Doctors Allege Giant RICO Fraud

ATLANTA (CN) - Thirteen doctors claim two Florida men used Brican America and other advertising companies to run a multimillion-dollar Ponzi scheme "through fraud and trick." The doctors sued Jean Francois Vincens, Jacques Lemacon and their Brican companies in a federal RICO complaint.

The lessees, doctors and medical groups, say they agreed to put Exhibio digital ad displays in their waiting rooms. The doctors say they paid approximately $30,000 for each 60-month lease.

In return, the doctors say, Brican agreed to pay each lessee $5,800 a year in advertising fees, so at the end of 5 years the doctors' expenses would be minimal.

The doctors claim Brican entered into about 1,600 such leasing agreements.

Brican promised to pay the doctors from the ad revenue it made from the system, and promised that if it failed pay the doctors, it would repurchase the lease agreements, according to the complaint.

The doctors say Brican told them it had contracted with co-defendant Viso Lasik Medspas, which would buy advertising space.

But the doctors say Brican never had an agreement to sell advertising space on the Exhibio system, and never intended to honor its commitment to buy back the leases. They say Vincens and Lemacon each owned half of all the Brican companies, and each of them owned one-third of Viso Lasik Medspas.

The physicians say the men knew their companies did not have the money to complete the deals as promised.

In fact, the doctors say, the lease agreements were sold to NCMIC, a third-party financing company, for an up-front payment of $24,000 per lease, generating some $38 million for Brican.

"Any funds that were paid to the plaintiffs were paid out of the cash generated from the assignments of the leases to NCMIC and paid only to sustain the fraud to lure in subsequent investors," according to the complaint.

NCMIC also is named as a defendant.

The doctors seek rescission of contracts, treble damages and punitive damages for unconscionable contracts, breach of contract, deceptive trade, fraudulent misrepresentation, and RICO conspiracy.They are represented by Aubrey T. Villines and Jeffrey R. Filipovits.

Subscribe to Closing Arguments

Sign up for new weekly newsletter Closing Arguments to get the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and hot cases and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world.

Email *

Submit