An American doctor who practiced plastic surgery in Beijing for several years between 2004 and 2007 is under arrest in Dubai for impersonating a celebrity surgeon and allegedly disfiguring several of his patients.

Steven Gabriel Moos practiced at the Confidant Medical Clinic in Wangfujing under the name Michael Gabriel between 2004 and 2007. The thirty-something lived at the Jianguomen Diplomatic Compound with his hairdresser wife and their four young children up until abruptly leaving town in late 2007 as word of his past began to get around Beijing.

Moos was arrested in Dubai when someone reported his fake credentials. An examination of his Dubai apartment revealed that he had been practicing surgery on his kitchen table and liposuctioned fat were found in kitchen pots and water bottles.

Ironically, Moos’ past was clouded long before he came to Beijing. He first practiced medicine in Oregon and prior to his arrival he lived in a million-dollar mansion in the Portand, Oregon suburbs previously owned by NBA star Jermaine O’Neal.

A practitioner of “lifestyle medicine” – plastic surgery, hair loss remedies, sexual aides and the like – Moos was not well liked in his fancy neighborhood. Nearby residents complained to the police about all-night parties and suspicious visits at the residence, home to Moos, his former Cambodian refugee wife and their four children, all under 7.

In 2004 he abruptly disappeared, abandoning the million-dollar home in the wake of increasing suspicion about his medical practices that began with a drug raid on his home and office.

After his receptionist was caught with cocaine, she reported that Moos was the source of her drugs. A search of the Moos home turned up small quantities of ketamine, ecstasy, amphetamines, cocaine and marijuana, which resulted in probation. The state of Oregon was also on his tail for selling prescriptions over the internet and pushing an aphrodisiac ointment called Viaglide that claimed to be made with the “same active ingredient as Viagra.”

Then, he abruptly disappeared, and soon washed up on the shores of Beijing where he continued practicing medicine in a Wangfujing clinic under the name Dr Michael Gabriel. Posts on the Beijing Café internet bulletin board from 2006 suggest that around that time people began to connect Dr Gabriel to his former identity, and by 2007 was gone.

Links and Sources
Plastic surgeon imposter Steven Moos jailed after disfiguring women
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article7112319.e...

Victims of ‘fake plastic surgeon’ relive ordeal
http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100409/NATIONAL/7...

Hunting Dr Feelgood: Why is everyone out to get Steven Moos?
http://wweek.com/editorial/3005/4593/

Paging Dr Moos: Doctor disappears, abandoning US 1.1 million home
http://www.wweek.com/editorial/3017/4844/

Brief discussion from the Beijinger forum of plastic surgery at Confidant while Steven Moos was there
http://www.thebeijinger.com/forum/2006/04/26/Botox

Warnings on Beijing Café newsgroup from as early as 2006 (members only)
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Beijingcafe/msearch?query=moos&submit=Sear...

Comment: Trust Me, I’m a Doctor (from a Dubai expat)
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/expat/annabelkantaria/10138542/trust-me-im-...

Comment: Running into U.S. fugitives abroad (from former McClatchy Newspapers Beijing bureau chief)
http://washingtonbureau.typepad.com/china/2007/07/running-into-us.html