Trial starts for woman charged in cancer treatment scheme

TULSA (AP) – The trial for a 71-year-old woman charged with fraud in an alleged cancer treatment scam has begun in Tulsa.

The Tulsa World reports that Antonella Carpenter faces 41 counts of fraud in her trial, which began Monday. She has pleaded not guilty.

Prosecutors say Carpenter claimed to be able to cure various kinds of cancer by using lasers to heat cancerous tissue injected with a mixture of saline solution and green dye or walnut hull extract. She operated treatment clinics formerly located in Owasso and Broken Arrow.

Prosecutors say Carpenter schemed to obtain money from cancer patients by false and fraudulent representations from November 2006 to December 2012.

Federal agents raided the Owasso clinic in 2012.

Carpenter previously operated similar clinics in Little Rock, Arkansas.