Three Indicted on 27 Counts of Cosmetic Surgery Fraud

The Orange County Grand Jury on Friday indicted two plastic surgeons and a former local cosmetician on 27 felony counts of alleged fee splitting, filing false insurance claims and practicing medicine without a license.

Plastic surgeons Alexander S. Sinclair of Pacific Palisades and David Paige of Beverly Hills, and cosmetician Cam Thach Thi Le of Los Angeles performed cosmetic surgeries that were fraudulently billed as medically necessary procedures, according to the indictments.

According to prosecutors, Le, who owned Cam Thach Inc. in Westminster’s Little Saigon, advertised her business as a cosmetic surgery clinic, offering surgical procedures performed by plastic surgeons.

She rented rooms to Sinclair and Page, who performed cosmetic surgeries that were then fraudulently billed as medically necessary procedures, prosecutors said.

The doctors split the insurance money with Le, prosecutors alleged. Sinclair and Page also allowed Le, who is not licensed to practice medicine, to perform surgical procedures in their presence, prosecutors said.

Harland W. Braun, Sinclair’s attorney, disputed the allegation Friday, saying Le’s service was used as “cultural input.”

“Dr. Sinclair doesn’t speak Vietnamese so (Le) had to talk to the patients and describe to him what kind of nose or cosmetic procedures the Vietnamese want,” Braun said. “Dr. Sinclair has done nothing wrong.”

Sinclair, Page and Le were scheduled to be arraigned next Thursday.