Empire Medical Training Stephen Cosentino Bill Horninger William McMunn Fraudulent Medical Training Accounting Clerk Practices Medicine Without a License in Texas Fraudulent Botox & Filler Course Taught by Accounting Clerk Horninger; promise of Plastic Surgeon hands on instruction a farce Ft. Lauderdale, Florida

A group of 25 or so M.D. Physicians, one dentist, one oral surgery resident physician and one physician's assistant from Texas recently attended a "BOTOX & FILLERS" course in Dallas Texas, conducted by EMPIRE MEDICAL TRAINING of FT. LAUDERDALE. This course and its administrator, Bill Horninger and its medical director, Stephen Cosentino, D.O. promise both verbally and on the website that the didactics and hands on training will be given by "board certified plastic surgeons". Promises are also made that attendees will get to do "so many injections during the hands on" that they "will be able to walk into their office on Monday and start their cosmetic practice".Not only was there not even ONE board certified PLASTIC SURGEON, the hands on course was taught by the accounting clerk/administrator Bill Horninger and D.O. Family Practice doctor/President Stephen Consentino. After briefly demonstrating these injections on a couple of volunteers (there were 3 volunteers for more than almost 30 attendees, so many attendees did NO injections at all and most who did, did so to other physician attendees), Horninger and Consentino disappeared "to go have a smoke." Horninger never reappeared, but prior to leaving, did force a dentist attendee to teach the other attendees to do dental blocks, rendering him no opportunity for hands on training with Botox and Fillers under the supervision of the "plastic surgeons" who did not exist. The dentists wife had come as a volunteer for her husband's hands on "filler" injection training, which was ultimately performed by accounting clerk, Bill Horninger. Sterile technique was completely lacking and there were needles strewn about tables everywhere.  The attendees were not required to sign hazardous waivers or bloodborne disease waivers and the physician attendee "volunteers" did not sign consent forms.  The attendees were not required to show proof of active licensure or proof of malpractice insurance.  There were no exam chairs, tables or injection tables.  Volunteers sat on uncomfortable chairs and attendees were forced to inject while standing or kneeling.  There was also no proper lighting.  The dentists wife was livid and wrote a scathing response on the course questionairre. When Cosentino was questioned about his use of attendees to teach for free at the course they pay almost $2500 to attend, his reply is "there's always a dentist in every group and we just get them to teach the dental blocks." During the didactics, the instructors were NOT plastic surgeons and routinely advised us to ignore the information in the product package inserts by Allergan, violating numerous laws of ethics, but most importantly FDA guidelines and the Hippocratic Oath to "do no harm."  MUCH of their time was spent promoting Empire's new cosmeceutical line rather than how to perform injections, all of which violate federal and state guidelines for CME programs. When confronted, Bill and Stephen threatened retribution should anyone file a complaint with the Texas State Board of Medical Examiners or any other authority. However, portions of the "hands on" training was filmed on cell phone camera and has already been sent electronically to the authorities, along with a formal complaint of fraudulent business practices, provider practicing medicine in the state of Texas without a Texas license and most importantly, practicing medicine without a license by a non-provider (accounting clerk), an act that is not only an ethics violation, but also a violation of civil and criminal law. According to the attorney, in the state of Texas, each count of practicing medicine without a license is punishable by $15,000 fine and minimum 5 years incarceraton. Aside from the fact that our only supervision during hands on was Horninger and Cosentino, the majority of the time, there was no supervision of any kind and the attendees were left to their own devices. NEVER, NEVER attend one of these bogus, unethical conferences as you will spend a LOT of money, learn very little, get no or next to no on hands training, never get supervised training by a plastic surgeon and if you voice a complaint, you will be threatened by Dr. Cosentino. Hence, the authorities encourage anyone who has been issued a similar threat in the past by anyone at Empire Medical Training, please get in touch with your proper authority and file a report. A confidential list was passed around our group of attendees where many attendees gave their contact information. Several in this group have committed to filing complaints with the authorities about this unscrupulous, unethical company and its owners, associates, instructors and employees, as they all have FULL knowledge of the fraud that is being committed yet say nothing. An attorney in the State of Texas has already been retained as several attendees are considering filing a class action lawsuit. We have been instructed to immediately report to the attorney any contact by anyone at Empire Medical. A report has also been sent to the Attorney Generals in the states of Texas, New York, Florida and also to the state medical boards of each of these states. Finally, a copy of the formal reports have also been sent to Chris Hansen, Correspondent for NBC Dateline. The majority of attendees at this most recent workshop vow to do their part to see that justice is served and that in the future, unknowing consumers, perhaps such as you, are protected from these unethical, dishonest people at Empire Medical Training and innocent volunteers are no longer subjected to have "harm" done to them. We implore those of you who have had similar experiences with Empire Medical Training and/or have ever been refused a refund of your course fee to report the violations to the appropriate authorities. If in Texas, report to: TSBME INVESTIGATIONS 333 Guadalupe Tower 3, Suite 610, P.O. Box 2018, MC-263 Austin TX 78768-2018.