ResearchDoc
Junior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Florida/Pennsylvania
My question regards a Medical Degree being subject to civil forfeiture. I have an M.D./Ph.D from a Florida University where I attended 2000-2007. From 2002-the end of my degree I ran a Web Blog that was dedicated to various topics, most of which were geeky computer, encryption, and privacy/technology issues (I have a Bioengineering undergrad degree). It became very popular, and I started using advertisements and pay-per-click ads. I was able avoid taking out the average 400k$ in loans per person for a combined program and only acquired 50K$ in loans for both me and my girlfriend in the same program. She also had a subblog on my server space in our home.
We both moved to PA at the end of 2007, and I sold my 3 big servers to help with the closing costs of our new house. I got a free netbook with a deal from Comcast, and added a blog detailing "Running a blog with just a netbook". It was hosted on a modest online serverspace, and enormously popular, and with just advertising alone from all the webpages over 15 months, I was able to defray 11000$ in Federal loans.
Where it gets interesting is that on my hosting site the girlfriend started a blog about natural abortion/contraception remedies, complete with relevant information, side effects, purchasing locations ect. She also detailed a blog "What to do when your employer insurance won't pay for contraception". It listed various ways to inquire about and get "free sample" birth control pills or IUDs while on a routine OB visit that are covered by "conscience objection policies". Her subblogs earned another 22000K in revenue since 2007, and we paid off our loans in entirety above that cost. Also, we paid all applicable taxes, state and Federal.
8 months ago we received a letter from a Florida Sheriffs department stating her webpages were in violation of Florida Statute "797.02 Advertising drugs, etc., for abortion", and were illegal even though we lived in Pennsylvania, and to remove them immediately. We didn't really consider it anything to worry about, but a month ago we received another letter in which we were notified that a criminal investigation was being conducted, and that any assets that were obtained from the ad revenue from the site were subject to civil forfeiture. I told them good luck getting the loan repayment money back from the Federal Department of Education. That is when they told us that the proceeds, that is, the final product of the loan repayment was subject to forfeiture, and the Florida Board of Governors could and would place a permanent hold on all transcripts and documents relating to the degrees. Additionally, any further income generated by the degrees (we are residents in Philadelphia) could also be subject to forfeiture. In addition, after the forfeiture, if we continued to the the title "MD/PhD" we could be in violation of a Florida statute that makes it illegal to use a doctoral title without holding the degree.
My question is can this really happen. This particular Sheriffs Department is notorious for "policing" the web, and I am just wondering whether any of this is legit, or they are just trying to scare us to achieve some political points. I talked to our Hospital counsel about the degree issue, and he just laughed and told me to worry about getting board certified and nothing else.
My question regards a Medical Degree being subject to civil forfeiture. I have an M.D./Ph.D from a Florida University where I attended 2000-2007. From 2002-the end of my degree I ran a Web Blog that was dedicated to various topics, most of which were geeky computer, encryption, and privacy/technology issues (I have a Bioengineering undergrad degree). It became very popular, and I started using advertisements and pay-per-click ads. I was able avoid taking out the average 400k$ in loans per person for a combined program and only acquired 50K$ in loans for both me and my girlfriend in the same program. She also had a subblog on my server space in our home.
We both moved to PA at the end of 2007, and I sold my 3 big servers to help with the closing costs of our new house. I got a free netbook with a deal from Comcast, and added a blog detailing "Running a blog with just a netbook". It was hosted on a modest online serverspace, and enormously popular, and with just advertising alone from all the webpages over 15 months, I was able to defray 11000$ in Federal loans.
Where it gets interesting is that on my hosting site the girlfriend started a blog about natural abortion/contraception remedies, complete with relevant information, side effects, purchasing locations ect. She also detailed a blog "What to do when your employer insurance won't pay for contraception". It listed various ways to inquire about and get "free sample" birth control pills or IUDs while on a routine OB visit that are covered by "conscience objection policies". Her subblogs earned another 22000K in revenue since 2007, and we paid off our loans in entirety above that cost. Also, we paid all applicable taxes, state and Federal.
8 months ago we received a letter from a Florida Sheriffs department stating her webpages were in violation of Florida Statute "797.02 Advertising drugs, etc., for abortion", and were illegal even though we lived in Pennsylvania, and to remove them immediately. We didn't really consider it anything to worry about, but a month ago we received another letter in which we were notified that a criminal investigation was being conducted, and that any assets that were obtained from the ad revenue from the site were subject to civil forfeiture. I told them good luck getting the loan repayment money back from the Federal Department of Education. That is when they told us that the proceeds, that is, the final product of the loan repayment was subject to forfeiture, and the Florida Board of Governors could and would place a permanent hold on all transcripts and documents relating to the degrees. Additionally, any further income generated by the degrees (we are residents in Philadelphia) could also be subject to forfeiture. In addition, after the forfeiture, if we continued to the the title "MD/PhD" we could be in violation of a Florida statute that makes it illegal to use a doctoral title without holding the degree.
My question is can this really happen. This particular Sheriffs Department is notorious for "policing" the web, and I am just wondering whether any of this is legit, or they are just trying to scare us to achieve some political points. I talked to our Hospital counsel about the degree issue, and he just laughed and told me to worry about getting board certified and nothing else.