Gemini says: "Raphael Health" was a fraudulent entity operated by Los Angeles resident Harold Ten as a front to exploit terminally ill patients, steal their health data, and facilitate multi-million dollar variable annuity fraud. [1]
Operating in a scheme orchestrated by Philip M. Horowitz in the mid-2000s, Ten used "Raphael Health" to pose as a charitable organization that provided "assistance" to hospice patients. In reality, this was a scam to secretly harvest the identities and medical records of dying individuals. These details were then used to purchase variable annuities that contained "guaranteed minimum death benefits," allowing the fraudsters to cash out illegally when the patients passed away. [1]
In March 2014, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) brought civil fraud and administrative charges against Harold Ten and other involved parties for their roles in orchestrating and executing the scheme. To protect yourself from similar charity scams, always verify non-profits using official lookup tools such as the IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search or Charity Navigator. [1, 2]
