Brave New World
The name Toyah Willcox conjures up images of wild hair, outlandish makeup and the distinctive voice and vibrant energy of the 1980s chart topper and star of cult classic Quadrophenia. But what happens ...
READ MORE ...Created on 07th September 2009
Arthur Kissel, an American man, who ran successful plastic surgery clinics in the United States and Canada, recently pleaded guilty to health insurance fraud.
Kissel and his Canadian wife, Sonia LaFontaine, ran the LaFontaine-Riche Cosmetic Surgery and Skin Care Centre in Toronto, Canada as well as other associated clinics in America including one in New York. The clinics made the couple a great deal of money.
Fraud investigators visited their New York plastic surgery clinic in 1995 but their operation came under real scrutiny in 1998 when a women died after having liposuction there. Another patient complained about a mole being removed with scissors against their will.
Investigators discovered that Sonia LaFontaine did not have a medical license. In addition to these problems, the clinics also came under fire for billing cosmetic surgery procedures such as liposuction and tummy tucks as medically necessary and submitted claims to insurance companies for operations that weren't actually performed. They also exaggerated the number of operations and their complexity on insurance claims.
Despite the evidence against her, LaFontaine was adamant about her medical 'calling'. She told one journalist that she decided to dedicate her life to making people look and feel better about themselves after she had a nose job when she was 17 years old.
She said: "I guess God gave me a gift, that I can see the way that a person could change for the better."
However, at her trial in 2000, her patients complained of having plastic surgery procedures done with instruments that looked like 'soldering irons.' They also complained of being subjected to high pressure sales tactics. LaFontaine was sentenced to 10 years after being found guilty of fraud.
Whilst she was in prison her husband fought extradition. It eventually took 10 years of legal wrangling before he was finally sent from Canada to America and to a US prison.
At his trial he pleaded guilty to health care fraud, mail fraud and conspiracy to commit mail fraud. He will be sentenced in December and faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a large fine.
