Police Seize Suspected Phony Healer Wanted in France

An ex-police officer in France who allegedly posed as a healer and helped dupe thousands of terminally ill French people into buying phony remedies has been arrested in Escondido.

Philippe Sauvage, 39, was taken into custody Saturday at a car rental firm by Escondido police and FBI agents for allegedly masterminding the million-dollar healing scam, authorities said.

Sauvage was arrested at the request of French officials. He remains jailed without bail at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in San Diego pending a court hearing Tuesday.

At that hearing, prosecutors will try to prove he’s the man wanted in France. Extradition proceedings will follow, said Ron Orrantia, an FBI spokesman in San Diego.

Authorities in Paris say Sauvage appeared on a special French television broadcast about incurable diseases and claimed he could heal people through non-medical treatment.

Those people were charged exorbitant fees for the treatment, which failed, and several patients who interrupted their traditional medical treatments died as a result.

There is no evidence that Sauvage, also known as Youf Thierry, did the same thing in the United States, Orrantia said.

Sauvage, who was living in Oceanside, was arrested on a provisional warrant issued by a U.S. magistrate in San Diego, said William J. Esposito, the agent in charge of the FBI office in San Diego.

French authorities had been looking for him for more than a year. He has been charged there with fraud, attempted fraud, false publicity and illegally practicing medicine, the warrant said.

Sauvage allegedly participated in the French television program with five people who said he had healed their serious illnesses after conventional treatments failed, Orrantia said.

The show generated thousands of letters from viewers seeking Sauvage’s curing method. Hundreds of those people filed complaints in French courts over the next few months saying they paid up to $8,000 for unsuccessful treatments.

“He defrauded people of more than $1 million,” Orrantia said.

French authorities began investigating Sauvage in June, 1991. An arrest warrant was issued four months later, but Sauvage already had fled to Greenland, where he allegedly continued the scam. It’s unclear when he came to the United States, authorities said.

A weapon and an undisclosed amount of cash also were seized by agents when they arrested Sauvage, Esposito said.