A fraudster convicted of selling bogus Star Trek-inspired medical devices will live long and prosper — behind bars.
Howard Leventhal, from Grayslake, Ill., was sentenced Tuesday to five years in prison for fleecing investor with a health-care device that purported to function like Dr. Leonard McCoy’s tricorder on “Star Trek.”
The 60-year-old boldly went where no man had gone before, claiming his company, Neovision USA Inc., would market the product as “Heltheo’s McCoy Home Health Tablet.”
His Health Technologies Corp. website also allegedly claimed that “McCoy” was monitored “24/7/365 by the company’s nurse-staffed call center.”
Leventhal pleaded guilty to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft in 2013.
The government said Leventhal cited agreements signed by Glenda Yeates, Canada’s former deputy health commissioner, as he solicited more than $26 million from investors.
But the scam was highly illogical and prosecutors said there was no such agreement and Yeates’ signature was a forgery.
“Stranger than fiction truly applies in this case with the subject using a popular sci-fi movie as the inspiration to scam millions of dollars from people. He also forged the signature of the Canadian deputy health minister, which not many people would question as legitimate,” said William Sweeney, head of the FBI’s New York office.
As part of the sentence, Leventhal will also face three years’ supervised release and was ordered to pay $1,350,819.78 in forfeiture and restitution.
Brooklyn Federal Court Judge Brian Cogan made it so.
“Leventhal used his considerable imagination, non-existent technology, and stolen identities to deceive a number of entities and individuals,” said U.S. Attorney Robert Capers. “Fortunately for investors, his alternate reality, propped up by fabricated bank documents, unraveled and collapsed when he attempted to defraud an undercover FBI agent.”
