Dr. Ravi Devgan: A Revoked Doctor Bilks a Wallaceburg Mennonite Family Out of $40,000

Ravi Devgan was a Toronto-area general practitioner with a stated interest in homeopathic and holistic medicine who received his medical degree from the University of Toronto. Long before he was stripped of his licence, his record already included a 1993 disciplinary settlement: he was reprimanded and fined $5,000 by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO) after persuading a patient — a restaurant owner he had known since his student days — to lend him a total of $53,000 for a real-estate venture in which neither he nor his partner actually invested any money of their own. In 1996 he was convicted criminally over the same conduct, on charges of fraud and of making a false statement to obtain a further $98,500 loan by misrepresenting himself as part-owner of the restaurant.

2003: Licence Revoked for Preying on Cancer Patients

In April 2003 the CPSO Discipline Committee found Devgan guilty of professional misconduct for his treatment of three terminally ill cancer patients between 1997 and 2000. He had offered them false hope of a cure using Carnivora, an unproven extract of the Venus flytrap plant, while charging grossly excessive fees — in one case, $30,000 U.S. paid up front for 24 treatments; the patient died after 16 or 17 sessions, and Devgan refused any refund to the family. The Committee revoked his certificate of registration in June 2003, finding that he had "preyed on his most vulnerable patients." Devgan appealed both the conviction and the penalty; the Ontario Divisional Court dismissed his appeal in January 2005. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration separately listed Devgan on an import alert for prescribing Laetrile, "Life Crystals," and other unapproved substances banned from importation into the United States.

Practising Unlicensed — and the Wallaceburg Family

Losing his licence did not stop Devgan. He continued treating patients out of shifting locations in the Toronto area — sometimes an office, sometimes a private home, sometimes a motel room — holding himself out as a doctor who could cure conditions conventional medicine could not. Among those he targeted was Jake and Maria Harms, a Mennonite couple originally from Chihuahua, Mexico, who had immigrated to Canada in 2000 and settled in Wallaceburg, Ontario. Their twin sons, born prematurely in 1995 at roughly two pounds each, were later diagnosed with cerebral palsy and told they would likely never walk and would need lifelong care.

Hoping for a cure, the Harms family contacted Devgan's Toronto clinic. Devgan showed them "before and after" photographs of children he claimed had been cured by his treatment — a regimen of injections he told them would restore their sons' condition and even their eyesight. Over the next four years, the family made repeated trips to Toronto, paying $3,200 per child, per injection, always in cash, sometimes meeting Devgan at a different location each visit. In total they paid him roughly $40,000. When the family finally pressed him, after four years with no improvement, to explain exactly what was in the injections, Devgan grew angry and told them the vial had already been thrown out. There was no next appointment.

A local support worker, Cathy Peloza, later learned of the arrangement and began researching Devgan online, discovering that his Ontario medical licence had already been revoked years earlier — public information the Harms family had no way of knowing given the language barrier and lack of internet access. One of the few receipts Devgan had provided listed the injection contents as vitamin B-12, vitamin B-complex, vitamin C, Solu-Cortef (a corticosteroid), and sterile water — a combination local pharmacists estimated would cost under $25 to prepare, including the syringe. The Ontario Provincial Police's Anti-Rackets Health Fraud Team opened an investigation into Devgan over the case. He was convicted of fraud over the scheme in 2007.

In October 2007 he was separately arrested and charged with fraud over $5,000 and with failing to comply with a prior court recognizance, after police say he continued providing holistic and naturopathic treatment — including to cancer patients — despite having no licence to practise medicine anywhere in Ontario.

Sentencing and a Second Criminal Case

Devgan was sentenced to three years in prison for the Wallaceburg fraud. Separately, a jury convicted him in November 2007 of running a prescription-drug diversion scheme: he wrote prescriptions for controlled narcotics — including OxyContin and Hydromorphone — in the names of patients who never received the drugs. A pharmacist testified that a female accomplice recruited patients, collected the prescriptions on their behalf, and that she and Devgan then sold the drugs for profit. In February 2008, Ontario Superior Court Justice Todd Ducharme sentenced Devgan to a further five years for what the judge called a "serious breach of trust," ordering the sentence to run concurrently with the earlier three-year term in light of Devgan's age and declining health.

Ravi Devgan died in custody in January 2009.

Timeline

• 1993CPSO reprimand and $5,000 fine for a conflict-of-interest loan scheme involving a patient.
• 1996Criminal conviction for fraud and making a false statement over the same loans.
• Apr–Jun 2003CPSO Discipline Committee finds professional misconduct re three terminally ill cancer patients treated with Carnivora; certificate of registration revoked.
• Jan 2005Ontario Divisional Court dismisses Devgan's appeal of the conviction and penalty.
• 2007Convicted of fraud for bogus vitamin-and-hydrocortisone injections sold to the Harms family, a Wallaceburg Mennonite couple, as a cerebral-palsy "cure" for their twin sons — roughly $40,000 paid in cash over four years.
• Oct 2007Separately arrested and charged with fraud over $5,000 and failing to comply with a recognizance, for continuing to practise holistic/naturopathic medicine without a licence in Ontario and California; sentenced to three years for the Wallaceburg fraud.
• Nov 2007Jury convicts Devgan of a prescription-drug diversion scheme involving OxyContin and Hydromorphone.
• Feb 2008Sentenced to an additional five years (concurrent) for "serious breach of trust" — Justice Todd Ducharme, Ontario Superior Court.
• Jan 2009Dies in custody.