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Man convicted, to be deported following drug-treatment scam
May 4, 2006

OSSIPEE, N.H. --A man has pleaded guilty to running a fraudulent drug-treatment center, taking thousands of dollars from patients and their families for drug and alcohol services that were never delivered.

Farid Kim Tari, 32, pleaded guilty Wednesday and is expected to be deported to his native France.

Tari and another man of the St. Jude's Residence were charged with scamming over $300,000 over two years, telling numerous distraught parents they would cure their addicted children. But the two men seemingly hired anybody off the street, prosecutors said.

In one case, Tari passed off a wholly inexperienced $8-an-hour employee as a professional counselor, prosecutors said.

Karen Gorham, assistant attorney general, said Kim Tari played an "integral role" in hiring unqualified counselors and convincing families loved ones could find peace at his operation. She said he was personally responsible for about $109,000.

"Some people took out a second mortgage on their house, sold cars," Gorham said.

As part of his deal with prosecutors, Kim Tari pulled his claim to the cash, but others, including several victims, continue to wrangle in bankruptcy court over the rest, Gorham said.

"The goal is to pay the victims back, all of them," she said, "to make them whole." But there is no guarantee yet."

Authorities said Kim Tari entered the country legally some years ago, but his visa had expired prior to the time of his arrest, making him an illegal immigrant.

Kim Tari has been in the county jail since his April 2004 arrest.

"Knowing now I am going to get deported I will be willing to take some responsibility if the court will take a plea and send me away," he said Wednesday. "It has been a long road."

In November, a co-defendant was sentenced to five to 10 years on the first of 15 fraud charges.

Joseph San Giovanni, 48, faces 14 more trials on charges he stole about $300,000 from patients and their families by promising treatment he failed to provide. Prosecutors are asking the Supreme Court to allow them to consolidate all the other charges in one trial.