Chutzpah From Convicted Dentist
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Post 4817
THE LICENSE REVOCATION
The Board of Dental Examiners revoked Seth Lookhart’s dental license after he was convicted of dozens of crimes perpetrated in furtherance of a fraudulent scheme of staggering proportions that jeopardized the health and safety of his patients. Lookhart appealed the Board’s revocation of his license, arguing that his punishment was inconsistent with past Board decisions. On appeal, the superior court concluded that the Board properly exercised its discretion by revoking Lookhart’s dental license.
In a case of Chutzpah (unmitigated gall) called Seth Lookhart v. State Of Alaska, Division Of Corporations, Business, & Professional Licensing, Board Of Dental Examiners, No. S-18466, No. 7702, Supreme Court of Alaska (May 24, 2024) he asked for his license to practice dentistry from jail, the time of the Supreme Court was wasted as it resolved the issues raised by Lookhart.
FACTS AND PROCEEDINGS
Seth Lookhart was issued an Alaska dental license in June 2014 and a parenteral sedation permit in May 2015. Between May 2016 and March 2017, Lookhart systematically and unnecessarily sedated his patients in a manner that allowed him to fraudulently bill the maximum amount covered by Alaska’s Medicaid program, overcharging Medicaid by more than $1.6 million. Lookhart routinely billed Medicaid for sedation that was not performed, billed Medicaid at higher rates than other insurers, and created false dates of service to maximize his wrongful reimbursements. During this same period Lookhart also stole an additional $412,500 from a business partner.
In order to maximize his billings to Medicaid, Lookhart engaged in a series of standard-of-care violations: He sedated patients beyond the scope of his training and permit, sedated multiple patients simultaneously, billed Medicaid for sedation during routine cleanings, and sedated patients with underlying chronic diseases that made sedation dangerous. He allowed his unlicensed office manager to sedate patients, pressured patients into unwanted sedation, and left sedated patients to drive themselves home.
On two occasions, Lookhart’s patients nearly lost their lives as a direct consequence of his reckless sedation practices. Lookhart also extracted one deeply sedated patient’s tooth while riding a hoverboard, and then sent a video of the unsafe extraction to his friends and family members without the patient’s consent.
After a six-week bench trial ending in January 2020, he was convicted on 46 charges, including 11 felony counts of medical assistance fraud, three felony counts of scheming to defraud, one count of felony theft. The trial court also issued an order finding that the State had proven 13 sentencing aggravators beyond a reasonable doubt. The trial court found that the evidence against Lookhart was “overwhelming.” He was ultimately sentenced to 20 years in prison with eight years suspended.
Dental Board Proceedings
Following Lookhart’s convictions, the Division of Corporations, Business and Professional Licensing filed a 17-count accusation seeking to revoke Lookhart’s dental license. Lookhart stipulated to the facts contained in the accusation, leaving it to an administrative law judge (ALJ).
The ALJ concluded that Lookhart’s “astonishing range of misconduct” was “more wide-ranging and severe” than in any prior case in which the Board imposed a lesser sanction. Taken as a whole, the ALJ concluded that revocation was the “clear and obvious sanction,” adopting the Division’s contention that, “[i]f this case does not require it, no future case will.”
The Superior Court’s Decision
The trial court noted that “no Alaska case is factually comparable to the sheer scale of malfeasance here,” that the Board “painstakingly detailed” Lookhart’s misconduct, and that it had “carefully considered and rejected any comparison with prior Board cases.”
DISCUSSION
As relevant to this case the statute which provides for license revocation in cases of fraud and providing the same for standard-of-care violations, would be rendered meaningless.
No Prior Dental Board Decision Involves Similar Facts.
Lookhart stole millions of dollars from the state program that provides medical care for the indigent, while simultaneously defrauding a business partner of several hundred thousand more, and committing an egregious string of standard-of-care violations that not only jeopardized the safety, privacy, and autonomy of his patients, but also brought the dental profession into disrepute.
Lookhart stole millions of dollars from Medicaid. In furtherance of this massive fraud, he repeatedly subjected his patients to great risk of harm. There are no cases in the Board’s history comparable to Lookhart’s.
The Supreme Court concluded that the Board did not abuse its discretion by revoking Lookhart’s license. None of the Board’s prior licensing cases involved misconduct of the scope and severity in this case, so there was no applicable precedent to limit the Board’s exercise of its discretion.
ZALMA OPINION
“Chutzpah” is a Yiddish word for unmitigated gall usually explained as a person convicted of murdering his parents who asks for clemency because he is an orphan. Lookhart, a dentist about to serve 20 years in state prison had the chutzpah to demand his license to practice dentistry reinstated. The Supreme Court gave his claim short-shrift and by doing so protected his fellow prisoners from being treated by a vicious person who almost killed a patient while extracting a tooth balancing on a hoverboard and stealing from Medicaid.
(c) 2024 Barry Zalma & ClaimSchool, Inc.
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Fraud Perpetrators Have no Honor
Post number 5294
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First Circuit Affirms Sentence
In United States Of America v. Chang Goo Yoon, No. 24-1520, United States Court of Appeals, First Circuit (February 20, 2026) Chang Goo Yoon, a licensed physical therapist operating clinics in Massachusetts, engaged in a fraudulent scheme between November 2014 and November 2018. He submitted over a million dollars in false health insurance claims to private insurers, including Blue Cross Blue Shield and Aetna, as well as personal injury claims to MAPFRE, his own car insurer.
Facts
Yoon fabricated treatment notes, billed for services never rendered, and used his office address as patients’ addresses to ensure reimbursement checks were sent directly to him. This arrangement prevented patients from receiving paperwork for services they did not...
Fraud Perpetrators Have no Honor
Post number 5294
See the video at and at and at https://zalma.com/blog plus more than 5250 posts.
First Circuit Affirms Sentence
In United States Of America v. Chang Goo Yoon, No. 24-1520, United States Court of Appeals, First Circuit (February 20, 2026) Chang Goo Yoon, a licensed physical therapist operating clinics in Massachusetts, engaged in a fraudulent scheme between November 2014 and November 2018. He submitted over a million dollars in false health insurance claims to private insurers, including Blue Cross Blue Shield and Aetna, as well as personal injury claims to MAPFRE, his own car insurer.
Facts
Yoon fabricated treatment notes, billed for services never rendered, and used his office address as patients’ addresses to ensure reimbursement checks were sent directly to him. This arrangement prevented patients from receiving paperwork for services they did not...
Bad Faith Suit Requires Specificity About What Was Unfair
Pro Se Plaintiff Needed a Lawyer
Post number 5292
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In Sean Shurelds v. SAFECO Insurance Company of America, a/k/a Liberty Mutual, Civil Action No. 25-cv-1550, United States District Court, E.D. Pennsylvania (February 11, 2026) Plaintiff Sean Shurelds, acting pro se, filed suit against Safeco Insurance Company of America alleging bad faith insurance practices, fraudulent misrepresentation, and negligence with the USDC giving him several attempts to sufficiently allege facts to state a cause against SAFECO.
Shurelds had purchased a landlord protection policy for his Philadelphia property, which was in effect from November 28, 2023, to November 28, 2024. After his tenant abandoned the property and unauthorized occupants caused extensive damage, Shurelds submitted five insurance claims to Safeco. Safeco denied all of these claims, citing the ...
Contract Breaches that Allow Multiple Different Grounds to Make a Policy Void
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Posted on February 24, 2026 by Barry Zalma
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If an insured breaches one or more material warranties and increases the risk covered by the policy, the contract may be voided by the insurer, depending on the jurisdiction. It is, therefore, essential that every claims investigation include efforts to establish compliance with every warranty.
In Cummings v. Fire Insurance Exchange, 292 Cal. App. 3d 1407, 249 Cal. Rptr. 568 (1988), the Court of Appeal ...
Passover for Americans
Posted on February 19, 2026 by Barry Zalma
“The Passover Seder For Americans”
For more than 3,000 years Jewish fathers have told the story of the Exodus of the enslaved Jews from Egypt. Telling the story has been required of all Jewish fathers. Americans, who have lived in North America for more than 300 years have become Americans and many have lost the ability to read, write and understand the Hebrew language in which the story of Passover was first told in the Torah. Passover is one of the many holidays Jewish People celebrate to help them remember the importance of G_d in their lives. We see the animals, the oceans, the rivers, the mountains, the rain, sun, the planets, the stars, and the people and wonder how did all these wonderful things come into being. Jews believe the force we call G_d created the entire universe and everything in it. Jews feel G_d is all seeing and knowing and although we can’t see Him, He is everywhere and in everyone.We understand...
Passover for Americans
Posted on February 19, 2026 by Barry Zalma
Read the full article at https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/passover-americans-barry-zalma-esq-cfe-5vgkc.
“The Passover Seder For Americans”
For more than 3,000 years Jewish fathers have told the story of the Exodus of the enslaved Jews from Egypt. Telling the story has been required of all Jewish fathers. Americans, who have lived in North America for more than 300 years have become Americans and many have lostthe ability to read, write and understand the Hebrew language in which the story of Passover was first told in the Torah.
Passover is one of the many holidays Jewish People celebrate to help them remember the importance of G_d in their lives. We see the animals, the oceans, the rivers, the mountains, the rain, sun, the planets, the stars, and the people and ...
