An Ohio
plastic surgeon used sedatives he procured through his practice to drug
and rape multiple women, dating back to at least 2013, according to
federal authorities who have been investigating him for more than a
year.
Manish Raj Gupta, 49, faces federal
charges of illegally dispensing controlled substances, aggravated sexual
abuse, and sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion, according to a
criminal complaint filed Friday in U.S. District Court for Northern
Ohio. He was arrested the same day and booked at the Lucas County
Corrections Center, the jail's booking commander told NBC News.
The
FBI began investigating Gupta, a board-certified plastic surgeon with
offices in Toledo and Oregon, Ohio, and one in Michigan, in January
2019, after a woman who worked as a "high-end escort" reported that
Gupta had "improperly drugged and then performed sex acts" on her in
September 2016.
Email
exchanges show Gupta and the sex worker, identified as KB, had arranged
to meet at a hotel in Los Angeles, where Gupta would be for a
convention, according to an arrest affidavit. In the emails, Gupta
outlined his sexual preferences, including his request to film the
encounter, which KB declined.
When they
met, KB performed consensual oral sex on Gupta, and later was asked to
"turn away from him and slowly take off her clothing," the indictment
said. "KB believes Gupta could have been recording her because he
demanded she do it so many times and because it involved her having her
back to him."
Gupta then asked KB to change into lingerie and served her a glass of prosecco.
KB
sipped from the glass, and Gupta asked her to insert and remove anal
beads, the affidavit said. She does not remember anything after removing
the beads.
In the morning, KB drove to the
home of a client who is an anesthesiologist, and asked him to
administer a drug test. The test showed she had a tranquilizer in her
system.
KB then went to a treatment center
for a rape test, but after, did not report the incident to police. She
did, however, visit two websites that women who date online and work in
the sex industry use to report "men who are dangerous," the affidavit
said.
Complaints on the websites "dating
from March 2013 through September 2016 identify Manish Gupta or Dr. G as
a plastic surgeon from Toledo, Ohio, as 'very dangerous,' 'drug
user/drug present,' 'raped me during date … he also recorded a video',"
investigators said, according to the affidavit.
Another woman said Gupta "drugged me during a date, raped me and recorded all this."
Gupta's
employees at his practice, Artisan Cosmetic Surgery, began to get
suspicious of him when a woman called the office "stating that Gupta had
drugged her, raped her and video-recorded her," describing him, his
phone and his car in accurate detail, the affidavit said.
Employees
who traveled with him for frequent conferences and conventions also
found it strange that he never brought a bag on flights. Investigators
said he would ship his medical bag to and from where he was staying,
instead of flying with it.
Employees told
investigators that in 2013, a different bag, used by Gupta to bring
supplies to hospital procedures and Botox parties, went missing. They
searched all over, until one of them found it on the top of a bookshelf.
When
the employees "opened the bag, they found multiple sex toys, anal
lubricant, large plastic syringes, empty anesthesia bottles, women’s
lingerie, a blindfold, a tripod with a possible camera, and narcotics,
including ketamine, benzodiazepine, Valium suppositories and Versed,"
the affidavit said.
The next year, an
employee found 10 to 20 SD cards in Gupta's desk. A federal agent who
obtained a search warrant for the content of the cards said "they
contained five different videos of Gupta engaging in sex acts with four
different unconscious women."
The
videos show at least three other cameras in the room, and Gupta with an
erection. "The women in the videos all have their genitalia exposed as
they lie on the bed and appear largely motionless unless physically
moved by Gupta himself," the agent said. "All but one of the women are
wearing black hosiery, black heels, and/or dark corset, consistent with
the attire that Gupta told KB to wear."
A
search warrant later conducted at Gupta's private office at his practice
in Toledo uncovered sex toys, Viagra, several cameras and many SD
cards.
One of the cards found in a camera
had a video of "Gupta having sex with an unidentified Caucasian woman
who appeared to be unconscious in what appeared to be a hotel room," the
affidavit said. That video was dated December 2019.
Agents
also found vials of diazepam, a sedative, and ketamine, an anesthetic.
Employees said ketamine was rarely used at the practice and diazepam was
never used at the practice.
One employee
recalled declining a large shipment of ketamine to the office, believing
it was delivered by mistake, but later realizing Gupta likely ordered
it.
Two State of Ohio Board of Pharmacy
audits at Gupta's Toledo office, in 2016 and 2019, found that Gupta was
not properly documenting when drugs were delivered and administered,
according to the affidavit. The board issued Gupta warnings following
the 2016 audit.
In 2019, the board also
found Gupta had no records for diazepam and ketamine, even though the
drugs were found on site, the affidavit said.
When
the board compared Gupta's records with drug distributors',
"significant, unaccounted-for losses of drugs were identified,"
including ketamine, diazepam/Valium, fentanyl, and morphine, the
affidavit said.
"In addition, the Pharmacy
Board audit revealed that Gupta had received a shipment of ketamine on
Sept. 12, 2016, just two weeks before he drugged KB," the court
documents said.
In 2020, both the State of
Ohio Medical Board and the Toledo Police Department received calls from
someone claiming Gupta had been raping women for years, according to
federal investigators.
It was not
immediately clear if Gupta has a lawyer. He appeared before a judge on
Monday, at which point his case was handed over to a grand jury, a
district court clerk told NBC News. He is being held without bond.
Calls
to Artisan Cosmetic Surgery went unanswered Tuesday. A recording
advised that "all upcoming appointments and procedures are canceled
until further notice."
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