SOURCE : THE NATIONAL

Dubai - April 07: A disgraced doctor arrested in Dubai for performing unlicensed plastic surgery in his kitchen is wanted by the FBI and Interpol and had been barred from practising medicine in the US.

Steven Moos was arrested in February, accused of luring scores of patients to his Al Barsha villa by posing as a respected US cosmetic surgeon named Dr Steven Hopping.

There, police say, he performed operations on his kitchen table.

Mr Moos is charged with endangering his patient’s lives, impersonating a physician and carrying out a unlicensed activities, Brig Khalil al Mansouri, the head of the Dubai CID, said yesterday.

He is already wanted by the FBI and Interpol on charges including possession and trafficking of drugs, crimes against life and health and giving false statements to the Government. Some of the charges date back to 2004.

According to Dubai Health Authority officials, Mr Moos was trading on Dr Hopping’s name and reputation as a top US surgeon. The real Dr Hopping visits Dubai three or four times each year to perform surgery at the American Academy of Cosmetic Surgery Hospital in Dubai Healthcare City.

Dr Hopping, who is based in Washington DC, told The National he was “angry and upset”.

It is unclear when Mr Moos arrived in the country but police said he was previously arrested in Sharjah and referred to the Abu Dhabi authorities.

He was released on bail while his criminal file information was verified. He continued, however, to work out of his villa until his re-arrest in February.

Described by the FBI as a “known user of narcotics” and having possible ties to Mexico and China, Mr Moos is no stranger to the law.

The Oregon Board of Medical Examiners put him on probation for 10 years in 2000 for problems associated with advertising and selling prescription drugs on the internet.

That, however, did not stop him from repeatedly breaking the law over the following few years.

According to the Oregon Department of Justice, the medical board subsequently became aware of “additional misconduct” relating to unlawful drug use and practising in California without a licence. His licence was revoked in July 2004.

A US federal arrest warrant was issued a month before this, charging him with four counts of medical fraud, according to the FBI. The charges related to a 2003 lawsuit brought by the Oregon attorney general, Hardy Myers, which claimed Mr Moos violated consumer protection laws and illegally imported a human growth hormone from China.

He was also accused of claiming that a gel he sold on the internet contained the same active ingredient as the anti-impotence drug Viagra.

The 2004 judgement ordered Mr Moos, in absentia, to pay US$400,000 (Dh1.47 million) in civil penalties and more than $11,000 in costs.

According to local newspaper reports, he left the US in 2004. It is believed he went to work in a clinic in Beijing before moving here.

Dr Jeehan Qadir, the executive director at the American Academy of Cosmetic Surgery, where the real Dr Hopping operates, said she believed Mr Moos was already impersonating Dr Hopping in 2007, when the Dubai clinic opened.

Dr Hopping alerted the clinic after a patient from the UAE sent him the a fake business card with his name on it. The clinic then notified the health authority, which launched its joint operation with the police.

“I had a patient who sent me this man’s business card from Dubai and asked ‘Is this really you?’” Dr Hopping said from Washington.

It was not.

“The scary thing is that there is no way of knowing exactly what he was doing while he was pretending to be me,” Dr Hopping said.

“Was he using sterile equipment and needles? If not, he could have been spreading all kinds of diseases, like HIV.

“This is surgery and there can be complications. I was very angry and upset when I heard about it.”

Also angry are the doctors dealing with the problems allegedly created by Mr Moos.

Dr Qadir said she had seen at least two women on whom Mr Moos had performed surgery. “These women trusted him to do a good job,” she said. “There is one lady who has had about 10 procedures on her lips by this man. It is all cuts.

“I know he performed liposuction and fats transfers, too. These are serious procedures and need to be done carefully.

“We are all very upset about what happened,” she added. “Cosmetic surgery is something people think very hard about and this man has abused their trust.”