WASHINGTON — An unlicensed plastic surgeon nicknamed “Dr. Frankenstein” reduce his ankle monitor and disappeared three days earlier than his trial this month for allegedly disfiguring sufferers in Florida — including to a diplomatic disaster between Brazil and the US with private ties to the White Home.
Joao Araujo — married to a critic of first girl Melania Trump and waging a messy feud with a State Division envoy — vanished on the morning of Aug. 1, avoiding trial on 14 counts, together with felonies for grand theft, training drugs with out a license and fraud at his Miami-area clinic.
4 sources near the case instructed The Publish that he’s believed to be in Brazil, which typically doesn’t extradite its personal residents.
Araujo, 57, surrendered his solely identified passport, issued by Brazil, as a situation of his $20,500 bond, the Miami-Dade state legal professional’s workplace instructed The Publish.
If Brazil issued new journey paperwork to facilitate his escape, “this might be an entire catastrophe for the already tense US-Brazil relationship,” a high-ranking US official instructed The Publish.
The getaway coincides with a mounting diplomatic rift.
Brazil in July blocked the incoming US ambassador, former Florida Home Speaker Daniel Perez, saying he was chosen with out the nation’s consent, and denied visas for two State Division officers who reportedly supposed to observe the nation’s October election, during which leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva faces conservative Flávio Bolsonaro, who met with President Trump in June.
The Trump administration retaliated and canceled the visa of the Brazilian ambassador, Maria Luiza Ribeiro Viotti.
Araujo’s spouse and codefendant Amanda Ungaro is the estranged former romantic companion of Trump’s particular envoy for world partnerships Paolo Zampolli, who’s broadly credited with introducing Melania Trump to the longer term president in 1998.
Ungaro made obscure insinuations this yr about realizing secret details about the primary girl’s previous as she and Zampolli fought for custody of their teenage son.
An e mail signed with Ungaro’s title from her husband’s e mail account claimed to The Publish that “he’s not in Brazil, however he’s very near the place [Zampolli] is,” apparently referring to southern Europe — a declare that the 4 individuals concerned within the case consider is a pink herring.
One supply mentioned they spoke to Araujo after his return to Brazil. One other mentioned {that a} relative had contacted him in Brazil.
The most important piece of proof got here from “Dr. Frankenstein” himself, who appeared Sunday on a podcast with Brazilian journalist Hildegard Angel, during which he boasted he fled the US and gave names of Brazilian officers he had interacted with concerning his spouse’s case.
He didn’t clarify who could have aided his personal escape, although he spoke about his connections to judges in Brazil.
The Brazilian embassy in Washington mentioned it had no data on the case, together with whether or not Araujo returned to the nation, and wouldn’t say whether or not Araujo was issued journey paperwork after surrendering his passport to authorities in Florida.
“Brazil’s regulation about offering private data to 3rd events could be very strict,” an embassy spokesperson mentioned in an e mail.
Araujo didn’t present remark. His lawyer, Mark Eiglarsh, mentioned he was unaware of Araujo’s whereabouts and in any other case declined to remark.
Ungaro was detained final yr by immigration brokers for being within the US on an expired visa. She alleged her detention was set in movement by Zampolli, which he denied. A court docket submitting seen by The Publish mentioned she was allowed to self-deport to Brazil in late September or early October.
Ungaro’s relocation meant she averted standing trial for her alleged function in Araujo’s enterprise.
‘Harmed my soul’
Araujo’s nickname “Dr. Frankenstein” is used amongst critics who liken his work to that of the fictional scientist who created a monster by stitching collectively varied physique elements.
His disappearance denies restitution to his alleged victims for his or her bodily and monetary ordeals and leaves his bondsman standing to lose the sum posted for his pre-trial launch.
Considered one of Araujo’s former sufferers, recognized in court docket information, instructed The Publish that Araujo “harmed my soul” with lopsided liposuction on her arms and the edges of her physique and harmful butt injections.
“He had a pretend clinic and I had no thought,” she mentioned, requesting anonymity to talk candidly concerning the expertise.
“His eyes had been so convincing. I believed he was such a fantastic man.”
The girl spent tens of 1000’s of {dollars} with Araujo and Ungaro, based on the legal grievance towards the pair, and recalled being handled like a good friend by Ungaro, whom she mentioned plied sufferers with champagne whereas recommending procedures alongside Araujo.
Many sufferers had been fellow Brazilians dwelling within the Miami space.
“It’s insane that after I went to repair my physique, he made it lopsided,” she mentioned.
Later, she mentioned she came upon that “the injections that he was injecting into my buttocks weren’t FDA-approved — thank God I’m alive up to now.”
The sufferer’s mom visited on one event and agreed to a laser remedy on her face, however left with burns that took a month to heal. “She was so devastated,” the girl recounted.
Different incidents cited in information studies across the time of Araujo and Ungaro’s June 2025 arrest embrace fillers that went awry in a special affected person, forming right into a lump on the lip and hardening on their jaw and cheekbones.
A sting operation by Aventura, Fla., police — with a detective pretending to be considering a chin liposuction process — busted the clinic, which additionally beneficial the cop endure laser remedy.
“The victims on this case would have been eligible for restitution; nonetheless, as a result of Araujo fled the nation, the case by no means reached that stage,” mentioned a spokesperson for the state legal professional’s workplace, which is led by elected Democrat Katherine Fernandez Rundle.
The 4 sources near the case famous that Araujo made it clear he needed to return to Brazil — even requesting permission from a choose final yr, which was denied as a result of nation’s constitutional prohibition on extraditing native-born residents.
Shortly after that denial, prosecutors tried to revoke Araujo’s bond, citing “legal intelligence data that the Defendant has the means and the intention to depart the jurisdiction.”
Two individuals concerned within the case mentioned Araujo was caught final August trying to find flights to Europe, probably as an oblique approach of reaching Brazil. His authorized staff efficiently argued he was making an attempt to assist others purchase these tickets.
The saga is more likely to drag on — with concern that Araujo may start working once more in Brazil after forsaking disfigured sufferers within the US.
His spouse Ungaro, in the meantime, instructed The Publish she had three conversations with Senate workplaces final week, claiming she was in contact with the Senate Oversight Committee (which doesn’t exist). An unsigned e mail from Araujo’s account mentioned her data “might open up a complete new chapter linked to the Jeffrey Epstein period.”
Ungaro this April raged towards Melania Trump in since-deleted tweets, writing: “Perhaps you need to be afraid of what I do know … of who you might be, and who your husband is.”
In the future after Ungaro’s tweets, Melania Trump gave a stunning public assertion declaring “I’m not Epstein’s sufferer. Epstein didn’t introduce me to Donald Trump,” with the primary girl’s workplace saying “the lies should cease.” Though Ungaro didn’t point out Epstein in her tweets, The Miami Herald reported that Ungaro arrived within the US as a 16-year-old mannequin aboard the infamous intercourse trafficker’s aircraft.
Zampolli instructed The Publish that he was “actually involved” about Ungaro’s psychological well-being and feels “very dangerous for the nonsense she mentioned” about Melania Trump.
Of Araujo, he mentioned: “I’m not that unhappy that he’s not depriving U.S. taxpayer cash to maintain him in jail right here. I’m actually afraid for the individuals of Brazil, as we’ve got proof that they’re working the butcher store once more. They’d dozens of victims in Florida. Think about what they are going to do again residence in Brazil.”
The US Marshals Service didn’t instantly present data on its seek for Araujo. Melania Trump’s spokesman declined to remark and the White Home didn’t provide a press release.
