Prosecutor: ID thieves stole 1,000 records

A sophisticated Sands Point identify-theft ring stole the medical records of at least 1,000 Long Islanders and possibly as many as 12,000, a federal prosecutor said Friday.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Allen Bode made the disclosure at a bail hearing in federal District Court in Central Islip for the two alleged leaders of the ring, Monish Patel, 27, and Rohit Gulati, 25, both of 9 Knoll Rd. in the exclusive North Shore community.

U.S. District Judge Joseph Bianco ordered Patel and Gulati held without bail until a trial on identify theft and mail fraud charges.

Patel's attorney, Edward Jenks of Mineola, declined to comment afterward, as did Gulati's attorney, Tracey Gaffey of Central Islip.

The medical records used in the scheme that took in $75,000 a week "were stolen out from under the nose" of Gulati's father, who runs a New Hyde Park company, DGI Meditest, which does medical tests for people seeking insurance from a number of firms, Bode said. The prosecutor did not identify the insurance companies.

"This was an outrageous violation of the medical privacy of the victims" whose records were used, Bode said.

While Secret Service agents immediately found the computerized medical records of 1,000 of the father's clients in the Sands Point home, the testing business had at least 12,000 clients' records in computerized form, Bode said.

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Neither Gulati's father, Deepak Gulati, nor his company were accused of wrongdoing.

The medical records were used to obtain American Express cards in the victims' names, and Patel and Gulati then used the cards to purchase gold bars and Apple gift certificates, according to Bode and court documents.

As further identification for the American Express purchases, Patel and Gulati had exacting forgeries of New York State drivers' licenses, Bode said.

The average amount charged to each American Express card was $5,000, Bode said. Sources familiar with the investigation said it was unlikely that the victims whose medical records were used would be responsible for the charges.

Secret Service agents were still going through the records and other evidence seized from Patel and Gulati's home so it had not been determined how many of the records had been used so far in the identify-theft scheme or how much had been taken in by the ring, prosecutor Bode said.

The ring was so sophisticated that it even used counter-surveillance of Secret Service agents, Bode said.