Former Billings, Mont.-based neurosurgeon John Henry Schneider, MD, agreed to plead guilty to concealing bankruptcy assets, the Billings Gazette reports.
Here are five things to know.
1. Dr. Schneider agreed to plead guilty to a single count of concealing bankruptcy assets, under a plea agreement filed in U.S. District Court in Billings March 27, after hiding a bank account containing $309,686 from the U.S. trustee in the case.
2. Dr. Schneider filed for bankruptcy in December 2014. A bankruptcy settlement agreement approved in June 2016 ordered the neurosurgeon to provide the estate $2.3 million to creditors, who filed nearly $12 million in claims.
3. In 2017, Dr. Schneider was indicted on fraud charges after prosecutors say he illegally transferred $539,736.22 to another person and hid a Harley Davidson motorcycle worth $15,495.
4. In March 2014, the Wyoming Board of Medicine revoked his license after he operated on a patient who died of a painkiller overdose the day after his release from the hospital. The board also fined Dr. Schneider $25,000 and ordered him to pay more than $124,000 to cover the cost of the proceedings against him.
5. Dr. Schneider was working at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Iowa City in late 2017 despite federal law barring the VA from hiring physicians whose licenses have been revoked by state boards even if they still hold active licenses in other states. Dr. Schneider was hired at the Iowa City VA facility despite disclosing medical malpractice issues he had in the past on his application.
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