I just remembered another scam Van Beek set up as soon as he opened his
agency.
It went like this:
He began teaching AODA classes to counselors for beginning or continuing
educational hours. He somehow got scholarship grants for people to take the
classes. And if I'm not mistaken, I think it was federal money.
Next, he rounded up counselors, some of whom were very well off, and rigged it
up so the scholarship money would pay him for the classes.
Yet another scam:
This scam was set up for personal retaliation
purposes.
Van Beek taught Drivers' Safety School
Classes to OWI Clients out at NWTC for a
number of years.
First time OWI offenders were sent to these
classes.
NWTC fired Van Beek and hired other people to
teach the classes.
To retaliate, Van Beek immediately began
blocking referrals to NWTC. Their referrals
quickly dropped to 0.
At that time, NWTC was the only provider of
these classes. Van Beek had not started his
private practice program yet.
Instead of sending these clients to NWTC, he
had these clients sent to treatment.
Many of these clients were NOT ALCOHOLICS.
Once he set his own program up, he sent these clients to himself.
The damages caused to OWI clients by this
retaliatory scheme are many. E.g.:
1. First and foremost, they were wrongfully diagnosed with alcoholism, which if
left untreated, is a fatal disease.
2. The amount of time it took to complete
a treatment program for alcoholism was at least 4 1/2 months and included: group
therapy: 3 times a week for 6 weeks; aftercare group therapy: 1 time a week for
12 more weeks; and a mandatory family day program at which family members were
required to attend.
3. In addition to treatment, the client was required to attend a set number of
AA meetings every week.
4. The cost of treatment at that time was
anywhere between $2500 (me) and $6500.
5. If a client had insurance coverage, it only paid $2000, and many insurance
policies had a $1000 deductable.
6. After being diagnosed alcoholic, if a client changed jobs or insurance
companies, coverage was not available because it was a pre-existing condition.
7. The client's family members, employers, co-workers, friends (and enemies),
will view these clients as alcoholics for the rest of their lives.
I could think of many more problems caused by this scheme but I think you people
can get the picture by reading the above.
When clients showed up at my agency who were clearly not alcoholic, I questioned
Van Beek on the misdiagnosis of these clients. His response was that I should
stop second guessing their assessment findings.
Once Van Beek started his own program and I realized the motive for his scheme, I
informed Mark Quam that Van Beek was doing this. He did not respond to my
complaint at all. He did nothing and the scam continued.
Under Conflict of Interest, HSS 62.07(2) states assessment facilities and
assessors are not to provide programs called for in the drivers' safty plans,
and Wis. s. 946.13 forbids private interests in public contracts.
Van Beek conflict of interest would be obvious to anyone. He supervised and
controlled EVERY assessor who conducted the OWI assessments and wrote the
driver's safety plans, that included the referral to his private agency for
services.
I think the scam above demonstrates why we have the conflict of interest laws
are on the books. However, the above also demonstrates that they do not apply to
Brown County.
Which again begs the question of how many Brown County officials and employees
are involved in and are benefiting from these schemes?
Cheers,
Evie