A fake doctor who ran Skyros Hospital for 13 years has gone to ground. Ioannis Kastanis applied for the job to the Ministry of Health in 1999, submitting fake degrees from ‘La Sapienza’ University of Rome.
The fraud came to light on May 15, when the Ministry of Health issued an order revoking Kastanis’ 14-year tenure as head of medicine at Skyros regional hospital.
His supposed degree had been recognized by the relevant Greek authority (Dikatsa) and translations of the certificates were validated by police. However, the authenticity of certificates was never verifed.
The fraud began in 1993 when Argolida prefecture licensed Kastanis to practise as a doctor, enabling him to work at Patras Agios Andreas Hospital, and later, Skyros, where his Ferrari and private airplane achieved him a degree of notoriety.
The Greek Ministry of Health started investigating him after a complaint was filed by a citizen. Health Inspectors Union found ‘La Sapienza’ University of Rome had no registry of him as a doctor. Besides all his certificates being fake, he also had three tax registration numbers and three ID cards.
A criminal prosecution is pending against Kastanis, who has gone into hiding, a fugitive.
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