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A controversial chain of cut-rate plastic surgery clinics whose doctors have been accused of horribly botched procedures and sexually exploiting patients on the operating table is blaming a rogue staffer for leaking its dirty laundry to the media.
In a $5 million lawsuit obtained by The Independent, Goals Aesthetics & Plastic Surgery accuses onetime office manager Ashley Baldwin of violating federal law by exposing alleged wrongdoing by its surgeons without the affected patients’ permission. The suit says Baldwin breached “trade secret and medical records laws” by offering sensitive medical records and photos she said showed grave malpractice by Goals, to “no less than” 60 news outlets.
The complaint was filed July 31 by the entity that controls and administers the retail-level Goals practices, and claims Baldwin was not a whistleblower, but rather, a disgruntled employee who continues to carry out “a wide-ranging campaign of proverbial corporate terrorism.”
Goals, which is rated an “F” by the Better Business Bureau, has offices in several US cities. Accused of being a “shop of horrors” by Marie Claire magazine, Goals made headlines in 2022 after a Bronx woman died following a botched Brazilian Butt Lift. Goals acknowledged the death on Instagram, but never had to respond to any allegations in court, according to Marie Claire. In one instance highlighted by Marie Claire and reviewed by The Independent, a doctor operating on a patient out of one of Goals’ Manhattan locations was accused of “amputating [a woman’s] clitoris during a botched labiaplasty.” (The case was settled out of court in 2023, under terms that remain confidential.)
Goals founder Sergey Voskin did not respond to The Independent’s requests for comment. Numerous emails sent to Goals general counsel Joshua Lurie, who also represents Voskin personally, went unanswered. However, Lurie told the New York Post in 2022 that “a significant amount of statements in Marie Claire are demonstratively false,” but that federal law precluded him from commenting on any individual cases or patients without a HIPAA release. In the Baldwin lawsuit, which Voskin signed and attested to personally, Goals argues that the problematic individual cases she red-flagged make up only a small portion of its overall body of work.
Baldwin, who did not respond to emails seeking comment and whose listed phone numbers were out of service, was unable to be reached.
‘Intentional sabotage’
Baldwin was hired in November 2020 to serve as Goals’ patient coordinator, working out of the company’s New York City office. About a year into her tenure, Baldwin requested a transfer to a newer Goals-branded practice in Atlanta, where she was named office manager, according to the complaint.
Soon, Baldwin started clashing with management and other staffers, becoming embroiled in disputes that “escalated, as Ms. Baldwin’s behavior was increasingly insubordinate,” the complaint states.
“As a result of this insubordinate behavior, Ms. Baldwin was terminated with cause on or around October of 2022,” it explains.
But when Baldwin accused Goals of firing her in retaliation for a personal dispute she’d had with a regional manager, the company soon hired her back. Now, she would be running Goals’ social media presence. It was at this point, and continuing throughout 2023, according to the complaint, that Baldwin “began intentionally sabotaging Plaintiff’s business.”
Goals was already facing stiff headwinds by way of multiple malpractice lawsuits being brought against the practice and doctors who worked there. In February 2023, a Goals plastic surgeon in New Jersey — who had previously been suspended for malpractice in California and was placed under supervision in Texas for violating, among other things, standard of care protocols — had his license suspended in the Garden State after he “allegedly solicited sexual favors from a patient during a procedure after a surgical assistant left the operating room.”
While the doctor “was alone with the patient, he reportedly grabbed the patient’s hand and put it on his thigh while asking her to rub his genitals,” New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Plotkin said in a statement at the time. “He then asked her to perform other sex acts and when she refused, he pressured her to continue rubbing his genitals so he could ‘get motivated’ to finish the procedure.” (The physician’s California license was ultimately revoked, and his New Jersey license remains suspended, according to public records.)
‘Incalculable damages’
On April 29, 2024, a short blog post under the headline, “Goals Plastic Surgery Accused Of Malpractice, Botching Patients & Being Under Investigation,” appeared on a gossip and true crime site called Dreddsworld.
“According to reports reaching us at Dreddsworld, Goals Plastic Surgery is being called out for ‘alleged’ malpractice!” the post read, mentioning an ongoing “rebranding” by Goals.
“Despite the rebranding, sources have alleged to us that it’s all smoke and mirrors,” the post continued. “Goals Plastic Surgery has botched several patients… [one of its doctors] is high on drugs while completing surgery, that’s why they have so many infections and people complaining that their bodies are not done properly.”
The post said the source claimed Goals “improperly put a patient to sleep without oxygen,” that they “provided alleged photos of several botched patients,” and “several alleged documents from the Georgia Composite Medical Board where Goals was listed as part of an investigation concerning patients.”
In its lawsuit, Goals says the Dreddsworld post contained the protected health information of at least three Goals patients, one of whom was suing for malpractice. The complaint says Voskin “immediately” launched an internal investigation into the leaks, and engaged his attorney to open a probe, as well.
Goals management discovered that in August 2023, Baldwin and an unknown third party had accessed one patient’s records over the period of an hour, the complaint states. When her supervisor asked Baldwin why she had been in the file, she allegedly claimed that others at the practice had been using her login credentials. Goals also tracked down the publisher of Dreddsworld, threatening legal action for posting stolen healthcare records, according to the complaint. In late June, after “protracted” negotiations, Dreddsworld forwarded the emails it had received from its source about wrongdoing at Goals.
The powers-that-be at Goals were “shocked” to find that on April 29, the day before the Dreddsworld post was published, someone named “Kendrick Davis” had “[sic] drafted and email which she sent to no less than 60 news stations,” including The New York Times, CBS, NBC, Fox News, and several others, the complaint states. It says the email bore the subject line, “Goals Plastic Surgery exposure to close them down,” and contained confidential patient records, photographs of nude patients, contact info, and private communications between Goals staff. It didn’t take long for Goals higher-ups to figure out that Davis was actually Baldwin, who was fired on June 25, according to the complaint.
It is unclear whether or not Baldwin had anything to do with the explosive allegations that appeared in Marie Claire.
Goals notes in its complaint that the malpractice claims pertained to only two patients out of “more than 20,000.” It also claims Baldwin’s opinion is immaterial, as she “has no known medical training and, thus, could not comment about any medical issues.”
Goals, which claims it has had to hire a PR firm to combat the bad press, is asking a judge to order Baldwin not to disseminate any further internal records. The lawsuit accuses her of, among other things, fraud, conspiracy, tortious interference, breach of contract, and misappropriation of trade secrets, and is demanding a minimum of $5 million in compensatory damages.
