To the general public, Cristian Perez Latorre appeared to reside a lifetime of success and aptitude, attracting tens of 1000’s of Instagram followers for his beauty surgical procedure enterprise, posing in photographs with actors and hobnobbing with worldwide fashions. On social media, he would dole out video recommendation on botox, sound baths and the hazards of injected liquid silicone.
However a minimum of a part of the time, the self-described “facial specialist” who additionally ran an “aura therapeutic” enterprise was illegally performing beauty surgical procedure and not using a license, ensuing “nice bodily damage” to a minimum of one shopper in 2021, in line with L.A. County prosecutors.
Latorre, 53, was arrested Thursday and has been charged with assault and battery after “impersonating a health care provider and performing beauty surgical procedure with out the correct license,” the L.A. County District Lawyer’s Workplace mentioned in a press release.
He was launched Friday on a $150,000 bond, in line with jail data and prosecutors.
Los Angeles County District Lawyer George Gascón introduced in the present day that Cristian Perez Latorre has been charged with assault and battery after impersonating a health care provider and performing beauty surgical procedure with out the correct license on a girl in Los Angeles in July 2021.
(Los Angeles County District Lawyer)
Whereas Latorre marketed himself on his Instagram and different social media as a “plastic surgeon board licensed” in Argentina and a “registered nurse first assistant” within the U.S. who labored on “academic medical instructing,” regulation enforcement mentioned that his medical {qualifications} have been lower than par when he handled a girl 3 times in 2021.
The primary befell on July 13 of that yr, when prosecutors say he “carried out an unlicensed beauty surgical procedure” on the affected person. Ten days later, he handled her for infections that happened on account of the surgical procedure. Then, on Aug. 13, he once more handled the affected person for “additional issues” from the surgical procedure, the D.A.’s workplace mentioned.
The D.A.’s information launch doesn’t specify what the issues have been or why the costs have been filed three years after the alleged crime.
Latorre faces one depend of “assault with a lethal weapon” and one other of “battery with severe damage.” He is also charged with six counts of “practising drugs and not using a certification.”
If convicted on these fees, he may serve as much as 10 years in state jail.
“When a person masquerades as a health care provider and performs medical procedures and not using a license, it not solely endangers lives but additionally erodes the important belief between sufferers and legit healthcare suppliers,” Dist. Atty. George Gascón mentioned in a press release. “This act of deception threatens the integrity of our healthcare system and the boldness that the neighborhood has in these devoted to their well-being.”
Kathleen Nicholls, chief of the state’s Division of Client Affairs’ investigative division, which took half within the investigation, mentioned in a press release that “there isn’t a excuse for the unlicensed observe of drugs, and it’ll not be tolerated. Anybody who violates the regulation and endangers the well being of others should face the results of harmful and egocentric actions.”
It’s unclear how lengthy Latorre had practiced beauty surgical procedure in California or how lengthy he’d been unlicensed. An Instagram account that matches his identify and likeness has greater than 20,000 followers and exhibits photographs of him posing with celebrities together with actor Mickey Rourke.
The allegations in opposition to Latorre are amongst a spate of these not too long ago made by regulation enforcement or beauty surgical procedure shoppers in an trade that’s much less strictly regulated than different medical fields. It’s additionally an trade that’s booming. Based on a Fortune Enterprise Insights report, the North American marketplace for beauty surgical procedure final yr was estimated to quantity to greater than $18 billion.
California has its personal guidelines about who qualifies as “board licensed.” The state permits the label for docs licensed by the American Board of Plastic Surgical procedure, which requires U.S.-trained physicians to have as much as eight years of surgical coaching that features a minimum of three years of cosmetic surgery residency.
The state doesn’t enable the label for these licensed by the American Board of Beauty Surgical procedure, which says surgeons should have at one yr of fellowship coaching in beauty surgical procedure after they end residency in certainly one of a number of accepted fields
As well as working in beauty surgical procedure, Latorre additionally marketed himself as a co-founder of an “aura therapeutic” on-line retailer. It sells a wide range of gadgets, together with palo santo and sage candles, crystals, and juice detox plans that begin at $110.
Occasions workers author Emily Alpert Reyes contributed to this report.
