‘It was horrific’: Patient in $11M dental fraud scheme says he still hasn’t recovered

By Terri Parker

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    BOYNTON BEACH, Florida (WPBF) — More charges may be coming against a South Florida woman, her husband and a dentist, all involved in what investigators say was a massive $11 million dental insurance fraud going back more than a decade.

It looked like a regular dentist’s office in Boynton Beach, but former patient Jason Tuszynski says he suffered a horrifying experience there.

“There were countless times where I was sweating in that chair, and when they had to pull the tooth out back, the main dentist was older, so like, his knee was up on my arm braced with something like pliers, leaning all the way back trying to get this tooth cracked out of my mouth,” Tuszynski said.

Tuszynski is still missing that molar because he said Dental Specialists of Boynton Beach never fixed it.

He said he originally went in for a cracked tooth, but was told he needed 14 procedures.

“Yes, they quoted me around like $,6500 at first, which I was very hesitant, you know,” Tuszynski said.

And Tuszynski didn’t know Dental Specialists of Boynton Beach, one of three locations illegally owned by non-dentist Evelyn Cruz, was also allegedly sending inflated bogus bills to insurance companies for work never done and pocketing the difference.

Cruz and her husband Ysmel Cruz are both facing numerous charges of fraud and grand theft concerning dozens of patients.

According to the arrest affidavit, officials seized more than $386,000 wrapped in trash bags from the couple’s South Florida home, along with a $400,000 cashier’s check.

The affidavit said the couple also used about $500,000 to help purchase a $2 million waterfront second home in Englewood.

Running a dental office without a license is actually the least of the offenses – detectives said Cruz got around that by using 87-year-old Dr. Ivan Pelton’s license – with his knowledge.

Detectives said Pelton got paid more than $61,000 – he, too, faces serious charges.

Tuszynski is still traumatized – and missing a tooth.

“I didn’t necessarily have the money, all the work didn’t necessarily need to be done, and then the work that was supposed to be done wasn’t done. So yeah, I’d say nothing short of, like, a horrifying experience having to go through that,” Tuszynski said.

Sources said more charges involving tax fraud are likely coming. The cash found in the Cruz home signaled they were basically embezzling from their own businesses.

Pelton has bonded out, and the Cruzes remain in jail on charges that could put them behind bars for decades.

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