Valley man who sold used medical devices as new gets prison, fine

A Tarzana man was sentenced Monday to two years, six months in prison for running a nearly $6 million scheme in which he sold used skin-tightening medical devices that were deliberately misbranded as new, as well as counterfeit devices that he claimed were to be used with fat-reducing laser machines, authorities said.

Kambiz Youabian, 50, was also ordered to pay $5.9 million in restitution, forfeit $1.68 million in seized assets and serve three years of supervised release after he gets out of custody, according to the U.S. attorney's office.

He pleaded guilty one year ago to federal counts of mail fraud and introducing a misbranded medical device into interstate commerce.

Youabian owned and operated MSY Technologies, a West Los Angeles company that did business under the names of Thermagen and Global Electronic Supplies.

From March 2016 to June 2022, he bought used transducers, medical devices used to tighten the skin of dermatology patients by delivering ultrasound energy to a patient's skin. Used properly, transducers are designed to provide no more than 2,400 treatments. After this number is reached, the devices are considered depleted and should be disposed of in accordance with health code regulations.

Youabian purchased depleted transducers for nominal sums, typically $50. Youabian then remanufactured the depleted transducers and added fabricated serial numbers to make the transducers appear to be new, he admitted in his plea agreement filed in Los Angeles federal court.

Then Youabian fraudulently marketed and sold — for many times more than he paid for them — the remanufactured transducers to healthcare providers and customers as “new” transducers with 2,400 remaining treatments. Youabian used names of fabricated Thermagen employees on correspondences with providers and used out-of-state commercial mailboxes for return addresses.

Youabian also admitted to unlawfully selling thousands of medical devices, including transducers and PAC keys — medical devices used to operate laser machines designed to reduce fat on patients — and receiving at least $5.82 million in fraudulent proceeds that should have been paid to the companies that are the sole U.S. distributors for the devices.

Youabian further admitted to causing harm to the device manufacturers and distributors of these medical devices.