A Long Island fraudster who promised to arrange kidney donations for desperate patients was just transplanting their money into his own pockets, according to state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.
Michael Goldstein, 42, agreed to shut down his crooked donor-referral operation and pay back his victims, under an agreement obtained by The Post.
Goldstein ran a Web site that falsely claimed his home-based “Nephrologica” company offered “the quickest, most efficient way to locate a living compatible donor” and would provide “full coordination” of the transplants, according to the civil settlement signed last week.
Goldstein, of Freeport, trawled the Internet to find victims, ripping off several who shelled out thousands for his purported services between 2009 and 2013.
“In fact, Nephrologica never located a kidney donor for anyone,” the agreement says.
“There are more than 8,000 people waiting for kidney donors in New York state, and those patients and their loved ones must not be preyed upon in this manner,” Schneiderman said.
“This scam artist has now been stopped, and my office will continue to seek to ensure that businesses that provide services to people with serious diseases conduct themselves with transparency and integrity.”
The AG’s Office got tipped to Goldstein’s scam by a Chicago-area man who paid Goldstein $6,000 to find a kidney for his mom.
The victim, 28, told The Post that his dad had donated one of his kidneys in 2009, but that his mom’s body rejected the organ.
Goldstein claimed to have a “network of affiliates all around the world” who could connect him with “people just wanting to do good things,” the man said.
“After I gave him the money he hardly spoke to me,” he said.
Goldstein repaid the cash after the AG’s Office got involved. The man’s mom has yet to get a transplant.
Goldstein, who lives with his own mom and girlfriend in a rundown home in the Colony Park section, didn’t return a message Sunday.
Neighbor Walter Olson, 62, said that Goldstein “doesn’t seem to be working,” but is active in the local Neighborhood Watch and “tries to be in everyone’s business.”