August 24, 2023 at 8:26 PM
FILE – In this record-breaking July 23, 2020 file photo, Dr. Tien Vo emerges after speaking to a circle of quarantined family members after testing positive for the coronavirus, in Calexico, Calif. Vo, who screened tens of thousands of people for COVID-19 in the early months of the pandemic in a hard-hit California desert network, pleaded guilty to mislabeling cosmetic drugs, the government announced Thursday, Aug. 24, 2023. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull, File) Credit: ASSOCIATED PRESS
(AP Photo/Gregory Bull, File)
BY ASSOCIATED PRESS
SAN DIEGO (AP) — A “ROCK STAR” DOCTOR WHO TESTED TENS OF THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE FOR COVID-19 in the early months of the pandemic in a hard-hit California desert has pleaded guilty to mislabeling cosmetic drugs, the government said Thursday.
Dr. Tien Tan Vo stated in a plea agreement that none of the injectable botlinine toxins or lip fillers used at his Imperial Valley clinics from November 2016 to October 2020 had passed through the U. S. Food and Drug Administration. The U. S. Department of Justice, federal prosecutors said.
Vo, who has endeared himself to patients for his unlimited power to contain the spread of the virus, admitted to buying maximum cosmetic drugs from the operator of a “medical spa” in Mexicali, Mexico, who smuggled them into the United States by claiming to take them out.
Vo reported receiving $100,767 for deliveries with unapproved drugs and devices.
As part of his plea agreement, the 47-year-old doctor agreed to return the bills and pay a $201,534 fine. It also agreed to pay damages to the victims.
No one answered the phone at Vo’s offices Thursday night.
Motorists took cover for hours at Vo clinics in 2020 to get tested for COVID-19 in California’s often-forgotten Imperial County. At one point, the agricultural region along the Mexican border had the highest infection rate in the state and its two hospitals were overwhelmed. The county is largely Latin American and low-income,
Alex Cardenas, former mayor of El Centro, called Vo a “rock star” at the time. The doctor’s two clinics conducted more than 27,000 tests in the early months of the pandemic, with a positivity rate of between 25% and 30%.
Vo, who emigrated from Vietnam as a teenager, delivered food and supervised patients at home during the pandemic.
“They want a doctor here,” he said in 2020. They are not very difficult to satisfy. They communicate with me. They text me every day.
Vo is expected to be sentenced on Nov. 16 for receiving mislabeling and complicity with an associate who smuggled from Mexico without authorization. Each charge carries a maximum penalty of one year in prison.
“Every member of our network deserves to be able to be assured that their doctor is acting in their most productive interest,” said Andrew Haden, acting U. S. attorney for the Southern District of California. “Through those lawsuits, we protect patients from unapproved and potentially harmful drugs and will seek to thwart those who exploit patients for monetary gain. “