NEWS
By Tricia Bishop and Tricia Bishop,Tricia.bishop@baltsun.com | July 1, 2009
A Reisterstown pharmacist was arrested Tuesday morning on federal charges claiming he illegally sold more than 23,000 prescription pills. The amount is the equivalent of 63 kilograms of cocaine or nearly 28,000 pounds of marijuana, federal authorities said. A six-count indictment, unsealed Tuesday, alleges that Ketankumar Arvind Patel, 47, used his Medicine Shoppe Pharmacy at 11813 1/2 Reisterstown Road to fill phony prescriptions for the anti-anxiety medication Xanax, along with thousands of Oxycontin and Percocet pills, both of which contain oxycodone.
NEWS
By Lynn Anderson and Lynn Anderson,Sun reporter | April 15, 2008
A Columbia woman pleaded guilty to felony theft and conspiracy to commit theft in Baltimore Circuit Court yesterday as part of an elaborate plot to defraud the city school system of millions of dollars. Ashita Patel, 47, conspired with a business associate, Rajiv Dixit, to create a fake maintenance firm and to bill the school system for unnecessary work, according to attorneys with the Office of the State Prosecutor. At the time, Dixit was head of the school system's facilities and maintenance department, and he had the authority to sign off on invoices.
FEATURES
By Edward Gunts and Edward Gunts,Sun Architecture Critic | April 30, 2007
So many historic structures have been threatened with demolition in Baltimore lately that it almost seems hard to believe when someone moves to save a building. Especially when that someone volunteers to do so, rather than having to be prodded. That's what an Odenton developer wants to do with the Furncraft building, an early 20th-century warehouse at 301 Fallsway that has been home to a furniture store for the past 65 years. If all goes according to plan, the 100-year-old building will be reborn by mid-2008 as a 63-room Sleep Inn, within easy walking distance of downtown and the Inner Harbor.
NEWS
By Jill Rosen and Jill Rosen,Sun reporter | April 26, 2007
In Baltimore, where a downtown hotel stay easily costs $200 a night, a developer has ambitious plans that would bring three alternatives to the budget-conscious traveler. Sanket Patel, an Annapolis-based developer, plans to build side-by-side hotels, a $35 million project, on Front Street near the base of the Jones Falls Expressway. One would be a 63-room Sleep Inn to be built in the old Furncraft building. He would demolish the former Hillen Tire shop next door to build an 11-story Cambria Suites.
NEWS
By KELLY BREWINGTON and KELLY BREWINGTON,SUN REPORTER | May 30, 2006
The Baltimore engineering company recruited Raj Patel from Ontario, Canada. In the hope that he would stay for good, the firm applied for a green card from the federal immigration service to ensure that Patel would be able to live and work permanently in the United States. Patel seized the opportunity, expecting to become a legal permanent resident within a year. Two years later, he is among an estimated 350,000 skilled professionals forced to live in limbo as their applications meander through a huge backlog of immigration cases, a wait that can take a decade.
NEWS
By ANNIE LINSKEY and ANNIE LINSKEY,SUN REPORTER | April 12, 2006
Nilesh Patel owns a Subway sandwich store in Odenton. It's in a quiet part of town, he says, and since he took ownership of the establishment a year ago, things have gone smoothly. "It is a real good area, you know. It is real quiet," Patel said. But on April 3, the window of his store was smashed with a rock, the cash register was pried open and his safe was stolen. He said $2,281 was taken, and the store was damaged. Plus he lost a sense of security. "The employees who work nighttime, they are a little scared to work.