ENCINO : Charges Filed Over Hair-Loss Program

The Los Angeles city attorney’s office filed criminal charges Wednesday against an Encino man investigators said masqueraded as a physician, offering phony remedies for hair loss.

Alexander Leibman, 44, was charged with fraud, grand theft and practicing medicine without a license in connection with his operation of a hair-loss treatment program called An-Tech Research Labs on Ventura Boulevard.

Leibman, who faces arraignment Sept. 30 in Los Angeles Municipal Court, was not available for comment.

In one case, said Deputy City Atty. Fay Chu, authorities allege that Leibman defrauded a customer of $4,000 for a yearlong series of elaborate treatments to remedy hair loss that Leibman said was due to “bacteria around the hair roots and debris under his scalp.”

But after the treatment failed, an examination by a dermatologist revealed that the man was suffering from male pattern baldness, authorities said.

On another occasion, Leibman told an undercover investigator that he was a doctor, and diagnosed the agent’s hair-loss problem as being caused by “atrophied hair bulbs,” the city attorney’s office said in a news release.

A solution was then applied to the investigator’s scalp, the release said, and a heating cap placed over his head for about 15 minutes. Leibman allegedly then sold the investigator four bottles of shampoo and other solutions. Altogether, the agent was billed $213 for the treatment.

“People who have baldness concerns are easy targets for these things,” Chu said. “They just want to get their problems taken care of.”

Practicing medicine without a license and grand theft carry maximum penalties of up to a year in jail or a $1,000 fine or both.