A 32-year-old man and 27-year-old woman are accused of performing laser treatments without proper licensing—on stolen laser machines to boot!
Snezhana Semenov, the owner and operator of the New Way Beauty medical spa in Laguna Niguel, and Mathew Louis Finnes have been charged with receiving stolen property and unauthorized practice of medicine, with convictions on those felonies punishable by up to three years and eight months in state prison.
In the early morning hours of March 27, a burglar smashed a glass door of a laser treatment facility in San Juan Capistrano and stole three laser machines worth $120,000, according to the Orange County District Attorney’s office (OCDA), which adds the business owner-victim reported the crime to the Orange County Sheriff’s Department.
A break in the investigation reportedly came when the manufacturer of parts for the machines contacted authorities. Semenov, who resides in Dana Point, had ordered parts from the manufacturer for a machine with the same serial number as a device stolen in San Juan Capistrano, the OCDA alleges.
The sheriff’s department sent an undercover detective to New Way Beauty, which specialized in laser hair removal and facial skin treatments, say prosecutors, who report the investigator spotted stolen devices in an exam room.
Semenov is accused of illegally diagnosing the detective with a skin condition and recommending a laser treatment. The problem is, she can’t do this under state law without a medical license or under the direction of a licensed nurse. The OCDA accuses Semenov and Finnes of falsely passing themselves off as licensed nurses. She was arrested May 25 at her business, and he was popped at his Laguna Niguel home later that day. Both are scheduled to be arraigned today in Newport Beach.
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OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.