Inside GET-THIN
It’s a Friday afternoon and the movie “Moneyball” is playing in a medical clinic waiting room at 9001 Wilshire Blvd. in Beverly Hills.
No one is there to watch it, just rows of vacant chairs. Perhaps it’s just an off day, but on two other recent visits, no more than a handful of people could be found in the waiting room.
It was a much different scene two years ago, when a visitor to the Beverly Hills clinic found the waiting room packed, every seat filled and patients spilling out into an overflow area.
Most were after one thing: Lap-Band weight-loss surgery advertised in the 1-800-GET-THIN marketing campaign that blanketed Southern California freeway billboards and broadcast airwaves. Today, that campaign is nearly dead — most of the billboards have been removed, the catchy jingles lifted from local radio and TV broadcasts.
In December, the Food and Drug Administration warned the clinic and several affiliates that their 1-800-GET-THIN ad campaign was misleading because it did not include adequate warnings about the risks of the surgery. Two months later, Lap-Band makerAllergan Inc. said it would no longer sell the device to any of the clinics tied to 1-800-GET-THIN.
Last month, The Times reported that the Los Angeles Police Department’s Robbery-Homicide unit was investigating the September death of patient Paula Rojeski, 55, of Orange County.
She was one of five patients to die following Lap-Band procedures at clinics affiliated with 1-800-GET-THIN, according to lawsuits, autopsy reports and other public records. Other patients who died after surgeries, according to those same sources, were Willie Brooks, 35; Ana Renteria, 33; Laura Faitro, 50; and Tamara Walter, 52.
Lawsuits have alleged that the Lap-Band clinics are owned by brothers Michael and Julian Omidi, Iranian immigrants whose fast-lane lifestyles were chronicled on the E! Entertainment reality show “Dr. 90210” in 2004 and 2005. Both men have repeatedly declined interview requests from The Times.
VIDEO: Omidi brothers on ‘Dr. 90210’
“They clearly have had the bright light of government scrutiny on them and that has slowed their business,” said Alexander Robertson, a Westlake Village attorney who has filed several lawsuits against the Omidis on behalf of dead patients’ relatives, patients and former workers.
For a time, business was very good, former employees said in interviews and sworn testimony. In 2010, Julian Omidi said the clinics associated with the ad campaign — listed at 13 on the company’s website — were bringing in $21 million a month, Dr. Ihman Shamaan, who performed Lap-Band surgeries at the clinics, testified at a deposition.
The clinics offered a surgical solution to people suffering from chronic obesity: the implantation of a silicone ring — Allergan’s patented Lap-Band — around the stomach to discourage overeating. Allergan said the surgery typically costs $12,000 to $20,000, although lawsuits have alleged that some clients of the 1-800-GET-THIN clinics were charged more than $100,000.
GRAPHIC: How the Lap-Band works
Julian Omidi came up with the idea for the 1-800-GET-THIN advertising, according to Dr. H. Joseph Naim, who said he was the first surgeon to perform Lap-Band surgeries at the clinics.
Naim said he was riding as a passenger in Julian Omidi’s car on the 5 Freeway in 2008 when Omidi told him he had just purchased the rights for the toll-free number 1-800-GET-THIN.
“Julian is smart, a marketing genius,” Naim said. “He said he paid $50,000 for the number. But he had a vision he could make 1,000 times that. He did gamble and it paid off.”
The Omidis used aggressive advertising to grow their business, and lawsuits to threaten anyone they perceived as a threat to it, said Robertson, the attorney who has sued them several times.
The brothers — Julian is 43, Michael, 41 — and their affiliated companies have filed four lawsuits against The Times and its journalists, claiming the news organization’s articles and columns about patient deaths unfairly damaged their reputation and infringed their trademark.
Each suit was dismissed, and the Omidis and their companies were ordered to pay the newspaper’s legal costs.
They’ve also sued anonymous commenters who posted remarks on The Times’ website, seeking damages from people with such names as “RUJoking,” “RamonaInCorona,” and “OCChick.” The Times has been fighting efforts by the Omidis’ companies to learn the identities of the anonymous commenters.
Although the brothers have declined interviews, some of their story can be pieced together from public records and interviews with people who knew them.
They were born in Iran and moved to the United States as children, Julian Omidi said in a court filing. The family eventually settled in Irvine.
Julian Omidi graduated from University High School and enrolled at UC Irvine in 1986. He was a hardworking student, arriving on campus early in the morning, staying late and making few friends, according to court records.
He was expelled in 1990 after the university accused him of participating in the theft of exams from a campus office, the court records show.
He pleaded guilty to criminal burglary charges, which were dismissed after he completed probation and community service. Julian Omidi would later sue The Times, claiming it was inaccurate to report that he pleaded guilty because the charges were eventually dismissed. The lawsuit was dismissed.
After resolving the criminal case, Julian Omidi started his academic career anew, attending community college before earning his bachelor’s degree from Cal State Los Angeles.
Julian Omidi went on to medical school at St. Louis University, graduating with a distinction in research in 1996. His brother, Michael, graduated from the same medical school in 1997.
Julian Omidi “wasn’t the smartest guy in the class, but he was hardworking,” said Dr. Brian Borsook, a medical school classmate at St. Louis University. “He really pushed himself. He was one of the people who would usually be sitting in the front row and always try to answer questions to show what he knew.”
After medical school, the brothers returned to Southern California. Julian Omidi worked as a dermatologist, his younger brother as a plastic surgeon. They were shown on the E! reality show “Dr. 90210” consulting with patients, offering them younger-looking skin, larger breasts, fuller lips and streamlined stomachs.
“We’re going to make you look a little bit like Angelina Jolie,” Julian told one woman. “If you do a lot of these treatments when you’re young, you’ll never really get old.”
After work, they were shown dating young, attractive women, salsa dancing and hosting extravagant dinner parties.
“I think we have a very exciting life, much more exciting than I think most people,” Julian said in one of the episodes.
Neither of the two episodes in which they appeared dealt with tragedies their family had endured.
Their father, Firooz Omidi, committed suicide in 1996 by shooting himself in the head with a nail gun, according to Orange County sheriff’s and coroner’s reports. The 55-year-old patriarch had been despondent about financial problems with his construction business, according to the sheriff’s report.
In the months that followed, their mother, Cindy Omidi, declared bankruptcy and lost the family’s home in foreclosure, court records show.
The bankruptcy filing listed more than $1.07 million in liabilities — including $16,000 in medical bills — and $590,000 in assets.
Cindy Omidi went to work in the front office of her sons’ medical practice, Julian noted during the E! television show. She posed with her sons in an Iranian Yellow Pages ad for their medical business.
“My mom doesn’t look like my mom. She’s very, very attractive,” Julian said on one of the “Dr. 90210” episodes. “Everywhere we go people think she’s my wife or my girlfriend or my sister. It’s really nice to have her in the office ‘cause if a patient is really concerned about having some procedure done, I just say, ‘This is my mother.’ And then that’s it. There’s no headache.”
About the same time that those shows were airing, Julian approached former classmate Borsook about opening a chain of dermatology clinics, Borsook recalled.
The idea was for Julian to open a dermatology business at Borsook’s family practice in Torrance. The plan never materialized.
“He talked about the fact that his father was a builder and had some financial ups and downs,” Borsook said. “It was quite obvious that he was strongly motivated to succeed.”
However, in 2007 the Medical Board of California stripped Julian Omidi of his license. It accused him of dishonesty for failing to state on his application that he attended UC Irvine, which expelled him.
Julian Omidi sued the medical board in an attempt to regain his license, but a Superior Court judge upheld the revocation.
In 2008, the medical board placed Michael Omidi on three years’ probation for violating state law by performing surgeries on three patients — including one who appeared on “Dr. 90210” — at an unaccredited surgical facility.
The board’s accusation also faulted Michael Omidi for allowing a nurse — instead of a trained specialist — to administer anesthesia to a liposuction patient. The accusation also said he failed to properly document medication provided to patients.
In a settlement of the case, the board found only that he had performed surgeries at unaccredited facilities. Michael Omidi completed probation in fall 2011.
Unable to practice medicine, Julian Omidi focused on the business side of things. He dealt with insurers, supervising employees and increasing business through advertising, former employees said.
By 2010, the 1-800-GET-THIN campaign was in full swing. Ads featuring the catchy slogan “Let your new life begin, call 1-800-GET-THIN” became a fixture of Southern California advertising. Callers were referred to clinics including ones at 9001 Wilshire Blvd. in Beverly Hills and at 7320 Woodlake Ave. in West Hills, according to a wrongful termination lawsuit that two former workers filed against the Omidis.
“You’d have people spilling out onto the street on Wilshire, waiting to be seen,” Dr. Scott Bickman, an anesthesiologist, said of the Beverly Hills clinic. He said he worked on hundreds of Lap-Band surgeries for the Omidis.
Julian Omidi supervised employees who answered calls to 1-800-GET-THIN, while Michael Omidi oversaw medical decisions, including hiring and the purchase of medical supplies, former employees said in lawsuits and interviews.
Because the company is privately held, its finances are confidential. According to the California Department of Motor Vehicles, Michael Omidi owns a 2004 Lamborghini Murcielago. Records also show that Top Surgeons, a company affiliated with 1-800-GET-THIN, owns a 2006 Ferrari F430 Spider.
Public records do not tie the brothers to any real estate holdings.
Their mother, Cindy Omidi, now lists an $8.5-million estate in the Hollywood Hills as an address, according to public records. The 14,000-square-foot mansion on Sierra Alta Way was previously occupied by Rockstar Energy Drink founder Russell Weiner and Interscope Records co-founder Ted Field, property and campaign records show.
When she made a recent contribution to President Obama’s reelection campaign, Cindy Omidi listed the Hollywood Hills estate as her home address. Public records show the home was purchased in 2010 by a limited-liability corporation called FJKJ.
Shamaan, who performed Lap-Band surgeries at the clinics, testified that Michael Omidi put making money ahead of patient care.
“His god is money,” Shamaan said in the deposition for a wrongful-death lawsuit involving one of the patient deaths. “If the patient brings in money, he will give him service. His prerogative is not patient care, not patient safety, just ‘Can he pay?’”
That’s not the way the Omidis are portrayed on a number of websites in their names that have popped up on the Internet.
The sites, MichaelOmidi.net, MichaelOmidi.org, JulianOmidi.net and JulianOmidi.org, document philanthropic efforts by the brothers. One of the sites has a photograph of Michael Omidi posing with Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Sherman Oaks).
Sherman spokesman Ben Fishel said that his boss has taken thousands of photographs at public events with people he does not know, and that he does not know Michael Omidi.
Naim, the surgeon, said he stopped working for the Omidis because of his concerns that they were putting patients at risk by cutting costs. He said the surgery centers were understaffed and some employees were not properly trained.
Still, he said he holds no grudges.
“I could even have a drink with Julian. We have no problems personally,” Naim said. “But if you say, ‘Can I do surgery for him?’ I’d say, ‘No. Are you crazy?’”
