Authorities Raid Clinic of Cosmetician : Investigation: Officials suspect the woman of practicing medicine without a license by supervising plastic surgery on Southeast Asian immigrants.

Authorities Thursday raided the offices of a Westminster cosmetician suspected of practicing medicine without a license by supervising plastic surgery on scores of Southeast Asian immigrants.

Investigators from the California Medical Board are also looking into allegations that Cam Thach (Elizabeth) Thi Le, a Vietnamese immigrant with no medical license and no apparent medical training, has submitted hundreds of thousands of dollars in fraudulent medical claims to insurance companies.

Some of the patients claim that they were harmed by the surgery ordered by Le, who has not been charged with any crimes.

Investigators and some Vietnamese community members said the surgery was intended to make the Asian women “look more American,” according to Kathleen Schmidt, a senior investigator for the medical board.

But others said the surgeries weren’t intended to change their racial features and

were mainly to correct unattractive features.

“It’s not because they want to be Westernized and look like whites, they just want to be prettier,” said a prominent local physician, Dr. Co Dang Long Pham.

Investigators said Le specialized in plastic-surgery procedures that have gained increasing popularity among Asian women: changing the eyelid shape to make the eye look rounder, raising and narrowing the nose and breast augmentation.

Sources said Cam Thach Inc., Le’s company, advertised heavily in Vietnamese-language newspapers, promoting everything from removing acne scars to “fixing” lost virginity. One of the ads, in the newspaper Dan Chung, promotes facial peels, scar removal, abdominal-fat removal and “sexual organ surgery.”

Officials, noting that plastic surgery is quite lucrative, said they believe that Le made millions of dollars from her business. An eyelid operation can cost $1,000 and one prominent Vietnamese-American physician estimated that at least 20% of Indochinese women in the United States undergo such surgery.

Investigators said Le was dealing mostly in cash. Property records show that in 1988, Le paid $715,000 for a piece of land overlooking the ocean in Laguna Niguel. She is also listed as a co-owner in a $207,000 condominium on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles, purchased in 1980.

Le was reported to be visiting in Vietnam this week.

The medical board investigators, assisted by local police and state insurance and pharmacology agencies, also conducted simultaneous raids Thursday on the offices of Dr. David Page in Beverly Hills and Dr. James P. Voloshin in Newport Beach, plastic surgeons who allegedly performed surgical procedures at Le’s direction.

The investigators, executing search warrants at the three locations, seized medical records and questioned patients and employees but did not file any charges Thursday.

Felix Rodriguez, supervising agent of the medical board office in Santa Ana, said that criminal charges of practicing medicine without a license and grand theft could be filed in the case.

Page and Voloshin face possible charges of aiding Le and of conspiring to defraud insurance companies, Rodriguez said. The allegation against Le’s clinic, Rodriguez explained, is that it has been routinely billing insurance companies for cosmetic procedures that are not covered under insurance.

Cosmetic surgery is covered by insurance only if it is performed for medical reasons. Rodriguez alleged that Le’s clinic had been claiming the surgeries were for medical purposes, when in fact they were not.

Page and Voloshin also face possible disciplinary action against their medical licenses, investigators said.

Page declined comment through a woman at his office who identified herself as his wife.

“Dr. Page is completely innocent,” said the woman, who declined to give her first name.

Voloshin also could not be reached Thursday. A woman who answered the phone at his Newport Institute of Surgery said that Voloshin had once worked with Le but added, “That was a long time ago.”

Rodriguez said evidence seized in the raids will be presented to the Orange County district attorney’s office, which obtained the sealed warrants after reviewing evidence gathered in the medical board’s months-long investigation into Le’s business.

Rodriguez said the warrants were sealed to protect the identity of some witnesses, who told authorities that they feared possible repercussions.

Medical board investigator Larry Blochl, who is heading the case, said the board has received complaints about Le from a number of people, including patients who alleged that they were harmed by botched surgeries.

Blochl alleged that Le assists in surgical procedures and even performs some herself. She also conducts all post-operative treatment, Blochl said. He added that Le is a state-certified cosmetician, which only allows her to apply facial makeup.

One of Le’s clients filed a damage suit against the cosmetician in 1987, charging that a treatment performed by her clinic to remove blemishes and beauty marks left her permanently scarred, Orange County Superior Court documents reveal.

In an interview Thursday, Thanh Thi Nguyen said she had seen a Vietnamese-language newspaper advertisement for Le’s services and went to the cosmetician for a “face peel” in August, 1986.

After the treatment, Nguyen said, the skin on her face peeled, became covered with pus, and then blackened. She said she was left with a scar from eye to chin.

“She told me it would go away, but it hasn’t,” Nguyen said.

Four other Vietnamese patients have filed negligence and malpractice suits in Orange County Superior Court since 1985. One has been dismissed, while the others are pending. Le has filed court papers denying responsibility in all of those cases.

Staff writer Thuan Le contributed to this report.