Originally published at: Grifters "befriend" Malibu doctor, pretend to be caregivers, give him LSD, and steal $3 million | Boing Boing
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I hope he wasn’t performing eye surgery when he was tripping balls.
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I was JUST looking at that old Charlie the Unicorn toon.
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What kind of doctor has that kind of money? A Malibu doctor!
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The grifters only wanted enough to wet their beaks.
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Moore and Flores could face decades in prison if convicted on all the charges.
With grifters like this, it’s never just one victim. They’re seeking new victims constantly. No matter whether the victims are good people or not so good people, the methods and self-entitlement by these criminal gangs (whether it’s con artists, strong-arm robberies, or even “military exercises”) it’s still the same, and jail time is well deserved. 
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I looked him up. He performed LASIK, Blepharoplasty, Cataract, Glaucoma, and retinal laser surgery. The “cheapest” of those is the cataract, followed by retinal surgery. The LASIK and Blepharoplasty are the big ticket surgeries, considered cosmetic for most cases and therefore not covered by insurance, so the practice retains everything they charge, instead of being capped by insurance. Don’t know about glaucoma, but it is a common serious medical condition, so treatment is covered (and limited) by insurance, though I don’t know if coverage includes surgery.
An eye doctor can earn upwards a million a year or more, though I would worry if their day is filled doing surgeries (for various reasons). He probably also invested in medical equipment and Pharma companies, as well as other investments (he had a broker).
His malpractice insurance was also through the roof, since so much can go wrong with the eye, and loss of vision is life altering. My guess is he was probably paying around $30,000 to $50,000 a year for malpractice. The more surgeries, the higher the amount, and plastic surgery is even higher than that.
He had a pretty impressive resume: Mark R. Sawusch MD Inc. PACIFIC LASIK.COM
(I am assuming this is the guy, the name is relatively uncommon, and he shows up in multiple aggregator sources.)
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I saw the same scammer at work on two different days. Her act was to pretend that her car had broken down and she needed money to get home. She had a set of car keys in her hand, so if I was feeling bolder I would have asked her to show me her car and unlock it.
I can’t remember whether it was the first time or the second time, but after I’d walked away I saw an accomplice pick her up in a car and drop her off further down the road.
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We had plenty of those when I was at university…like flies to honey (as in, young naive students). What I’m thinking more of are folks like Robert Hendy-Freegard. People who manipulate the hell out of whoever they are trying to scam.
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Never give anyone acid without their knowledge or approval, obviously.
But if you are going to do acid the important thing is to remember to collect all the fireflies in your house and put them in the dishwasher with the badger that lives there. Then you’ll be safe from the vampires.
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This story reinforces my ideas about not letting strangers feed me! Reminiscent of Rosemary’s Baby. Only the Devil was inside the house…
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LASIK is a real cash cow for eye surgeons, no question. The whole procedure only takes about five minutes and the machine does everything. When I had mine done about 20 years ago in Los Angeles, it’s clear the doc was doing at least 50 people a day. Maybe even 100. The office was set up like an assembly line. He was charging $2500 per eye. That’s good work if you can get it.
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Out my way it’s about $3000 an eye. Assembly line surgeries are a huge concern to me, since it implies the surgeon isn’t really devoting a lot of attention to the patient and what could go wrong. It also implies the surgeon isn’t really considering what is best for the patient, just trying to churn the numbers.
For the longest time I had eye doctors really push LASIK on me. I am very myopic. I’d ask what the chances of having 20/20 vision after the procedure. Answer: 0%, maybe I’d get to -3, -2.5. So I’d ask: “why should I pay $6000 to still need glasses?” No good reply, sometime a weak “they won’t be as thick.”
I’ve always said: “for profit” and “good health care” are incompatible.
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