Exclusive | Escape of Dr. Frankenstein from Florida cuts open Trump admin-Brazil diplomatic wounds
WASHINGTON — An unlicensed plastic surgeon nicknamed “Dr.Frankenstein” cut his ankle monitor and disappeared three days before his trial this month for allegedly disfiguring patients in Florida — adding to a diplomatic crisis between Brazil and the US with personal ties to the White House.Joao Araujo — married to a critic of first lady Melania Trump and waging a messy feud with a State Department envoy — vanished on the morning of Aug.
1, avoiding trial on 14 counts, including felonies for grand theft, practicing medicine without a license and fraud at his Miami-area clinic.Four sources close to the case told The Post that he’s believed to be in Brazil, which generally does not extradite its own citizens.Araujo, 57, surrendered his only known passport, issued by Brazil, as a condition of his $20,500 bond, the Miami-Dade state attorney’s office told The Post.If Brazil issued new travel documents to facilitate his escape, “this would be a complete disaster for the already tense US-Brazil relationship,” a high-ranking US official told The Post.The getaway coincides with a mounting diplomatic rift.Brazil in July blocked the incoming US ambassador, former Florida House Speaker Daniel Perez, saying he was selected without the country’s consent, and denied visas for two State Department officials who reportedly intended to monitor the country’s October election, in 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 wife and codefendant Amanda Ungaro is the estranged former romantic partner of Trump’s special envoy for global partnerships Paolo Zampolli, who is widely credited with introducing Melania Trump to the future president in 1998.
Ungaro made vague insinuations this year about knowing secret information about the first lady’s past as she ...