Fake Doc Takes Physicians For A Ride

And maybe because Brown said he was an "expert" on allergies, the licensed physicians simply took his word for it, especially since they weren't in the field he had claimed as a specialty. Finally, the young "doctor" never asked for any supervision or assistance when he was with patients, nor, apparently, was any offered.

One other tidbit in the indictment: Although he was seen wearing the "Dr. Brown" pin, he told one fellow physician that he was a nurse practitioner.

Too bad the doctors didn't get a chance to talk about their new colleague sooner at the water cooler, and trade some notes. It might have saved everyone a lot of grief.

Indeed, while Brown was with patients, none of the licensed doctors had seen him work, the indictment states. Brown gave "physicians the impression that he was a qualified allergist who needed no supervision," the indictment states.

In a cadence that read like Dr. Suess's The Cat In The Hat,  the indictment notes: "The physicians did not supervise Brown when performing allergy testing in their offices and they did not supervise Brown when he interpreted results of the allergy tests." After Brown interpreted the allergy tests, he sometimes prescribed immunotherapy to the patients. As he carried out his supposed specialty, he purchased needles and allergy medicine from a pharmacy and created a spreadsheet with information about patients he treated.

Eventually, and predictably, Brown's quest for money did him in. He sent the spreadsheet to an undercover FBI agent who Brown believed was "an investor considering a large investment in Brown's business," authorities said.