Ugliness in the Name of Beauty

Phony Cosmetic Practitioner's Needle Work Leaves Some Clients Worried About Health

LOS ANGELES -- The women sat around a Beverly Hills living room sipping cocktails on a Saturday, chatting with their friends and waiting their turn. Then one by one, they filed into a bathroom where they paid a handsome doctor with a charming accent $400 cash to plunge a syringe into their lips, foreheads, chins or cheeks.

He told them he was injecting Artecoll, the latest in a long list of wrinkle fillers they read about in fashion magazines. He told the women they were beautiful but said they would look better if their smile lines weren't so deep.

But it wasn't Artecoll, and the doctor wasn't a doctor, and if it struck some of the women as strange that he didn't wear gloves, wouldn't take checks, didn't ask about allergies, and, oh, yeah, worked out of a private bathroom, well, that's because it was.

Dr. Daniel Tomas Fuente Serrano was a fraud. "Dr. Daniel," as he was known, was not even licensed to practice medicine in the United States. And those syringes? Many of them contained liquid injectable silicone, an industrial-grade material that can be used to clean machines.

After a federal investigation that made its way through gated homes and posh spas in Beverly Hills, Fuente, 38, was arrested in November 2004. He posted $250,000 bond and was released after six months. A reporter was unable to locate him for comment on this article. Also arrested was his girlfriend, Diane Richie, ex-wife of singer Lionel Richie. She allegedly referred people to Fuente and allowed him to use her bathroom for the injections.

In December, Fuente struck a deal with prosecutors that will send him to prison for 18 months, and since then he has been cooperating with authorities. His tips helped prosecutors charge four more Beverly Hills cosmeticians with smuggling injectable cosmetic substances known as fillers. Federal agents are continuing to investigate Los Angeles plastic surgeons who buy smuggled or counterfeit fillers for little money and then sell them at high prices.

In Beverly Hills, where looking young is important and cosmetic injections are "just a part of a normal grooming routine" -- as one of Fuente's customers put it -- Fuente treated at least 40 wealthy women, and possibly many more. Some of the women, court documents show, developed holes in their faces, bumpy skin and other problems: permanently itchy eyes, disfigured faces with sagging cheeks and swollen eyes. They were also left with questions about what exactly was put into their bodies and how it might affect them over time.

The situation would be miserable for anyone; it is hideous for those vain enough to pay hundreds or thousands of dollars to look just a little bit prettier for a little bit longer.

"That little skunk," Shawn King said when asked about Fuente recently. King is a television personality and country music singer who is married to CNN's Larry King. The Kings live in Beverly Hills, and Shawn had 10 injections done by Fuente. She was left with a little bump on her lower lip that swells occasionally.

"I got a letter saying when he was going to be arraigned, and wish I would have gone back and just said, 'Daniel, tell me what you put in my face so I know what I'm living with the rest of my life,' " King said. "I have two small children, and I'd like to know what I'm in for."

"He got into a very private social network in Beverly Hills," said Bruce Roberts, a songwriter and record producer who was having lunch at a friend's home when one of the injection sessions took place. Fuente persuaded Roberts to have a small injection in his cheek, Roberts said. "It was sort of like this very bizarre Tupperware party. Everybody was very excited. It was like, 'Well I'm doing this, why don't you?' "

In April, Fuente will begin serving an 18-month sentence for conspiracy and smuggling silicone into the country from his native Argentina. Fuente also smuggled in Artecoll, which was not approved by the Food and Drug Administration at the time. The product has since been approved under the name Artefill.