Clinic owner guilty of fraud

In a decision handed down Tuesday morning, Dr. Steven C. Brigham was found guilty of defrauding insurance companies and failure to file income tax returns, the New York Attorney General's office said.

Brigham owns Friendly Corp., which is the parent company of State College Medical Services, an area medical clinic that performs elective abortions.

A spokesperson at State College Medical Services, Suite 210 of the Uni-Mart Building, 477 E. Beaver Ave., would not comment about the verdict but said the decision would not have any effect on the State College clinic.

According to a news release from the New York Attorney General's office, Connecticut resident Brigham offered a discounted fee for first-trimester abortions if the patient paid in cash. Brigham billed the insurance company at an inflated rate and collected up to five times the amount of money he would have collected for clients who paid in cash, according to the news release.

Brigham said he believed his only crime "was to be charitable," as he tried to give free or reduced medical services, according to an article in the Times Union, an Albany newspaper.

Brigham also operated two unlicensed clinics in New York, the New York Attorney General's office said.

"Had the insurance companies known he ran unlicensed clinics, they would have never paid his claims," said Dennis C. Vacco, attorney general of New York, in the release.

Acting New York State Supreme Court Justice Dan Lamont found Brigham guilty after a two-week nonjury trial. Out on $50,000 bail, Brigham will be sentenced March 25 and faces up to four years in prison, according to the New York Attorney General's office.

Brigham said he would appeal the decision because he said he did nothing wrong, according to an article by The Associated Press.

His medical career has come under scrutiny in the past few years, and he has had his license revoked or restricted in several states.

Brigham agreed in 1992 never to practice any form of medicine again in Pennsylvania after state officials began probing into Brigham's medical practices and ethics.

Brigham also lost his license to practice medicine in New York and Georgia and has restrictions on his license in New Jersey, Virginia and California.