Slawomir Puszkarski

Chicago Sun-Times
Doctors gave fake medical opinions to help win citizenship
March 31, 2017
By Frank Main

— Excerpt

… Dr. Slawomir Puszkarski, whose practice on Milwaukee Avenue on the Northwest Side catered to Polish patients, was sentenced to probation in 2015 after he admitted helping an undercover federal agent submit a fake Form N-648.

“I learned a lot from my mistake, and I would never do it again,” the 55-year-old psychiatrist told the Chicago Sun-Times.

Puszkarski, the Chicago psychiatrist busted for citizenship fraud involving the N-648 forms, is a Polish immigrant who became a U.S. citizen.

In December 2011, an undercover agent came to him seeking a phony Form N-648. Puszkarski referred the agent to Dr. Jerry Jakimiec, who posed as the agent’s regular physician and created a fake record of medical care, court records show. Without giving an exam, Jakimiec certified that the agent suffered from depression and arteriosclerosis.

Jakimiec sought out such shady business, according to federal authorities, who said he even placed an ad in a Polish-language directory that said, “We have the best attorneys, we work on immigration matters – examination for green card, we take care of it for you so you don’t have to take exams for citizenship.”

Then, in July 2012, Puszkarski certified on Form N-648 that the same agent suffered from depression, even though the psychiatrist never did an exam, either. The agent paid Puszkarski $2,520 for the illegal assistance…

Puszkarski also pleaded guilty and was sentenced to probation and ordered to pay a $10,000 fine. Prosecutors said he was motivated by “hubris and greed.”