Seattle surgeon to pay $5 million due to manipulating online consumer ratings

WHATCOM COUNTY, Wash. — The Washington State Attorney General’s (AG) Office announced Tuesday, July 2nd, that a plastic surgeon must pay $1.5 million in restitution to 21,000 Washingtonians.

Allure is also required to remove any misleading or false information about the plastic surgery practice from its website, including fake positive reviews and altered before and after photographs, among other significant reforms to its business practices.

The resolution comes less than three months after U.S. District Court Judge Ricardo S. Martinez ruled that Allure’s non-disclosure agreements illegally restricted patients from posting negative reviews about the business. 

[The AG’s Office] filed the lawsuit in December 2022. It accused Allure of artificially and illegally inflating its ratings on online platforms such as Yelp and Google by posting fake positive reviews while suppressing honest accounts of consumers’ negative experiences. The company forced patients to sign illegal non-disclosure agreements to intimidate patients into removing truthful reviews — or not posting them at all. Allure also ordered its employees to post fake positive reviews.

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In fact, after filing the lawsuit, the Attorney General’s Office uncovered evidence Sajan himself emailed fake reviews to a foreign contractor to post in exchange for payment.

Allure also rigged “best doctor” competitions hosted by local media outlets by paying staff and contractors to vote for Sajan as best plastic surgeon in the region. They cast as many votes as websites would allow, despite not being patients of Allure.

Today’s resolution requires Allure to pay $5 million, approximately $1.5 million of which will go to affected consumers. The rest will go to the Attorney General’s Office for its attorneys’ fees and costs of investigating and litigating the case, future monitoring and enforcement of the consent decree, and future enforcement of consumer protection laws.