Kingston psychiatrist shrinks from buying White Plains practice

A bankruptcy trustee has sued a Kingston psychiatrist to compel him to buy the psychiatric practice of a disgraced White Plains practitioner.

Albert Togut asked U.S. Bankruptcy Court on Nov. 1 to make Dr. Jonathan L. Kirsch pay $250,000 for the practice of former psychiatrist and current federal inmate Marc Laruelle.

Kirsch has failed to honor a contract to buy Laruelle’s practice, according to the complaint, has not responded to a subpoena for documents, has failed to attend court hearings and has not responded to the trustee’s phone calls and emails.

On Sept. 15, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Sean H. Lane found Kirsch in contempt and ordered him to pay $100 a day until he has complied with the subpoena and court orders.

Laruelle opened his office in March 2020, just as the Covid-19 pandemic was breaking out.

In October 2021, he petitioned for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, citing financial reverses “precipitated by serious health issues” that he did not specify.

He declared $1,085,950 in assets, consisting mostly of his condo in Yonkers, and $1,061,000 in liabilities, mostly from unpaid federal and state taxes and a foreclosure judgment on his condo. His goal, according to an affidavit, was to retain his home and pay the taxes.

Two weeks later, Laruelle was arrested on a federal narcotics charge for selling opioids without legitimate medical needs for five years. He had sold more than 100,000 doses of Oxycodone, as well as Xanax and Adderall, without examining or testing the patients. Undercover federal agents paid him $500 or more per prescriptions, with the understanding that the drugs would be resold on the black market.

Now, he conceded in a bankruptcy court filing, it was no longer feasible to operate his medical practice.

On Nov. 12, 2021, eight days after his arrest, he sold the practice to Kirsch for $250,000, contingent on bankruptcy court approval.

Laruelle eventually pled guilty to one count of distribution of narcotics.

For five decades, his attorneys stated in a sentencing memo, Laruelle was an upstanding citizen. He was a tenured professor at Harvard and Columbia, wrote peer-reviewed papers and lectured broadly.

Around 2002, he began exhibiting strange and erratic behavior, frequenting strip clubs and becoming enamored with exotic dancers. His marriage failed and he eventually married a dancer who, his lawyers said, drained Laruelle’s finances.

Eventually, he was diagnosed as bipolar, leaving him unable to control his behavior or make appropriate choices.

He was employed in temporary jobs in the region before starting his own practice. Despite making enough money, his lawyers stated in the sentencing memo, he stopped paying his mortgage, condo fees and taxes.

On Jan. 27th, federal judge Denise Cote in Manhattan sentenced him to four years in prison. Laruelle, 66, is being held at the minimum security federal prison in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania.

The bankruptcy case was converted in January from a Chapter 11 reorganization to a Chapter 7 liquidation. Togut was appointed the trustee to maximize assets for the benefit of Laruelle’s creditors.

He has accused Kirsch of breach of contract and is asking bankruptcy court to enforce a binding contract.

Kirsch did not reply to an email asking for his side of the story.