client [Select Dental],” according to Press, who summed up the situation: “A lot of people who can’t afford to have money stolen from them got hurt.”
