AG Ferguson files lawsuit against Seattle-based plastic surgery clinic for bribing, threatening patients to falsely inflate its online ratings

103
u/HiddenStill
Thu Dec 29 23:01:14 2022 UTC
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Interesting
(38 comments)

This is about Allure Esthetic & Dr. Javad Sajan

This is interesting as it shows the difficulty of researching surgeons, and the importance of community reviews like this sub.

The page starts

Attorney General Bob Ferguson today filed a federal lawsuit against Allure Esthetic, a major plastic surgery provider in Seattle, and its owner, Dr. Javad Sajan, for falsely and illegally inflating its ratings on online rating platforms such as Yelp and Google. The company intimidated patients into removing negative reviews, and ordered its employees to post fake positive reviews.

Ferguson’s lawsuit asserts Allure and its owner broke the law in numerous ways, including by:

  • Requiring patients to sign unlawful non-disclosure agreements, before receiving any treatment, that restrict them from posting truthful reviews about their experiences with Allure. Over 10,000 people signed these NDAs.
  • Threatening to take legal action against patients, telling some patients it would sue them for monetary damages if they refused to delete their negative reviews.
  • Offering patients cash and free services or products for taking down their negative reviews.
  • Requiring patients who accepted these bribes to sign a second non-disclosure agreement stating they could face a $250,000 lawsuit if they continue to post negative reviews.
  • Editing “before and after” photos to make the results of its procedures look better than they actually were.
  • Applying for rebates on behalf of its patients without their consent and keeping those rebates. Allure used hundreds of fake email accounts to register for rebate programs intended for real patients. Allure received thousands of dollars every month from these rebates — rebates that should have gone to patients.
  • Ferguson filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington.

December 29, 2022 - https://www.atg.wa.gov/news/news-releases/ag-ferguson-files-lawsuit-against-seattle-based-plastic-surgery-clinic-bribing

There's plenty more on that page.

Edit:

You Tube

Other posts discussing this

all 38 comments


23
u/AutumnGlow33
Fri Dec 30 00:30:46 2022 UTC
(1 child)

Yikes! I looked at this doctor and even reached out to him. They take a lot of insurance but I was a little put off at how aggressively the office pursued me for a consult, even calling ME on the weekend trying to get me to book.

12
Mon Jan 2 18:43:13 2023 UTC
(0 children)

Oh that's another bad sign

20
u/mia_appia
Fri Dec 30 06:52:21 2022 UTC
(3 children)

Thanks for posting this because I have a consult with him next month!!! Will definitely be canceling.

4
Tue Mar 21 00:42:05 2023 UTC
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(2 children)

Were you able to cancel without losing money? I tried to cancel and they said my deposit was not refundable

3
Tue Mar 21 02:35:09 2023 UTC
(1 child)

Nope, I ate the deposit, but it's better than getting into a situation where I might be scammed.

3
OP
Tue Mar 21 04:12:29 2023 UTC
(0 children)

Getting botched or them going bankrupt due to all this after you paid it all would be what worries me.

14
u/chayadoing
Mon Jan 2 10:51:34 2023 UTC
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(1 child)

Use of stock photos is a big red flag

Also, I literally had to visit a third party website to figure out where he received training (another red flag).

https://www.doximity.com/pub/javad-sajan-md

His residency was in otolaryngology but apparently he has never completed a residency or fellowship in plastic surgery

Too many award icons and no publication list despite listing a bunch of journals he’s supposedly published to

2
Wed Apr 26 21:11:37 2023 UTC
(0 children)

No fellowship either in plastic surgery or cranial facial surgery. I saw someone singing praises of a surgery he did, but hard to see much when they have bangs and aren’t showing their full face. Private practice surgeons sketch me out tbh.

11
u/throwaway_1325476
Fri Dec 30 19:08:03 2022 UTC
(7 children)

I'm a trans woman in Seattle and the options for gender affirming surgery are so limited I want to leave the state. Thinking about moving to California so I can actually make progress in my transition. Glad I was never duped by this (mal)practice in my desperation...

3
Fri Dec 30 21:34:25 2022 UTC
(5 children)

Dr. Stiller does excellent SRS. He also does FFS but not aggressive bone work. I’ve had an awful time trying to get FFS in Washington via insurance and right now I am looking at getting on my BF’s plan through his work because I’ve given up on getting surgery through Medicare after being canceled on by two doctors and told I’ll have to wait 2-4 years for a consult by a third. This means marriage or registering as domestic partners or something but I am out of options. His insurance however means I can go to pretty much anyone I want.

7
Sat Jan 7 14:09:48 2023 UTC
(2 children)

dr tommy liu does ffs in seattle. i went w him and love my results

4
Sat Jan 7 17:14:06 2023 UTC
(1 child)

I really, really wanted to go to him. I had a consultation with him and was all set to go with him, but then his office called me a week before my consult to tell me he decided to drop my insurance plan. To say I was heartbroken and hurt was an understatement. I’m hoping if I can get married to my boyfriend that Dr. Liu is on my partner’s new insurance, but I will probably have to redo all of the waitlist and referral and everything from scratch and it’s easily set me back at least a few years.

2
Tue Jan 10 09:02:02 2023 UTC
(0 children)

I had ffs with Dr Liu last year and it went pretty great. Would definitely recommend him.

3
Wed Jan 4 19:50:44 2023 UTC
(1 child)

Yeah... I vaguely know a few women who went with Stiller for SRS but I have no idea if they like their results. When I contacted Stiller's office they made a bad first impression though, and honestly I don't want to go all the way to Spokane just for a consultation. I scheduled my FFS last year with FacialTeam in Spain (surgery is in March) because very few surgeons in this country impress me and none of those take my insurance (also Medicaid, you know how it only covers things "in theory"). I'll probably get all my surgeries abroad because I have medical PTSD from US hospitals and don't want to wait forever for mediocrity and abysmal aftercare at 10x the cost of elsewhere.

2
Mon Feb 20 23:29:23 2023 UTC
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(0 children)

I'm sorry you've been let down so hard. I understand reaching for the EU/Asia, but honestly Spokane is much closer and you'll want that if you have complications post-op. Dr. Stiller's office is a bit of a mess, and they all seem overworked, but he is not a bad choice at all as far as his work goes. He has results online if you care to look.

Please be careful with your choice if you're going abroad; several prominent surgeons are a shitshow rn.

1
Fri Apr 21 18:44:40 2023 UTC
(0 children)

Dr Berli down at OHSU. I hear his waitlist is very long. i sat through a consult with a femme friend and his work looked very impressive.

9
u/Active_Mango_8857
Wed Feb 1 22:27:24 2023 UTC
(0 children)

Good now prosecute Rumer for doing the exact same things.

5
u/Princessrubiie
Thu Jan 19 08:11:19 2023 UTC
(0 children)

I went to him for a breast aug consult in 2018. I had to sign the waiver prior to seeing him and I felt weird about it, especially since they had literally dozens and dozens of positive reviews online, it raised a red flag. When I met him I found him very disingenuous and knew within 1 minute I wasn’t going to go with him. I followed him on social media for a while after that and his bbls were shockingly bad. I knew something was up with him. Just had that feeling

6
u/AKsandfire
Thu Jan 5 18:18:23 2023 UTC
(9 children)

Oh shit... Dr Sajan did my top surgery. Good work but I'm having issues hes failing to address

3
OP
Thu Jan 5 21:17:02 2023 UTC
(3 children)

I can’t see how he will stay in business after this so I’d not count on anything more. The usual in these cases seems to be moving to Florida.

3
Thu Jan 5 21:24:33 2023 UTC
(1 child)

I just hope I can get a refund or compensation so I can go to an actually good surgeon

3
OP
Fri Jan 6 01:04:47 2023 UTC
(0 children)

From the YouTube video it sounds like you can contact the attorney general. It’s worth watching if you haven’t already.

2
Thu Mar 23 17:04:23 2023 UTC
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(0 children)

yes they just move to a different state and the bad news trail fades away. I went to a guy for body work in my town who had solid reviews and TV appearances and credentials, and a fancy office. He had good answers to all my questions so I paid my money and took my chances, and fortunately everything went very well.

Suddenly about 4 months later he was gone and I was searching around and found out his license to practice had been suspended. A few months later he popped up in CA then later in another state. One bad sign I've learned to watch for is surgeons running "specials". Surgery doesn't spoil like strawberries and poultry. If they're running specials and having coupon days, something is wrong. The only time when something like that might be rationalizable is in the middle of a deep recession because people stop elective surgeries to be able to pay rent. We all love a deal but we need to recognize flags when they're put in front of us.

1
OP
Mon Jan 23 12:30:21 2023 UTC
(0 children)

I guess up to now its been cheaper to not address issues - its not like patients have been able to do anything about it by writing negative reviews.

1
Tue Jan 17 17:52:34 2023 UTC
(3 children)

Hi May I know what issues are you having? Just had consultation w him for BA yesterday, and they’re actually nice and he sound really good on it

3
Tue Jan 17 23:34:33 2023 UTC
(2 children)

Complications with final results being far from what was explained. Says he'll fix it but... ehh... with all this idk if I wanna have him again

1
Mon Feb 20 23:31:42 2023 UTC
(1 child)

That sucks :( I'm sorry.

Dr. Mangubat does great work if you're looking for another opinion (chest reduction surgery at least). Honestly the first gender-affirming surgeon that I felt was down to earth, caring, really smart, and keyed into medical stuff going on outside his niche.

2
Tue Mar 21 00:49:15 2023 UTC
(0 children)

Dr mangubat makes you sign one of those non disparagement agreements too though so you can’t say something negative about your experience on social media. I was so excited to get it done I didn’t let that stop me but looking back it is a red flag and questionable legally.

4
u/_sendai_
Sun Jan 1 03:20:16 2023 UTC
(2 children)

I have actually followed him on Insta for a while. This is definitely an interesting turn of events.

9
OP
Sun Jan 1 03:23:13 2023 UTC
(1 child)

I don’t get a good impression from surgeon who are very active on social media. You got to wonder how much of their reputation is from advertising vs their surgical skills.

4
Sun Jan 1 03:27:09 2023 UTC
(0 children)

Yeah. I followed him more out of sheer curiosity as while I am now a nurse, I was a graphic artist and photoshop expert in my previous career. Some of his pictures always seemed suspect to me.

2
u/EmmaLake
Mon Jan 2 18:39:24 2023 UTC
(1 child)

I don't even recall a review of him her on r/transgender_surgeries

4
OP
Mon Jan 2 18:42:12 2023 UTC
(0 children)

More on the ftm subs I think.

2
u/Independent_Delay_31
Tue Mar 12 03:04:54 2024 UTC
(0 children)

I had my top surgery with him right before this lawsuit came out. He's not super personable, he probably spent a total of less than 1 hour speaking to me outside of surgery. I had a few requests for how my surgery should look and he said they were reasonable but my results were almost exactly what I didn't want. My first request was to leave some fat behind in my chest because I'm overweight and I feel like it would look unnatural to have a fully flat chest. My second request was I had very large nipples before surgery and I asked for my areolas to not be too small or too close together as I felt like that wouldn't make sense for my body. He said these requests were easy and doable, I showed pictures of what I wanted and he gave them a quick glance. He took no notes during our consultation. He made a few comments that I found strange including a suggestion I should get liposuction and that he was gonna make me look ripped, he was also constantly plugging his Instagram. His Instagram did concern me in a way that is hard to explain, just think scammy flat tummy tea influencer Instagram but plastic surgeon.

Very shortly before my surgery they had me do a video consent instead of a written one, which I found strange, in that video consent while I was being taped was the first and only time it was mentioned to me that Sajan was not a plastic surgeon. My face dropped and I wanted to leave the room but the sunk cost fallacy made me stay. I had already paid at least 500 dollars and set a date so I thought what the hell. I was also asked if Sajan could share my results on social media I initially agreed until it was explained that this included videoing me while I was under anesthesia, and my surgery itself. The cynic in me thinks Sajan may have put more effort into my surgery if he knew he was going to post my results. When I saw my results I was somewhat disappointed. My chest was completely flat my nipples are incredibly small probably an inch in diameter and one of them is completely off center. My scars are not neat and become lumpy towards the center of my chest. I understand surgery is not magic and I think I got what I paid for. I rushed my surgery and chose a doctor I didn't fully trust. I believe however Dr Sajan went into my surgery and gave me the one type of top surgery does and did not take my preferences into account. Sajan also tried to sell me on many other procedures which I found distasteful and greedy.

The saving grace of allure aesthetics is Sajan's other staff. Every nurse or secretary I interacted with was kind, friendly, knowledgeable, and trying their best. However I did find it suspicious that every single person I met in Sajan's office was a young beautiful woman(save for the anesthesiologist).

2
u/srwatkin
Tue Jul 2 08:54:38 2024 UTC
(0 children)

I was one of the first to refuse to take down a negative review after receiving threats from staff. It was several years ago but I still remember how unprofessional and strange initial contact was, how they somehow looked up my IG account and started posting comments on it. After they started creeping on my IG I left a one star on Google, then came the calls from staff threatening legal action. It was wild, I laughed and called their bluff. The snowballing of this case is hilarious. What a creep this Dr. is.

2
u/OdaMaeBrown
Mon Jan 13 05:30:07 2025 UTC
(0 children)

I had rhinoplasty with Dr. Santos after years of contemplation. Biggest regret of my life. The front desk gal pushed hard for me to utilize him, stating he was the best surgeon for faces. His method was outdated and he botched my nose and another surgery he performed simultaneously. He went in the opposite direction of my request. I have extremely low self esteem from this. I need to find a revision specialist. Stay away from this place. This is a marketing cash grab, in my opinion.

1
u/Electronic_Dinner812
Sun Jan 1 21:46:16 2023 UTC
(1 child)

Someone should leave start leaving reviews with this info in it.

1
OP
Sun Jan 1 21:55:49 2023 UTC
(0 children)

I’m sure people will, but here’s plenty of people who don’t do any research.