A migrant from the Congo with a long history of fraud remains on the run from law enforcement after being sentenced to over six years in prison for posing as a fake psychiatrist. The man, Clive Lygidre Etitie, was convicted for treating 521 psychiatric patients, many of them in a fragile mental state, at the New Psychiatric Hospital in the French city of Navarre.
For nearly two years, between November 2015 and May 2017, the Congolese man utilized a fake Romanian psychiatric diploma to treat patients, including making diagnoses and distributing psychotropic medication. He was also involved in counseling patients, in which patients are said to have divulged sensitive information about their mental state.
There is no telling how much damage the man did to hundreds of patients, all due to authorities failing to conduct a proper background check on the fake foreign doctor.
The convicted man, Etitie, had already been tracked in the past for posing as a nurse by the Jura Primary Health Insurance Fund (CPAM), which is seeking €125,000 in damages against the man in a civil case. CPAM actually discovered the man was working at the New Psychiatric Hospital while it was conducting research on his various medical frauds dating back to 2014.
Just to highlight what a failure French authorities were is the fact that when he was hired as a psychiatrist, he had already been convicted in 2014 by the Lyon Criminal Court for “illegal practice of nursing.”
As the French newspaper Paris Normandie wrote, “His whole life is nothing but lies. And running away.”
During searches of his home and car, police discovered 16 false administrative documents, including fake diplomas, and ink stamps issued by French and foreign government agencies. It was also during this search that investigators discovered that, in addition to his psychiatric treatment, he had also been receiving Responsible Social Security (RSA) social benefits since September 2015.
In October 2024, the African migrant was sentenced in his absence to four and a half years in prison and “a permanent ban on practicing a health-related profession by the Évreux Criminal Court.” However, the fraud appealed the decision.
He was imprisoned at the time, but the court ordered his release. Now, Etitie remains on the run.
Etitie’s appeal did not go as planned either, with the Rouen Court of Appeal only adding to his sentence. On Oct. 20, 2025, he was sentenced to six years in prison. If police ever find the man, he will have to serve his sentence.
Remarkably, French police have not released any mugshot or photo of Etitie, despite the man being on the run from law enforcement for his grave medical fraud.
Medical fraud and foreigners
The case harkens back to the major fraud problems that are presented with foreign medical labor, with this type of case being seen again and again. In Germany, Saudi national Taleb al-Abdulmohsen treated psychiatric patients for years before driving a vehicle into a massive crowd at a Christmas market last year. Remix News reported on the man’s extraordinary case, in which he received medical licenses despite incredible red flags and fraud. He was seen as so incompetent at his job that fellow medical staffers named him “Dr. Google.”
As Remix News previously detailed in 2023, Europe has been pillaging Africa’s doctors. The doctors who are valuable should be available to those in Africa, where medical services are far worse off. However, the report details how many fraudsters are making their way into Europe’s medical system.
Furthermore, the quality of many foreign doctors is highly questionable.
While many doctors and nurses in the Middle East and Africa have legitimate medical credentials, it cannot be denied that Africa and the Middle East feature some of the most corrupt countries in the world. In turn, there has been a serious issue with medical degree corruption. This has been seen in a range of countries, including South Africa, in which students trade cash bribes for diplomas and other qualifications. The reality is that many of these schemes go largely undetected. In Liberia, officials claimed one medical school was a “diploma mill,” only for the school operator to turn around and claim the officials threatened to shut down his university if he did not pay them bribes.
In countries such as the U.K., doctors have been found to have been working for up to 19 years with fake medical degrees.
🇸🇾🇩🇪 German politicians are spreading misleading information about Syrian doctors working in Germany.
5,000 Syrian doctors may sound like a lot, but there are 420,000 doctors in Germany. The number of Syrian doctors is approximately just enough to cover the 1 million Syrian… pic.twitter.com/fHJh9945y9
— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) December 30, 2024The practice of fake doctors carrying degrees from fake medical schools is widespread in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. While a fake degree may not be enough to gain a visa to Europe, more elaborate schemes have a far better chance of fooling European authorities.
Even in Europe, the issue of cash for medical diplomas exists, particularly in countries such as Ukraine. The country’s universities not only train Ukrainians for the medical profession, but also a wide range of foreign students who earn their degree in the country. Other nations like Romania face a medical system so corrupt that many doctors are choosing to work elsewhere, but that same corruption may follow these workers into their new host countries.
While there are many talented doctors and healthcare workers outside of Europe, the problem for these nations is that more money and a better quality of life can be had in the West. For both the fraudsters and the skilled, the West remains a major draw.
