Two Doctors Appointed In Flagship Fraud Case

GALVESTON — U.S. District Court Magistrate John Froeschner appointed two psychiatrists to examine the operator of the Flagship Hotel.

Daniel Yeh, 52, faces federal charges stemming from the alleged use of fraudulent documents that bilked the Federal Emergency Management Agency out of at least $232,000.

Charges against Yeh include filing fraudulent reimbursement claims to get undeserved money from the agency. FEMA had been paying hotels to grant refuge to people left homeless by hurricanes Katrina and Rita last year.

Yeh has undergone three surgeries to remove brain tumors, and defense attorney Bob Bennett has said that Yeh was not competent to stand trial.

Froeschner on Friday appointed psychiatrists Victor Scarano and Robert G. Harper to the case.

Scarano is the chief of the Forensic Psychiatry Services and director of the Occupational and Forensic Psychiatry Program for the University of Houston Law Center. Harper is an associate professor of psychiatry at the Baylor College of Medicine.

— Scott E. Williams