From chauffeured Bentleys and mansions to foreclosure and insolvency: The dramatic fall of Jackson's dermatologist
He lived a life of luxury, splitting time between three multimillion dollar mansions, driving Bentleys, and enjoying friendships with Hollywood’s biggest stars, including Elizabeth Taylor and Michael Jackson.
But now dermatologist Dr Arnold Klein is bankrupt, his extravagant homes are in foreclosure — and he faces questions about his professional conduct leading up to Jackson’s death.
The man once dubbed the ‘dermatologist to the stars’ has even been forced to auction off presents given to him from famous friends to pay his debts, the L.A. Times reports.
He has also had to turn to the celebrities themselves, such as actress Carrie Fisher, who paid the doctor $150,000 for a bankruptcy lawyer, according to court documents.
Business dwindled following the death of his long-term friend and client Michael Jackson.
When the singer’s physician Dr Conrad Murray was on trial last year, the defence team suggested Klein provided Jackson with vast amounts of the drug Demerol, thus fuelling an addiction. After the guilty verdict, Klein said he was under investigation by the state medical board
But in bankruptcy filings, he blamed his money troubles on two former employees who he claims embezzled more than $8 million of his money.
‘The assets that Dr. Klein worked long and hard to build have been decimated,’ one of his attorneys wrote in a June suit.
'You hate to see somebody who was so good fall to such low levels'
Dr David Rish, former colleagueAn investigation of Klein's claims by the U.S. Secret Service did not lead to any charges.
One of the accused, his accountant Muhammad Khilji, said Klein insisted on his lifestyle of chauffeured cars and shopping sprees even as business began to fail.
In three years, Klein used more than $7 million on ‘personal luxury spending’, including $800,000 for holidays and $550,000 for cars, the L.A. Times wrote.
This was despite Klein making just $500 a day, down from $25,000 at his peak, Khilji said.
‘Maybe it's time to look in the mirror, Dr. Klein,’ Khilji wrote last year in a resignation letter he gave to The Times.
A second employee, former office manager Jason Pfeiffer, has also brought a suit against Klein.
It claims the doctor ‘required Pfeiffer to assist him in his search for sex partners, often for hours each day or night’.
It is a dramatic fall from grace for the dermatologist, whose medical specialty is injectable drugs such as Botox and Restylane against wrinkles and aging skin.
Taylor and other Hollywood heavyweights flocked to his practice — and he reaped the benefits.
He bought three multimillion dollar homes and filled them with art court papers value at $7.2 million, according to the L.A. Times.
He had a personal chef and cars including a Ferrari, a Rolls-Royce and a Bentley, public records show.
His homes are decked with memorabilia from celebrities, including photographs and costume mementos.
A copy of the book Elizabeth Taylor: My Love Affair With Jewelry contains a note from the late actress: ‘My beloved Arnie, I love you more than I can tell. I feel you have saved my fading life. I love and thank you forever. Yours, Elizabeth.’
It is believed Jackson’s death fuelled the depleting business. The dermatologist, who treated Jackson for more than 25 years and called him ‘my best friend’, was cleared of any wrongdoing.
But defense lawyers at the Murray trial claimed Klein had often given the singer too-large doses of Demerol and made him dependent on the drug. No Demerol was found in Jackson’s body after his death.
Klein issued a written statement through a lawyer saying health privacy laws meant he was unable to comment.
But he later agreed to a live interview with the gossip site TMZ.com to chat about claims Pfeiffer made of ‘a passionate and sexual’ relationship he had with Jackson.
‘When you see two people looking at each other you know what's happening,’ Klein said.
Jackson's family condemned the claims and Taylor publicly derided her friend, writing on Twitter: ‘I thought doctors, like priests took an oath of confidentiality. May God have mercy on his soul.’
Klein he was forced to file for bankruptcy in January.
But friends such as Fisher have stood by him. The actress has said he never supplied her prescription drugs despite her own addictions.
‘If anyone would know, it would have been me,’ Fisher said. ‘He’s not one of the doctors you would hit up for (drugs).’
This month, Bonhams & Butterfields will auction off gifts given to Klein from his famous patients.
They include a $200 Princess Leia wig that Fisher wore to a party and the hat that covered Jackson's head when he left a hospital burn unit, valued at $10,000.
Klein has also moved to a smaller office, with fewer staff.
‘You hate to see somebody who was so good fall to such low levels,’ said Dr. David Rish, who shared an office with Klein for two decades.
klein
He lived a life of luxury, splitting time between three multimillion dollar mansions, driving Bentleys, and enjoying friendships with Hollywood’s biggest stars, including Elizabeth Taylor and Michael Jackson.
But now dermatologist Dr Arnold Klein is bankrupt, his extravagant homes are in foreclosure — and he faces questions about his professional conduct leading up to Jackson’s death.
The man once dubbed the ‘dermatologist to the stars’ has even been forced to auction off presents given to him from famous friends to pay his debts, the L.A. Times reports.
He has also had to turn to the celebrities themselves, such as actress Carrie Fisher, who paid the doctor $150,000 for a bankruptcy lawyer, according to court documents.
Business dwindled following the death of his long-term friend and client Michael Jackson.
When the singer’s physician Dr Conrad Murray was on trial last year, the defence team suggested Klein provided Jackson with vast amounts of the drug Demerol, thus fuelling an addiction. After the guilty verdict, Klein said he was under investigation by the state medical board
But in bankruptcy filings, he blamed his money troubles on two former employees who he claims embezzled more than $8 million of his money.
‘The assets that Dr. Klein worked long and hard to build have been decimated,’ one of his attorneys wrote in a June suit.
'You hate to see somebody who was so good fall to such low levels'
Dr David Rish, former colleagueAn investigation of Klein's claims by the U.S. Secret Service did not lead to any charges.
One of the accused, his accountant Muhammad Khilji, said Klein insisted on his lifestyle of chauffeured cars and shopping sprees even as business began to fail.
In three years, Klein used more than $7 million on ‘personal luxury spending’, including $800,000 for holidays and $550,000 for cars, the L.A. Times wrote.
This was despite Klein making just $500 a day, down from $25,000 at his peak, Khilji said.
‘Maybe it's time to look in the mirror, Dr. Klein,’ Khilji wrote last year in a resignation letter he gave to The Times.
A second employee, former office manager Jason Pfeiffer, has also brought a suit against Klein.
It claims the doctor ‘required Pfeiffer to assist him in his search for sex partners, often for hours each day or night’.
It is a dramatic fall from grace for the dermatologist, whose medical specialty is injectable drugs such as Botox and Restylane against wrinkles and aging skin.
Taylor and other Hollywood heavyweights flocked to his practice — and he reaped the benefits.
He bought three multimillion dollar homes and filled them with art court papers value at $7.2 million, according to the L.A. Times.
He had a personal chef and cars including a Ferrari, a Rolls-Royce and a Bentley, public records show.
His homes are decked with memorabilia from celebrities, including photographs and costume mementos.
A copy of the book Elizabeth Taylor: My Love Affair With Jewelry contains a note from the late actress: ‘My beloved Arnie, I love you more than I can tell. I feel you have saved my fading life. I love and thank you forever. Yours, Elizabeth.’
It is believed Jackson’s death fuelled the depleting business. The dermatologist, who treated Jackson for more than 25 years and called him ‘my best friend’, was cleared of any wrongdoing.
But defense lawyers at the Murray trial claimed Klein had often given the singer too-large doses of Demerol and made him dependent on the drug. No Demerol was found in Jackson’s body after his death.
Klein issued a written statement through a lawyer saying health privacy laws meant he was unable to comment.
But he later agreed to a live interview with the gossip site TMZ.com to chat about claims Pfeiffer made of ‘a passionate and sexual’ relationship he had with Jackson.
‘When you see two people looking at each other you know what's happening,’ Klein said.
Jackson's family condemned the claims and Taylor publicly derided her friend, writing on Twitter: ‘I thought doctors, like priests took an oath of confidentiality. May God have mercy on his soul.’
Klein he was forced to file for bankruptcy in January.
But friends such as Fisher have stood by him. The actress has said he never supplied her prescription drugs despite her own addictions.
‘If anyone would know, it would have been me,’ Fisher said. ‘He’s not one of the doctors you would hit up for (drugs).’
This month, Bonhams & Butterfields will auction off gifts given to Klein from his famous patients.
They include a $200 Princess Leia wig that Fisher wore to a party and the hat that covered Jackson's head when he left a hospital burn unit, valued at $10,000.
Klein has also moved to a smaller office, with fewer staff.
‘You hate to see somebody who was so good fall to such low levels,’ said Dr. David Rish, who shared an office with Klein for two decades.
klein
