May 13, 2008 7:06 pm US/Eastern
Alleged Brooklyn 'Fake Dentist' Indicted
CBS 2 HD Undercover Investigation Leads To Downfall Of Suspected Fraud Marina Lagunova
Reporting
Lou Young
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
Charges were brought Tuesday night against a Brooklyn woman accused of posing as a dentist. CBS 2 HD first brought you the story in an undercover investigation. Our report alerted authorities to the alleged scam.
The other shoe has dropped. CBS 2 HD has learned of a criminal indictment in the case of the bogus dental practice in Midwood.
Attorney General Andrew Cuomo wants to know if anyone in the general public has been victimized.
A CBS 2 HD undercover video shows the fake dentist's tools laid out on a kitchen table. Her patients believed she had been trained back in her native Ukraine.
"She said she was a dentist in the Ukraine and I believed it," Tanya Bolotina said. "That's why I trusted her."
In fact, Marina Lagunova was only a student studying to become a dental hygienist.
Bolotina went from patient to victim when Lagunova tried to treat a severe under bite by filing down the woman's teeth and replacing them with veneers that looked as bad as they felt.
"When I came home my child, my daughter, she was hysterically crying and she said, 'Mommy what did you do with yourself?'" Bolotina said.
The amateur dental work eventually paralyzed Bolotina's mouth. The video was taken at Columbia Medical Center, where doctors advised her to have them taken out.
"I wasn't able to speak, I wasn't able to eat," Bolotina said. "I have no teeth anymore. At some point I was on the verge of suicide."
Lagunova was officially charged Tuesday night, but she denied it all when CBS 2 HD confronted her three months ago.
"I did not practice," she said at the time. "Please, please believe me."
The indictment is for practicing dentistry without a license and assault. The defendant could get 3 ½ to seven years in prison if convicted.
If you think you've been a victim of Lagunova's alleged actions, contact Attorney General Cuomo's office.
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