Who is Dr. Warter?

Carlos Warter M.D. is an author, physician, psychiatrist and psychotherapist.

For almost 50 years he has devoted his life to help people heal, discover themselves and improve their lives.  Dr. Warter has won numerous humanitarian awards including the United Nations Peace Messenger and the Pax Mundi Awards and was inducted as a Knight Grand Cross of the Sovereign Order of Saint John of Jerusalem (Knights of Malta) in recognition of his services to humanity.

In the early 1980s he founded The World Health Foundation for Development and Peace which has sponsored charitable works through its "Drop of Honey" initiatives around the globe.  His programs have helped thousands of people raise their self-esteem, establish cross-cultural connections and create a more whole and balanced life for themselves

Dr. Warter was born and raised in Santiago, Chile. Married for over 30 years and a father of four beautiful and successful children, Dr. Warter and his wife, who was born in Argentina, currently reside in Southern California where he maintains his practice and continues his writing.

How does Dr. Warter respond to the negative information on the Internet?

Psychsearch.net: This site is run by Ken Kramer who is affiliated with Scientology.

Scientology’s goal is to end the practice of psychiatry. This site collects and posts all publicly available negative information about psychiatrists in general. It does not reveal its purpose nor its link to Scientology and poses as a “research” site so that people will be fooled into believing it’s content is true.  Even the name is misleading because people at first assume is it a way to find psychologists or psychiatrists.

While it does post factual content, it does so in a way that puts psychiatry and psychiatrists in the worst possible light and, by not disclosing its affiliations and intentions, it pretends to be an unbiased news source rather than a covert attack on a very important modern healing modality.

Why was there an indictment against Dr. Warter?

Dr. Warter had a thriving practice in Honolulu, Hawaii for over five years.  During that time, he saw thousands of patients and treated them for various mental illnesses including drug addiction, PTSD and depression.  He ran his practice out of a small office and his wife provided all the administrative services.  As any doctor today, Dr. Warter had to navigate a vast and confusing array of insurance services that included Medicare, Medicaid, Tricare (military) and private insurance, and each one has different rules and standards of care and billing that had to be met.

In 2009, Dr. Warter closed his practice and moved to Argentina to be closer to his oldest children who were studying in that country. In 2010, the State of Hawaii indicted Dr. Warter for improper billing of insurance for his services. In the indictment the state asserted that he had “received over $500,000 in insurance reimbursements, to which he was not entirely entitled” (emphasis added).

It was with the word “entirely” that the case against Dr. Warter began to fall apart, once all the counts of over-billing in the indictment were fully disclosed and totaled, the actual amount under dispute was exactly $3,500 over a five-year period. This amounted to less than 1% of Dr. Warter’s total billings over that period.

When did the case get dismissed?

In 2015 the indictment was fully dismissed by the US Attorney.

Where was Dr. Warter living during this time?

When these charges were filed, Dr. Warter was living in Argentina. He has four children, three of whom were studying in Argentina during this time, and he was publicly doing seminars, retreats and talks in Argentina.

Why did the US try to extradite him for a civil issue?

It is not clear to this day why this minor civil indictment led to a criminal extradition request to Argentina.  

However, at that time Dr. Warter was suing Bank of America to recover funds that had been embezzled from him through the account executive Patricio Pusso who worked at Boston Securities (owned by Banc Boston, later Bank of America). During the discovery phase of Hawaii case, Dr. Warter’s attorney inadvertently received a fax from the US Attorney prosecuting Dr. Warter that was intended to aid the external counsel to B of A. That US Attorney had faxed the indictment to his friend representing B of A before it was unsealed and said, “Hope this helps you with your Warter case”.   That correspondence became the proof that there was some collusion between the US Attorney in Hawaii and the lawyer for the Bank of America.

While Dr. Warter makes no formal accusations, this seems at the very least to be unethical.

Were the charges fully dismissed?

Yes. On July 10, 2015, the charges were fully dismissed in the "interest of justice and humanitarian reasons” and the extradition process was immediately stopped.

Was Dr. Warter ever convicted of a crime?

Yes.  In 1978, Dr. Warter pled no contest after one of his staff was caught submitting falsified reports to Medicare. The social worker, a 52-year old named Mary K. from New York, had been facilitating women’s group therapy sessions at Dr. Warter’s practice. As the supervising doctor he was responsible for the actions of his staff, and he had signed off on the reports in question without verifying the hours. When confronted about the reports, the therapist immediately fled the state and Dr. Warter took responsibility. As a young 27-year old psychiatrist, he apologized for his poor judgement and voluntarily surrendered his license.