DUBAI: Man posing as top U.S. plastic surgeon arrested in Dubai

Posing as a renowned U.S. plastic surgeon, Steven Moos managed to lure scores of patients into his Dubai villa with rosy promises of beauty at a low cost, according to officials.

In his underground clinic, he allegedly nipped and tucked and performed various delicate cosmetic surgery procedures on customers lying on top of his kitchen table. Some local media reports say the conditions were so primitive that Moos, apparently lacking adequate surgical equipment, threw removed fat from liposuction operations into a cooking pot.

The Dubai police arrested Moos in February and charged him with endangering the lives of patients, impersonating a physician and carrying out unlicensed activities, reported the United Arab Emirates-based English newspaper the National.

Several of Moos' patients are said to be suffering from serious complications.

Dr. Jeehan Qadir, executive director of the American Academy of Cosmetic Surgery in Dubai, said she has seen at least two women who went under Moos' knife.

"There is one lady who has had about 10 procedures on her lips by this man. It is all cuts," she told the National.

“These women trusted him to do a good job. We are all very upset about what happened. Cosmetic surgery is something people think very hard about and this man has abused their trust," she added.

According to officials at the Dubai Health Authority, Moos was impersonating and using the good reputation of Dr. Steven Hopping, a top cosmetic surgeon based in Washington, D.C. Hopping performs a few surgeries per year at the American Academy of Cosmetic Surgery Hospital in Dubai.

The scam emerged when a patient in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) sent Hopping a fake business card with his name on it, asking if it really was him. Hopping immediately contacted the clinic in Dubai, which then notified the Dubai authorities.

Aside from facing legal charges in Dubai, Moos also is wanted in the U.S. by the FBI and Interpol on charges of drug trafficking and crimes against life and health, among others.

The online newspaper the Oregonian says that Moos previously worked as a doctor in the town of Tigard in Oregon and then fled the country after police found cocaine, marijuana and other illegal drugs at his million-dollar home, which he shares with his wife and four children.

According to the report, Moos got into trouble in 2000 when the Oregon Board of Medical Examiners fined him several thousands of dollars and put him on probation for 10 years for prescribing medications, including Viagra, over the Internet to people whom he'd never examined. Federal prosecutors also accused him of trying to import mislabeled human growth hormone from China.

Moos' medical license was revoked in 2003, and the authorities issued an arrest warrant for him in 2004 when he and his family disappeared, the report added.

His arrest in Dubai, however, does not mark the first time the Dubai authorities have busted bogus doctors.

In February, the Dubai police raided an illegal plastic surgery clinic that was being run out of an apartment in a crackdown on underground cosmetic salons.

When the squad barged onto the premises, they found unlicensed surgeons performing surgery on patients on makeshift beds. Surgical equipment was kept alongside with kitchen utensils in the apartment, reported the National.

-- Alexandra Sandels in Beirut

Photo: Steven Moos, who posed as a top U.S. plastic surgeon and who also is wanted by the FBI, has been arrested in Dubai. Credit: FBI

Comments

[Verballistic]

Response to "Jonesduckling":

Unfortunately, your clever jokes about "picking up the soap" aren't a sufficient enough smokescreen to cover up your flawed logic that falsely claim a foreigner in a Dubai prison is somehow better off than one in an American prison.

[Jonesduckling]

Unfortunately you do not recall correctly, Brine.
What you just described goes on in Saudi Arabia, not in Dubai. In Saudi they do beheadings for murder, not by firing squad. No one has been stoned for Adultery in ages in Saudi, the reason being there has to be 4 eye witnesses to the act, in order to enforce the stoning - or a confession.

In Dubai, the couple accused of having sexual intercourse (yes, I meant penetration) on a public beach in plain sight of minors - are still in jail.

He will be lucky if he gets imprisoned in Dubai. If the FBI "whisks" him out of the country, he will be jailed in the US, where he will have to pick up the soap...

[Brad]

at least he didnt draw a negative cartoon of mohamed..lol

[Brine]

Hands, if I recall correctly is for theft. For murder, it's beheading, and for adultery its stoning. I think they'll kill him by firing squad/hanging if they're allowed to execute him at all. Most likely, the FBI will whisk him out of the country to be tried in the US.

[Verballistic]

Glad to see Dubai is starting to get it right in the area of criminal justice, arresting fraudulent doctors instead of arresting couples kissing on the beach!!

BTW isnt that couple still doing time in a Dubai jail?