Doctor, wife accused of defrauding patients
A Las Vegas physician and his wife were arrested at their home Thursday morning after a federal grand jury accused them of scheming to defraud patients by treating them with an unapproved botulism toxin instead of the more expensive anti-wrinkle drug Botox.
Dr. Stephen Lee Seldon, 52, and his wife, Deborah Martinez Seldon, 39, appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert Johnston later in the day and pleaded not guilty to 14 counts of mail fraud and one count of misbranding a drug while held for sale.
“By misrepresenting to the patients of their medical practice the true nature of the product they were using, Stephen Lee Seldon and Deborah Martinez Seldon enriched themselves while exposing patients to severe health risks,” according to a federal indictment that was unsealed Thursday.
Johnston released the defendants on their own recognizance but ordered them to remain within Clark County. Their trial is scheduled for Aug. 27.
According to a statement from the U.S. attorney’s office in Las Vegas, the couple operates A New You Medical Aesthetics at 3663 E. Sunset Road, Suite 303. The statements described Deborah Seldon as manager of her husband’s medical practice.
Deborah Seldon has retained attorney Donn Ianuzi to represent her. After the couple’s arraignment Thursday, Ianuzi said they knew they were the targets of a criminal investigation but did not know about the indictment until they were arrested.
“The Seldons maintain that they have never used non-approved Botox on their patients,” Ianuzi said.
Beginning in October 2003, according to the indictment, Stephen Seldon purchased the cheaper Botox alternative, known as botulinum toxin type A, without alerting his patients.
The indictment claims the couple purchased more than $86,000 of the drug by mail from Tucson, Ariz.-based Toxin Research International Inc., which labeled it for “Research purposes only, not for human use.”
Stephen Seldon had not retained a lawyer as of his arraignment Thursday. Assistant U.S. Attorney Crane Pomerantz told Johnston that the defendant has an annual income of $800,000 and “ample assets” to hire a lawyer.
When questioned about his health in court, Stephen Seldon said he fractured his pelvis and ribs in a horseback riding accident in October. He also said he has developed heart problems and takes five different medications.
According to the statement for the U.S. attorney’s office, the case against the Seldons grew out of an investigation of Toxin Research International and its principal owners, Chad Livdahl and Zahra Karim.
In 2005, Livdahl and Karim were convicted of conspiracy and mail fraud in the U.S. District Court in the Southern District of Florida for selling almost $2 million of the Botox substitute to doctors.
Stephen Seldon has been licensed to practice medicine in Nevada since February 1995, according to the state Board of Medical Examiners’ Web site.