Mark Weinberger | Nose Surgeon Disappears from His Yacht in Greece

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[00:01:36] This is True Crime Psychology and Personality where we discuss the pathology behind some

[00:01:48] of the most horrific crimes and those who committed them from a scientifically informed

[00:01:53] perspective.

[00:01:56] I'm Dr. Todd Grande.

[00:01:57] I have a PhD in counselor education and supervision and I'm a licensed professional counselor

[00:02:02] of mental health.

[00:02:03] Dr. Todd Grande, that's my YouTube channel.

[00:02:07] Today's question is can I analyze the case of Mark Weinberger?

[00:02:12] First to look at the background of this case, move to the timeline of the crime then

[00:02:16] offer my analysis.

[00:02:18] Mark Weinberger was born on May 22, 1963 and raised in Westchester County, New

[00:02:24] York.

[00:02:25] He lived with his parents Fred and Fanny as well as two brothers.

[00:02:29] Mark was the middle child.

[00:02:31] His father once worked as a physicist for the federal government.

[00:02:35] When he was young, Mark and his brothers were pushed by their parents to succeed academically.

[00:02:41] Mark studied philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania before attending UCLA medical

[00:02:46] school.

[00:02:47] When he was living in San Diego, Mark married for the first time.

[00:02:51] This marriage ended in divorce.

[00:02:53] After graduating, Mark completed a fellowship at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

[00:02:58] In 1996, he started his own surgical practice in Merrillville, Indiana.

[00:03:04] This is a small town about 42 miles southeast of Chicago.

[00:03:08] He specialized in ear, nose and throat surgery.

[00:03:12] Mark selected this area because there were many steel mills in nearby Gary, Indiana

[00:03:17] which caused air pollution.

[00:03:20] This meant that people in the area had two things that Mark really needed for his practice,

[00:03:25] health insurance and sinus problems.

[00:03:29] Success came easily for Mark and his practice grew.

[00:03:32] His waiting room was as congested as his patients noses.

[00:03:37] On December 31, 1997, Mark married for the second time with a couple separated 14

[00:03:42] months later.

[00:03:43] By this time, Mark was earning over $1 million a year.

[00:03:48] Eventually, his earnings would grow to about $3 million a year.

[00:03:53] In early 2000, Mark went to a club in Chicago and met a 25-year-old graduate student named

[00:03:59] Michelle Kramer.

[00:04:00] The couple became romantically involved.

[00:04:03] On November 1, 2001, Mark and Michelle married in Chicago.

[00:04:08] They also had two other extravagant wedding celebrations, one of which was in Italy.

[00:04:14] The couple purchased a $2.4 million five-story condominium, which was equipped with an elevator.

[00:04:21] Several workers cared for the couple, including three women who cleaned the home, three drivers,

[00:04:26] a massage therapist and a personal trainer.

[00:04:30] Mark also had a personal assistant.

[00:04:32] When the couple was ready to spend some time away from their magnificent residence,

[00:04:36] they could board their $4 million 79-foot yacht and go on lavish vacations.

[00:04:43] They purchased a 1.5-acre lot on a beach in the Bahamas, which was valued at $750,000.

[00:04:51] Mark advertised his practice with a website called The Nose Doctor and kept focusing

[00:04:56] on sinuses.

[00:04:58] At the end of 2002, he opened a new treatment facility called the Weinberger Sinus Clinic,

[00:05:04] which was partially funded by a $1 million loan from his father.

[00:05:09] The clinic featured a tacky marble sculpture of a nose.

[00:05:13] If there was one nose that deserved to meet the grindstone, it was that one.

[00:05:18] No expense was spared in the design of the office.

[00:05:20] The interior of the clinic looked like an expensive hotel.

[00:05:24] Mark had 40 employees and his own CAT scan machine.

[00:05:29] Everything seemed to be going his way.

[00:05:30] However, despite his focus on noses, something just didn't smell right.

[00:05:36] Now moving to the timeline of the crime.

[00:05:38] Due to the air pollution that I mentioned, Mark was quite busy in his practice.

[00:05:42] He saw about 100 patients a day.

[00:05:46] Based on the hours he was working, that meant he was only spending about three minutes with

[00:05:51] each one on average.

[00:05:52] At least 90% of the time when a new patient came to his office, Mark recommended surgery.

[00:05:59] He ended up performing about 100-150 surgeries a month or at least he was billing insurance

[00:06:06] companies for that many.

[00:06:09] Some of the surgeries he billed for were never actually performed.

[00:06:13] In addition to healthcare fraud, Mark ran into other problems with his practice.

[00:06:18] For example, he missed obvious medical conditions during exams and convinced people to have

[00:06:23] surgery by showing them images of abnormalities from other people.

[00:06:28] Not surprisingly, civil litigation soon arrived.

[00:06:32] Eventually, Mark was the target of over 350 lawsuits.

[00:06:37] His demeanor drastically changed and he appeared to be overwhelmed and frustrated.

[00:06:42] At work, he was no longer well-dressed, was not shaving, and grew irritated with patients.

[00:06:48] His employees knew that his nose was out of joint.

[00:06:52] Mark pulled around $2 million out of his business and purchased large quantities of

[00:06:56] diamonds.

[00:06:57] His employees noticed that survival gear was being delivered to the clinic, including

[00:07:01] backpacks, thermal underwear, and portable shower kits.

[00:07:06] On September 18, 2004, Mark, his wife Michelle, his wife's mother, and a few friends flew

[00:07:12] to Greece to celebrate Michelle's 30th birthday.

[00:07:17] Mark's yacht met the group at the small island of Mykonos.

[00:07:21] The yacht contained Mark's camping equipment and survival gear.

[00:07:25] On the night of September 20, everyone went to sleep on the yacht.

[00:07:29] When Michelle woke up at 6 a.m., now on September 21, Mark was gone.

[00:07:35] She couldn't find him anywhere on the island.

[00:07:37] The captain of the yacht gave Michelle the number for a cell phone that Mark had been

[00:07:42] using.

[00:07:43] When she called that number, Mark answered with the word hello.

[00:07:46] Michelle said Mark's name, but he disconnected without saying anything else.

[00:07:52] The authorities in Greece seized the yacht because there were unpaid fees for docking.

[00:07:57] Michelle had to borrow money from a relative to make it back to Chicago.

[00:08:02] Upon her arrival, she discovered that Mark had left her a surprising and unwelcome gift,

[00:08:07] namely a debt of $6 million.

[00:08:11] Mark's clinic closed after the bank discovered he had taken business money.

[00:08:15] In 2005, Michelle filed for bankruptcy.

[00:08:19] This same year, Mark was indicted by a federal grand jury for 22 counts of healthcare fraud,

[00:08:25] but of course no rest was made because he was missing.

[00:08:28] The authorities knew that Mark had initially left Greece and traveled to France, but no

[00:08:32] one could find him.

[00:08:34] In early 2007, Mark showed up in a small ski resort town in northwest Italy called Corma

[00:08:40] Eire.

[00:08:42] This is in the Italian Alps.

[00:08:43] In 2008, he rented a two-bedroom apartment there.

[00:08:48] Mark became romantically involved with a transgender woman named Monica.

[00:08:52] He told her that he was a former Wall Street broker who had earned enough money, so working

[00:08:57] was no longer necessary.

[00:08:59] Maintaining his lifestyle in the United States felt like being in prison and he was disgusted

[00:09:04] by people who lived lavish lifestyles.

[00:09:08] He was ready to be free in the wilderness.

[00:09:11] Mark stopped paying rent on his apartment and moved into a tent at a mountain campsite

[00:09:16] about 12 miles away.

[00:09:18] The rental agent contacted the police, who discovered that Mark was wanted in the United

[00:09:22] States, figuring this out was easy because he had supplied his real name when renting

[00:09:27] the apartment.

[00:09:29] The police couldn't find him because he was in the mountains, but Monica directed

[00:09:33] them to his location.

[00:09:36] On December 15, 2009, Mark Weinberger was arrested.

[00:09:40] The police discovered he actually maintained three different campsites which were stocked

[00:09:44] with large quantities of food and Viagra.

[00:09:49] It was clear that Mark was serious about survival.

[00:09:51] He was prepared to offer a stiff response and handle any hard times that suddenly arose.

[00:09:57] His resolve was firm and unbending.

[00:10:00] In February 2010, Mark was extradited to the United States.

[00:10:04] In July 2012, he put a guilty to all 22 counts of healthcare fraud.

[00:10:09] In October of that year, he was sentenced to seven years in prison.

[00:10:13] In February 2014, Mark was released from prison and moved to West Palm Beach, Florida.

[00:10:18] Reportedly, he has been staying busy with his newfound freedom.

[00:10:23] He married again and was active in cryptocurrency.

[00:10:27] When he was in prison, he was known for being interested in yoga.

[00:10:31] This carried over to his life on the outside.

[00:10:34] Mark calls himself Yoga Doc and sells an online yoga course for $197.

[00:10:41] The name of the course is Superhero Yoga Moves for Dorks.

[00:10:46] It was designed to wow Jim Hotties and provide the optimal cool factor.

[00:10:52] Apparently, Mark's target customer is a socially awkward loner who constructed his identity

[00:10:58] by combining the traits of the characters from the movie American Pie.

[00:11:02] Now moving to my analysis.

[00:11:03] Here are my thoughts on a few areas that stood out to me in this case.

[00:11:08] Item number one.

[00:11:09] Mark had a wide number of interests when he was young, including philosophy, astrophysics,

[00:11:15] and of course medicine.

[00:11:17] He had a good sense of humor and appreciated the comedian George Carlin.

[00:11:22] According to his ex-wife Michelle, Mark told her that his mother Fanny liked his younger

[00:11:27] brother more than him.

[00:11:29] When Mark would win awards, she would hide them in a drawer because she did not want

[00:11:33] his younger brother to feel badly.

[00:11:36] Mark desperately tried to impress his mother with his many achievements including his successful

[00:11:41] medical practice.

[00:11:43] She would tell him things like, you should donate your money to charity and do some good in

[00:11:47] your community.

[00:11:49] Arguing would result which left Mark estranged from his family.

[00:11:53] When his mother died, Mark did not attend her funeral.

[00:11:57] Item number two.

[00:11:58] According to Michelle, Mark used to fantasize about having sex with cheerleaders.

[00:12:03] When he was in high school, he was not athletic, so he did not have any success in that area.

[00:12:08] To revive the fantasy for Mark, Michelle would sometimes dress up in a cheerleader costume.

[00:12:15] Despite Michelle's efforts to keep things energized in the bedroom, Mark complained about her

[00:12:19] performance.

[00:12:20] He once told her that she was not enthusiastic enough while performing oral sex and gave

[00:12:26] her a DVD containing strategies for improvement.

[00:12:30] It's probably safe to assume that Mark would not have had a promising career as a marriage

[00:12:34] counselor.

[00:12:36] Mark was sensitive to any potential weight gain in his wife.

[00:12:38] He was obsessed with the idea that she might get heavier even though she only weighed 105

[00:12:44] pounds.

[00:12:45] Michelle never knew about the finances.

[00:12:48] Mark would give her $1,000 a week to spend anyway she wanted.

[00:12:52] He would leave the cash on the kitchen counter consistent with some type of transaction

[00:12:56] based clandestine romantic rendezvous.

[00:13:00] Michelle said that on their last night together, when they were on the yacht in Greece, Mark

[00:13:04] said something to the effect of, you really do love me, don't you?

[00:13:09] Michelle confirmed that she did and of course, Mark was gone by the next morning.

[00:13:14] He never contacted Michelle or any member of his family when he was on the run in Europe.

[00:13:20] Mark started over completely.

[00:13:21] His old life was behind him forever.

[00:13:25] Question number three, what do I think happened in this case?

[00:13:28] This is just a theory, my opinion.

[00:13:30] Mark was intelligent, charismatic, self-centered, grandiose, shallow, cold, callous, hedonistic,

[00:13:37] materialistic, excitement seeking, sadistic, arrogant, condescending, had low frustration

[00:13:43] tolerance and had a sense of entitlement.

[00:13:46] It's unlikely that Mark could have completed his education without having some level of

[00:13:50] skill, but he did not use that skill.

[00:13:53] Instead, he focused on the most expedient way to obtain money.

[00:13:57] To him, people were just objects.

[00:14:00] He had no empathy and was extremely greedy.

[00:14:03] A surgeon who testified at one of the civil trials described Mark as the worst physician

[00:14:09] he had ever seen.

[00:14:10] As if this wasn't bad enough, this particular surgeon was actually there to testify on

[00:14:16] Mark's behalf.

[00:14:17] Even though Mark did acquire large quantities of money by working and by committing fraud,

[00:14:22] his lifestyle was unsustainable.

[00:14:25] He spent a lot of money even by wealthy standards and ran himself $6 million in debt.

[00:14:30] After Mark's disappearance, Michelle discovered that they really didn't know anything.

[00:14:34] For example, she lost the condominium.

[00:14:37] Mark disappeared because he didn't want to lose everything and go to prison.

[00:14:41] The night before he disappeared, he asked his wife about how she loved him in order

[00:14:46] to get one last ego boost before leaving.

[00:14:49] This was not a situation where Mark was contemplating giving up on his plan.

[00:14:54] This wasn't a moment of empathy.

[00:14:56] Rather, he was basking in the glow of his marvelous nature.

[00:15:01] He was so incredible that he convinced Michelle to love him.

[00:15:04] He was proud of this even though he didn't care about her and was never going to see

[00:15:08] her again.

[00:15:10] Now moving to my final thoughts.

[00:15:11] When Mark was hiding in the Italian Alps, he was living his dream.

[00:15:15] No one was diligently searching for him by that point.

[00:15:19] He was only arrested because he couldn't resist telling someone his real name,

[00:15:24] almost like his true identity was desperate to escape.

[00:15:28] Arguably, Mark failed because he had a nose for trouble.

[00:15:40] This has been true crime psychology and personality from Ars Lange Media.

[00:15:46] This content is for educational and entertainment purposes only.

[00:15:50] Ars Lange, Vita Brevis.

[00:16:01] 24 hours ago I found out the person that I'd been dating and seeing for the last six months

[00:16:07] as a con man.

[00:16:08] That is my sister Emma.

[00:16:10] Andrew Tonks' lies had been so convincing she'd invested $300,000 with him.

[00:16:16] However, the tables were about to turn on Andrew.

[00:16:19] What he didn't know was that Emma had discovered his real identity.

[00:16:23] But to get any chance of justice, Emma had to act like it was business as usual.

[00:16:29] Coming up in this series, and that's when Muda, all this stuff goes through my mind.

[00:16:34] I'm really, really scared.

[00:16:36] I'm assuming series watch too much Netflix and figures I've been defrauding you

[00:16:40] couldn't be further from the truth.

[00:16:41] That's what this was, a real life story that seems so unbelievable, but it was actually true.

[00:16:47] A true story that all starts with one simple swipe to the right.

[00:16:52] I'm Sarah Ferris.

[00:16:53] And I'm Emma Ferris, and this is my story.

[00:16:56] Conning the Con.