Doctor hired by FDNY for 9/11 first responders charged with stealing $150K in unearned salary
NEW YORK (WABC) -- A doctor who worked for the FDNY is charged with stealing more than $150,000 by falsely claiming work for 220 days.
Fifty-nine-year-old Dr. Michael Poyin Chang, of Paramus, was arrested Wednesday after he was accused of falsely claiming to be treating FDNY first responders involved in World Trade Center rescue and recovery efforts, officials said.
Dr. Chang was responsible for performing physical examinations of active FDNY members and retirees, as well as follow-up treatments, at World Trade Center Monitoring Clinics in Orange County and Queens.
He was paid based on self-reporting hours in an electronic database, and officials alleged he was neither scheduled to work nor see patients on 220 self-reported days. For at least 34 of those days, officials said Dr. Chang was traveling outside the United States.
In total, Dr. Chang received $156,757 for work that he did not perform.
"Dr. Chang allegedly stole taxpayer money designated for the medical care of FDNY first responders who put their lives and health at risk in order to save others endangered by the World Trade Center terrorist attack," Richard Donoghue, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said in a statement.
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