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Ex-Mass Doctor Convicted In Fraud Scheme That Funded $1.6M Brookline Home Purchase: Feds
A former Massachusetts doctor has been convicted in federal court of running multiple health care fraud schemes that he used to buy an expensive Brookline home and spend on personal luxuries, authorities said.
Dr. Pankaj Merchia, 52, of Brookline and Boca Raton, Florida, was convicted Wednesday, Jan. 27, 2026, on multiple federal charges, including health care fraud, money laundering, and tax crimes, the U.S. attorney’s office in Massachusetts said.
Prosecutors said Merchia ran two separate health care fraud schemes tied to CPAP and BiPAP machines.
In the first scheme, Merchia billed insur…
Mass Accountant, 80, Admits to Running Sex Operation, Drug Dealing From Office
A longtime Haverhill accountant accused of "profiting off others' misery" by running a prostitution operation and dealing drugs from his office for years has admitted to multiple crimes, authorities said.
John Caruso, 80, pleaded guilty on Friday, Jan. 23, to charges of maintaining a house of prostitution, possessing suboxone with intent to distribute, possessing gabapentin with intent to distribute, possessing marijuana with intent to distribute, and possessing fentanyl, according to the Essex County District Attorney Paul F. Tucker.
Police began investigating Caruso …
Plymouth Woman Who Faked Her Own Death To Avoid Court Found Alive At Traffic Stop: DA
A Massachusetts woman accused of faking her own death to avoid going to court was exposed after police found her alive months later during a traffic stop, authorities said.
Shannon E. Wilson, 44, of Plymouth, was indicted this week by a grand jury on charges of furnishing false identifying information, obstruction of justice, forgery, uttering a public record, and failure to appear after release on bail, according to Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy J. Cruz.
According to the indictments, Wilson had several criminal cases pending in Massachusetts courts between 2022 and 2023. During…
High School Track Coach, Wife Killed After SUV Plows Into South Jersey Home
A New Jersey high school track coach and his wife have been identified as the two people killed when their SUV crashed into a home and caught fire Saturday, Jan. 17.
Clearview High School track coach Thomas "Tom" Hengel, 72, was behind the wheel of a 2020 Hyundai Palisade, with his wife Lisa Hengel, 61, in the passenger seat, when the vehicle accelerated, struck a curb, crossed two front yards, and crashed into the side of a home on Banff Drive with enough force to go through the wall and into the home’s living room around 6:15 p.m., local police said.
Police said the impact sparked a…
