Los Angeles plastic surgeon exposed as decade-long fraud with no license
A famous plastic surgeon in Los Angeles was a fraud, operating without a license for a decade. The prosecutor's office filed several charges against him related to harming a patient.
5:03 PM EDT, August 24, 2024
Fifty-three-year-old Cristian Perez Latorre was arrested on August 22 by investigators from the Los Angeles prosecutor's office. The next day, the District Attorney's Office announced that the man, who allegedly performed plastic surgery on a woman without a medical license, was charged with assault and impersonation of a doctor. Latorre was released on bail set at $150,000.
The man had been pretending to be a licensed surgeon for years
Latorre's Instagram profile—which has over 20,000 followers—describes him as a "certified plastic surgeon" specializing in facial procedures. In one of the posts, he claimed that he was from Barcelona, while on Facebook, he stated he is from Argentina. His purported LinkedIn page claims he has a medical degree from the University of Buenos Aires. Latorre had been practicing plastic surgery in Los Angeles for a decade and gained local media recognition.
Prosecutors determined that on July 13, 2021, Latorre performed an "unlicensed cosmetic surgery." Ten days later, he treated the same patient for infections that developed due to the surgery. According to the district attorney's office, on August 13, 2021, he again operated on the woman due to additional surgical complications. He was charged with assault with a deadly weapon, bodily harm with serious injuries, and six counts of practicing medicine without certification.
Popular Los Angeles surgeon did not have a medical license
Bizarre photo sessions with models promoted Cristian Perez Latorre's services online. He posed, among other things, pretending to bandage them or with women lying next to him with marked surgery contours. Even major TV stations believed in Latorre's professionalism, including CNN, which interviewed him for its Español edition in June 2014. In 2023, Latorre gave extensive interviews to Spanish-language television about the illness and subsequent death of Argentine actress Silvina Luna. The woman died on August 31, 2023, due to kidney disease associated with complications from a Brazilian butt lift performed by another plastic surgeon.
District Attorney George Gascón emphasized in a statement about the Latorre case: "When an individual masquerades as a doctor and performs medical procedures without a license, it not only endangers lives but also erodes the essential trust between patients and legitimate healthcare providers." The prosecutor added, "We are committed to seeking justice for the victim, holding Mr. Latorre accountable and restoring the trust that has been so grievously violated."
