True Crime with Kendall Rae - Experimental Surgery & Fraud Wedding? The Twisted Lies of Paolo Macchiarini

Episode Date: September 13, 2022

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Look for it at your local grocery or communitycafy.com. Hello, everyone, and welcome back to my channel. I am so happy to have you here today. Today's story is absolutely wild. And when I first heard about this, I knew I had to make a video on it eventually because it just blew my mind. You guys know I'm very interested in fraudsters, lawsuits,

people who lie. I think it's really fascinating, especially people who make elaborate lies over time. So today I'm gonna be telling you the story of two people who fell madly in love and had the kind of fairy tale romance that you see in the movies. But as you can imagine, there's some twists. So let's just get right into this one. So first of all, I'm going to be telling you about Palo Makarini. So Palo was born on August 22nd, 1958, and when I believe his pronounced Basel, Switzerland,

yeah, it could be really wrong. But anyway, he was born to an Italian family and grew up in that area for the first part of his life. Friends and colleagues described Pallow as a very intelligent, charming, and handsome guy. Pallow received his medical degree from the University of Pisa in Italy in 1986, and his masters of surgery by 1991. He received his medical degree from the University of Pisa in Italy in 1986, and his Masters of Surgery by 1991. In 1989, he took a course on statistics in clinical research at the University of Alabama

Birmingham from 1990 to 1992, and he was also an assistant professor at the University of Pisa. Lastly, Paulo earned his Masters in Organ and tissue transplantations in 1994, and by 1997, he received his doctorate for the same, all at the University of French Compte. Paulo was also employed by the very prestigious Carolinska, Insta-Tutette, and Sweden. And around the time that all of this happened, he was known as a world-renowned surgeon. He was a big deal. Paulo had an extensive and impressive education and had all the power to make a famed surgeon, which he ultimately became. Now the other

person we're going to be talking about for the most part today is someone named Benita Alexander. Benita was born on April 21, 1966 in Huntington Woods, Michigan, and she had been through a lot in life. When she was younger, her mother left her, and it was devastating for her. She left her whole family and it was like two weeks before Benita's birthday. And two years later when she got a little older, her father kind of kicked her out, told her she had to go. But even though her childhood was troubling, that did not stop her from achieving a lot in her life. In fact, she graduated magna cumude from Wayne State University with a degree in journalism, which was always a passion of hers.

Benita married her first husband, John Null, and the two of them had a baby girl in 2006, named Justina. However, their marriage did not work out, and it was a pretty rocky divorce, and took a real toll on Benita and her daughter. They officially split in 2009 and her and her daughter at the time were living in New York City together. Bonita's friends describe her as an incredibly loyal, caring, good person who also had an incredible work ethic in drive to her.

She was gorgeous, she was always kind of done up, she always looked glamorous and had beautiful dark hair and piercing blue eyes. But friends would say that despite how beautiful she was, she had a genuine down-to-earth heart of gold and that they never felt like she thought she was better than anyone else. You don't always expect someone to look like that to be so warm and loving and giving. She just is the most loyal, non-judgmental person you probably will ever meet. She started out her career in journalism just doing local reporting and local broadcast and eventually that blossomed into much more. Eventually she became an award-winning

documentary TV producer and investigative journalist for NBC News. So her career totally took off, and she was very happy about that, and she was self-admittedly a bit of a workaholic. She was at the top of her game. The two that she has questions about, just get back to me about those. This girl works a zillion hours and never tires, and was so committed to her work.

However, she says that she always made sure with how much she worked that she made time for the people in her life that mattered most, you know, her close friends, her family, and most importantly, her daughter. So in 2013, Benita started working on a story about a superstar surgeon who was changing the medical world when it comes to trachea transplants. He really seemed to be a trailblazer in that world and was pioneering all types of new techniques and ideas. In fact, he developed a brand new technique to use a synthetic trachea made out of plastic,

and this is crazy. But for the procedure, they would actually wrap it in a person's stem cells in order to recreate a fully functioning organ. The synthetic trachea was made of plastic, the same kind of plastic used to make water bottles, and the tube was first coated with the patient's stem cells. And once implanted, the patient's own stem cells would generate new tissue and a functioning craquia.

So this was seemingly a really revolutionary technique that could change lives all over the world. People were thinking that with his technique you could do synthetic parts, synthetic libers, synthetic whistle-foggi, even synthetic parts of the brain. So in spring of 2013, Benita began covering the story. It was a full NBC story on Paulo, the super surgeon, as they called it, and at the time he was set to operate an Illinois on a Korean toddler named Hannah Warren, who was born without a trachea.

Hannah would be the youngest person alive to receive an artificial trachea, making this surgery historical, and a major component of Bonita's documentary. So Paulo flies in to America for the surgery, and he and Bonita meet up a day before they're starting to record this documentary. And Benita said it was just quote, the weirdest thing. He comes around the corner. He looks right at me. And in that second, something happened. I mean, I got the sort of chill through my body. Like, there was some sort of electric spark. And I remember in my head thinking, what the hell was that? I'm saying to myself, okay, whatever this is, like don't think about it. But even though she felt this instant spark

and attraction to Palo, she knew that she had to keep it strictly business professional because they were working together on this documentary and it could compromise the integrity of the piece. And not just that, at this time, her personal life was really not stable. She was going through a lot and she really didn't need

a new relationship or a new love interest anyway so she kind of just shut down these feelings because something really tragic was going on in her and her daughter's life. Benita's ex-husband of 12 years by this time was diagnosed with glioblastoma and this was really devastating news because it's a terrible type of cancer and it is terminal. It was just really difficult. I knew I was going to have to tell my daughter that her dad was dying. I couldn't even fathom how to do it. She was only nine. She's trying to hold it together for her job. She's trying to hold it together for her daughter. She's trying to hold it together for everybody and everything else except herself. Palo ended up being kind of an emotional support for Benita during this time.

The two of them would start going out to dinner to talk about the piece they were working on, but he would also give her medical advice and try to offer some comfort during this very difficult time. He gave me really sage, solid kind advice. I have amazing friends, but I was in Illinois. They weren't there. And I needed someone to lean on. He was really comforting and really helpful during that period at a really critical time. But he to also learn during these dinners that Palo was separated from his ex-wife, but the divorce had not gone through yet, so he was technically still married.

Unfortunately, by the time Benina's ex-husband went into hospice, he fell into a coma, and it became clear that she wasn't gonna be able to say goodbye to him. But Paolo actually gave her a lot of advice about healing, and kind of came up with other ways that she could, you know, say goodbye without actually saying goodbye and give herself some kind of closure and really heal from the whole thing. And she thought it was a really good idea and ended up asking Palo for his help. So Palo took Benita out on the back of his motorcycle

and the two of them went up to a lake just to throw John's favorite flowers in. And Benita said this was the day, the real start of their whirlwind romance that was yet to come. While I did what I had to do, and he hugged me, he could see the pain in my face and I didn't resist, and it wasn't just a quick hug. There was something really sort of intense about it.

I remember thinking, you know, I'm falling for this guy. That was the moment I knew. That day marked the beginning of our romantic involvement. Their romantic relationship hit the ground running. And even though Benita felt a little weird about all this, because she had a lot of concerns that this was compromising the integrity of the work she was currently doing on this documentary,

plus the fact that he was technically still married was a concern for her as well. Palo explained that he had been separated for years, but the divorce still wasn't legal, but she decided to kind of put all that aside and explore the romance a bit. So the two of them jetted off on a romantic trip to Venice, Italy. And during this whole trip, Palo absolutely showered Benita with tons of flowers, wine, food, the best gifts. She said that he would spend money like you wouldn't believe. And the trip to Venice would only be the first of many.

The two ended up traveling all over the world together. Places like London, Mexico, Russia, Greece, Sweden, Puerto Rico, and the Bahamas twice. We are here at the Athens Airport. Our cave of love. But so many roses, petals, and the fewer. And the most beautiful woman.

And Benita said that even though she really appreciated all the money that was being spent on gifts for her and trips for her and for them to do all these things, she really said what was most endearing to her about Palo was that he would express his love in many other ways. Things like writing her love notes on her mirror with lipstick or sending her videos, just professing his love for her and how wonderful he thought she was. I just wanted to send you a few loving, good morning words

and a lot of kisses to my princess. You cannot stop thinking at you and especially proud that you are mine. I love you so very much. And even though her daughter, Justina, had just lost her father and was reeling from that, obviously, she decided to introduce her daughter to Palo. And she said she did a lot of thinking about this, but she really wanted to make sure that the person she introduced her daughter to was possibly the one, and she felt like she really had a future with Paolo. And Paolo really won just scene over as well.

Benita said he treated her like a princess, and it was like living a fairy tale. Yes, we can go. Benita said at that point, they were just crazy about each other. Their love was super strong, their connection was amazing and she really felt like she had a future with Palo. So Palo proposed to Benita on Christmas of 2013. There's actually a video clip of it and he very casually just hands her the ring box as

if it's some random gift and when she opened it up she saw a diamond ring and figured it was probably an engagement ring so she kind of gave him a look and he nodded that yes yes it was and palo said that this ring actually cost him over a hundred thousand dollars so bonita was just flored I mean she was just being constantly showered by this guy with gifts and praise and it was like something out of a movie. Palo was the type of guy that was constantly looking for ways to impress Benita to really wow her and just seem like, you know, such a well-rounded catch of a man. One of the things that Palo didn't do,

although he spoke seven languages and widened in her all over world. He was very well-rounded on the outside. But one of the things that she wished he could do was dance. Dancing was a big part of her life, and she'd always want to salsa dance with him. So one time when they were in Mexico, they were at a restaurant, and he randomly just grabbed her hand and asked her to dance. And she was all confused, because he didn't know how to dance.

But it turns out the dude actually went and took private her hand and asked her to dance. And she was all confused because he didn't know how to dance. But it turns out the dude actually went and took private salsa lessons and surprised her on the dance floor by knowing how to do the salsa and like wowed everyone at this bar. Really, like a movie. Early on into their engagement, hands up buying a piano for her apartment. And he tells her that he used to play piano as a kid,

but he lost the skill. Like a lot of us used to play piano as a kid but he lost the skill. Like a lot of us, I tried piano as a kid wasn't very good, would have no idea how to start if I were to sit down on a piano now. But Paolo just purchased this piano and said I'm gonna re-teach myself and I want to play a song for you at our wedding. And suddenly he was really good. She was just wowed by this guy who's so smart and so intellectual and still learning new things and so willing to impress her by putting in that extra hard work.

He just seemed like the dream guy. And even though the two of them were engaged now and talking about their wedding plans, it wasn't bringing Palo to the States as much as Benina would have wanted. He was still gone a lot for work. But because he was a world renowned surgeon, it made sense to Benina that he would continue that busy life and would always be traveling across the world to perform these

groundbreaking surgeries or give speeches to other dignitaries. So he was gone a lot, but that didn't really bother her. All of the good things about him kind of outweighed the difficulties that the two of them faced, and she figured over time they would find a way to make everything work better. So when it came to their wedding, Paolo decided he wanted to plan the whole thing. You know, really just have Anita show up and you know, go through the process of picking her dresses and just focus on herself and be able to just enjoy the day. And Palla decided that the two of them should marry in one of the most romantic places in the world, Italy. But there were some things that they had to sort out before they went forward with wedding plans. One of those important things that they needed to figure out was Palla was still married. He technically was still married to his

ex-wife, the divorce had and gone through, so then you did that to move through the process. And then they would need to think about what their family life would look like, this new family, how are they going to include her daughter and really make everyone feel comfortable. And the biggest thing with that was figuring out where they were gonna live and how they were gonna balance their two busy careers.

But a major issue in their relationship that just continued to be a problem was how often Palo was gone. And during these times, he normally wouldn't communicate with Benita much. Sometimes it would be just random too. Like he would be visiting her and then suddenly have to travel somewhere for an emergency surgery.

But Palo made it clear that his clients were kind of high-powered individuals, so Bonita was kind of understanding of these last-minute trips. He held positions in London, Russia, and Sweden, so Bonita would often not know exactly where he was going for days or sometimes weeks at a time. And like I said, much of the time that he was gone, he became unreachable by phone because he said he was busy with surgeries. But by the time that they started to actually plan out the wedding,

Palo was even more adamant that he really planned it and controlled the whole thing, and that Benita just show up. He said that he would handle all the details, and he wanted her to just not stress and enjoy the process of getting married. But Palo was insistent on having a Catholic wedding, even though Benita herself was not Catholic. She didn't really care much. I mean, she said she would marry him wherever, but she thought that it would be pretty much impossible

for them to find a Catholic church that would marry them because they were both devour say's. This is not allowed in the Catholic church, most of the time. But Palo told her her don't worry about that I've got some special contacts in Rome and I can get it figured out Aside from the fact that I'm not Catholic The Catholic church is not gonna marry two divorces. Maybe we should ditch this whole Catholic wedding thing No, no, I'm gonna go talk to my contacts in Rome and it turns out that this contact was the Vatican itself. So Palo actually flew to Rome

for a meeting regarding the couple's wedding with the Vatican and called Bonita immediately after to tell her that the Pope was gonna be marrying them. That's right, the Pope, the actual Pope, was gonna do their wedding according to Palo. And Bonita thought this was bullshit right away. And he told her, you know, you're never gonna believe me, but I actually did meet with the Pope,

and he wants to marry us. And at first, she just hung up on him because she was like, what the hell are you talking about? Finally calls me, and he says, they took me into me. Francis, then he said, and he said he can help us. And then he said, but, and there's this long silence on the front of him, but what? He said, he offered to Marias himself.

And I just said, oh, the book doesn't marry people. No, I'm serious. He wants to marry us because we're both divorces. He thinks we're the perfect poster couple to push forward his Ford thinking agenda to change the Catholic church. And I got so mad, I said, I'm gonna talk to you later and I hung up.

She had never heard of the Pope just marrying random people and felt like he'd probably had more important things to do, but Palo ended up convincing Benita that the Pope wanted to marry them because they were both divorces. And after she googled it, Benita actually realized that the Pope had married a handful of other couples who had already been living together at the time, and at that moment, she realized that maybe it was possible that this really could happen for them. So then that disbelief turned into excitement,

and she couldn't believe that they were going to be married by the Pope. Her friends and family, when she told them were obviously also in disbelief and didn't quite believe it at first No, no, no, I'm not joking. We're getting married by the Pope From that moment on I felt like my head was spinning and it didn't stop spinning But once Benita really got used to the idea of the Pope marrying them, she realized what a big deal this wedding was gonna be.

And according to Palo, the Pope himself would not be the only famous person at their wedding. He also claimed that the Beckham's, the Clintons, the Obamas, would all be there because they were friends of Palos. And it didn't stop there. He also told Benita that John Legend, Elton John, and Andrea Bocelli would also be there and performing

at their wedding as well, all three of them. Damn. So with such a famed guest list, Bonita decides that it would be best for her family members to sign an NDA. And Palo said that this wedding would actually be a four day affair, held in Castell Gandalfa, which is a castle about 40 minutes outside of Rome. So Benita got a meet with a wedding planning team, and there's actually footage of them

all meeting and her telling them that the Pope was going to be, you know, marrying them, and they were all just blown away, realizing what a huge project this was going to be and how serious it was. Yes, we're gonna marry by the Pope. Oh, my God. I didn't believe it was like, oh my God. I could have believed it.

I literally sat there. I think I was in shock. I think you'd have to start deciding how they broke. They started working on multiple dresses because this was gonna be over four days. They wanted to do an outfit change during the final dance, like she would be wearing this kind of big poofy dress, and then during their first dance,

he would rip off the dress and they could like show off their salsa moves, rip it off with something underneath it, of course. And Benito was in fairy tale land. I mean, all her friends were really excited. Everyone just could not believe what this wedding was being described as, what they were gonna be going to.

Her friends and family were very excited to be going, but also a little nervous about the whole thing, trying to figure out what they're supposed to wear to an event like this. It started to feel like it was a bit of a royal wedding, all these famous people were gonna be there. The the Pope was going to be there. What should their dresses look like? What should Benita's dresses look like? And that's really where her focus lied because Palo was supposedly doing everything else for the wedding. But before the wedding even

happened, things started getting rocky. In 2014, Benita planned a trip for the two of them to visit California to celebrate Thanksgiving as a family. And around this time, Palo started, Benita planned a trip for the two of them to visit California to celebrate Thanksgiving as a family. And around this time, Palo started telling Benita that he was worried about people who he called his enemies. He was under extreme stress, according to him, because of people who were against him and his work. And not long after hearing about his enemies, Benita wakes up to a news article stating

that colleagues of palos at the Carolinska Institute at were accusing him of scientific misconduct. These doctors who had worked alongside palo were particularly concerned with his new procedure involving trachea transplants. Six of the medical journals where palo had been publishing his research were fraught with lies and falsifications according to these colleagues. We went through six of Palo McAureini's articles. We could show that there was lies and falsifications in the articles he published. And the news started to spread. A lot of people were hearing about it and Palo was very stressed

out during this time. But whenever Benita would ask him about these allegations, he would maintain his innocence, say that none of it was true. And she wanted to believe him, wanted to support him. He also said that this is kind of criticism that comes with anyone who's developing a new procedure and that they always expect complications. But minor failures and complications really doesn't cover the situations that were unfolding with his patients. Hannah Warren, the Korean toddler who palo operated on just months before, had passed away before she even made it out of the hospital. It was devastating to her family and so many of the people that worked with her.

And Benita was devastated too. You know, this was a story that she was covering. She had gotten to know this little girl and couldn't believe that this had happened. Meanwhile, all of the stories about Palo's alleged scientific misconduct continued to make headlines. So, Benita jumped in to help him out as best she could. Her sister-in-law remembered the entire dining room just being covered in paperwork. She was going through tons of files, going into full PR mode,

trying to save her husband's career in reputation. Shortly after the news about Paolo broke, the two of them went back to Italy for a nice weekend getaway. And during this brief vacation, Benita started begging Paolo to take her to where they were gonna be married. She wanted to see it for herself. He was really resistant. She just wanted to get

after the other and I couldn't understand what the resistance was. I'm like, please, I just, I want to see this place. But eventually he caved and he ended up taking her to Castellkin, Dolpho, where he showed her the grand entrance that she would walk in, and the lake where there would be a huge firework show. In the city hall where he said their wedding paperwork was already inside and waiting for them to sign. But during the entire trip, Bonita noticed that Palo seemed annoyed. Something was off, he seemed not himself.

When she kind of pressed him about it, wondering why he seemed to be in sort of a bad mood, he said that he was fine, he was just stressed out about all these allegations and lies being spread about him. So not long after that trip, Powell actually asked Benita and her daughter to go ahead and make the move to Barcelona, and he told her that they would live in a beautiful home together and really start their lives. This is the place where you and I will leave for the rest of our lives.

I love you. He commenced Benita to quit her job and she did, which was a big move for her and scary to do, but she had trust in him. They also pulled Jacina out of her private school and made the plans to move to Barcelona. But when it came down to it, there were three to four separate instances when they were supposed to leave, but Palo would be called into emergency surgery and have to fly out somewhere suddenly. And again, she was frustrated by this. She was a little annoyed, but she understood that his career was incredibly important, especially with her quitting her job. He was now going to be the sole breadwinner for their family.

So she just tried to be cool about it all. So about eight weeks before the two of them are supposed to have this grand wedding with all these celebrities there in Rome, married by the Pope, Bonita is at a spa with her friends, just having a chill spa day. She's just sitting there and then suddenly she gets an email and she starts reading this and everything falls apart in a few seconds. I see this email and it's from a colleague and it says we need to talk and it has a link to an article that shows that the Pope is not going to be in Rome on July 11th. He's going to be in South America.

The wedding was supposed to be July 11th, 2015, and the pope would not be there. So obviously, this immediately raised a bunch of red flags for her. And this article made it really clear that the pope had also planned this trip a long time ago. But Nida, of course, felt sick. As soon as she read this, I mean,

her whole world kind of came crashing down in an instant. She was absolutely furious and called Paulo immediately and demanded answers. Asked him what the hell is going on, but his manipulation and lies only continued. He made up quite an interesting story. He said that Pope Benedict was trying to undermine Pope Francis because of his progressive agenda that he was trying to stop him from being able to be involved in their wedding.

According to him, the Pope had made some more kind of radical ideas for the wedding day, including palo being able to get communion, even though he was divorced, which is typically not allowed. He also told her that the Pope wanted to have anyone who was gay at the wedding be able to get communion as well, and that this was going to be a real statement to everyone about the direction he wanted to push Catholicism in.

She thought this seemed like a bit too fantastical. Like was he really gonna make that move? It was quite bold, but they accepted it and they were all really excited about it when she first found out. So he really just blamed Pope Benedict for it all, said he was trying to stop this wedding from happening and that he was gonna fly to Rome to fix this himself. Get to the bottom of what was going on here. But Benita was not falling for the bullshit anymore. She felt like she really woke up to who Paulo really was and the lies that she was constantly

being fed. So she began to question everything he had ever told her, everything that he had ever promised her, and she began making phone call after phone call to the venue they were supposed to be married at, the caterers they were gonna be working with, and asked them about Paolo and their wedding. But no one knew anything about their wedding. No one had even heard of Paolo. Obviously she felt incredibly frustrated, first of all just that he was lying to her, but also because these were calls and things that she could have taken care of months ago. I mean, this is like a couple weeks out till they're wedding.

And he insisted that she not get involved in anything because he wanted to surprise her. So because she had spent a lot of her career investigating the truth, she decided to go ahead and investigate Palo and get the truth herself. She basically started to uncover everything, layer by layer, piece by piece.

I made a very strategic decision to start playing a cat and mouse game, basically. She did not let Paulo know that she was onto him. She just started investigating. I wanted to get all the information that I could get before I really confronted him, because clearly he's not gonna to tell me the truth. So she decided to not let Palo know that she was on him.

She wanted to kind of just keep playing the act. Meanwhile, she is hired two private investigators, one in the United States and one in Italy. She wanted to have complete proof before she confronted him because he was such a weasel about everything that she wanted to have the facts ready so he couldn't dispute things. And at the same time, that Benita is really catching on to Palo's truth, the allegations against him for scientific misconduct were really heating up drastically. The Carolinska Institute was now looking into the claims that he fabricated parts of

his medical research. So Benita told him that because of all these allegations and all of the stress that he was under, that she felt it was best to postpone the wedding. And because the wedding was right around the corner, she needed to let people know immediately because a lot of people were flying out for it and had made a lot of arrangements. So just weeks before she's supposed to get married, she sends out an email, letting everyone know that the wedding is postponed. Dear family and friends, it is with an extraordinarily heavy heart that I write to inform you

that due to unforeseen and unfortunate personal circumstances, we have to cancel our July 11th wedding in Italy. We greatly respect the lengths and expense you've undertaken in order to make plans to celebrate with us this summer. And we are deeply sorry for the great inconvenience this causes. We respectfully ask for some privacy

to figure out our next steps. I'll say what? My jaw could have been on the ground and wouldn't be on the ground. So one of the ways that Paulo was able to explain his special connection to the Pope and why the Pope was willing to marry them, was because he was the Pope's personal doctor, apparently. But after her own investigation,

Benita learned that Paulo was in fact not the Pope's personal doctor. And they gave her a statement, saying that there is no personal doctor of the Pope with the name Macarini. The Pope has surely never promised to officiate the wedding of Macarine and doesn't know someone with such a name. On the 11th of July, the Pope was traveling in Latin America, and this was on his agenda

a long time before July. This is enough. It also became clear very quickly that Palo did not know the Obama's Elton John, John Legend, or the Clintons, or any of the other famous people he claimed to know. And remember the $100,000 engagement ring that Palo bought Bonita? Well, she got it a praise and turns out that bitch was only worth $1,000. And the Italian private investigator that she hired ended up finding out that Pala was still married to his wife.

Whose name was Emanuele Paquia. She couldn't believe it. He was still in an active marriage. But at this point, once she figured out all of these lies, she had already quit her job, changed a ton of her life, introduced her daughter to this guy, who was supposed to be a big part of her life introduced her daughter to this guy who was supposed to be a big part of her life going forward. Not to mention, she pulled her daughter out of school so that they could move, and they had spent at least $50,000 already in wedding arrangements. But despite all of these

terrible truths coming to light, Benita still wanted to go to Italy when they were supposed to get married to Continue her own investigation. She actually booked her flight for July 11th 2015, which was the day that she was supposed to be marrying the man of her dreams. But instead she Toasted herself with a glass of champagne in between tears on the plane at 6 p.m. Which was the time that they were supposed to be saying I do. She said she wanted to go to her venue and take it all in, all the stuff that she was never supposed to have, and she also wanted to go to Barcelona for herself, and see the house that Palo had so clearly been hiding from her this whole time. So two of her close friends, Lee and Nancy also had their flights for the wedding originally

and they weren't able to cancel them. So they decided to just join her out there. And the three of them kind of went on this quest to find out more. While they were in Italy, her friends suggested that maybe she put on one of the gowns that she was supposed to wear over the four day wedding celebration and take some photos. So she did that. And she said it was kind of devastating, but also empowering to do so. And it gave her the courage to keep on going and find out more

of the truth. So after all of them left Italy, they went to Barcelona. But Nita was convinced that the house that he had been hiding from her was kind of the missing link. And during this whole time, Bonita and Palo are still texting. In fact fact she told him that she had gone to a lake in upstate New York for the weekend and he claimed that he was working in Russia at the time so the three of them took a rental car out to Barcelona. I told him that I had gone to a lake in upstate New York with some friends because the wedding weekend was too emotional for me. He has no idea on the Europe.

We're in Barcelona. We're getting ready to do a little road trip. Oh, yeah, yeah. It's also known as a stakeout. And Bonita wore a blonde wig to disguise herself, and they drove up the Long Hill to Palo's home. As they drove, they would pull off on the side of the road and take pictures of them, flipping off the camera.

I mean, it was clear what their mission was. They were trying to keep it light and fun, and it was kind of the only way that Benita could keep herself going. And as they approached this house, Benita actually saw Paulo outside of the home and realized that he was definitely not in Russia. Just another lie. And she actually starts recording him. And you can tell she's just so angry when she notices that he's not alone. He's actually way the woman and two kids. I'm in the car, my heart is pounding, so I'm coming down the steps with his dog.

He's there. You're a ****. You lie a ****, the second ****. Yeah, I see you. And your white shirt and your black shorts and your gray hair **** you. Two little kids coming down the stairs. Wow.

My heart is in my chest. I'm a puk. And we know that Paulo had another wife in Italy who he claimed that he was still in the process of getting divorced from. But this woman was someone completely different. At first, she wanted to get out of the car and just confront him, but she said she felt paralyzed, and she became really concerned about the other two kids

that were there. You know, this wasn't their fault. They probably had no idea what was going on. She didn't want to traumatize them. Until then, I had been thinking about getting out of the car. Once I saw those kids, I couldn't move. So, they decided that her friends would get out of the car and go drop him off a gift, a wedding gift for the wedding that did not happen. So they just roll on up to the house and Benita's watching the whole thing. And when the two of them, Leon Nancy, knocked on his door,

Pallo opened up and looked completely shocked. And all he said was, wow. Oh, look, Pallo, go back. Her friends talk about how he was clearly nervous, just kind of shifting his weight from side to side, his eyes were darting around, like he was trying to figure out what lie he had told them and how he was going to explain this house, like he knew something was going on, but he was kind of trying to maintain that smoothness.

To keep their cover though, they said that the only reason they were there is because they had non-refundable tickets for the wedding, so they just kind of made a trip out of it, and so they wanted to just stop by and give them this gift. In a normal reaction obviously it would be if someone drove all the way out to visit you in Barcelona and give you a gift for a wedding that you canceled, you know, it would be typically pretty nice to invite them inside for some water, coffee or whatever, but instead he was like, where's your car? So they got the hint that he did not want them there, and they left.

And Benetus, saw the whole thing happen and was so angry. She said at that point, she just started whaling in the car like furious. BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP And driving away from his house in Barcelona and seeing him go back up the stairs into the house was the last time that Benita would ever see him. So after this, she decides to go back up the stairs into the house was the last time that Benita would ever see him.

So, after this, she decides to go back to the states and try to pull her life together. One of the first things that she wanted to do, obviously, was get rid of all of Paolo's shit in her house. She didn't want any reminders of him, and one of the biggest reminders of him was the piano. So, she actually sold it to this woman on Craigslist and the two of them ended up becoming friends. And a few months later, a few months into their friendship, they were on a trip together. And that's when this woman mentions to her that that piano she sold her a few months earlier had pre-recorded classical songs on it. And at that point her jaw dropped and she looked me and she, you know, she's there busy driving and then she flips her head

and looks at me and she said, you're kidding me. So I said, yes, I mean, it has a lot. It turns out that piano could play all by itself. And that video clip I played earlier in this video is a pre-recording with him pretending to play. In fact, at one point you can see him kind of dusting off the keys, not even playing it, and the song is just going. So so many things about him that he had told her were simply just not true.

It took a huge emotional toll on her. It was very hard, feeling like this person was her whole future, her whole world, and then having it all crashed down in an instant. But she now felt like she had a responsibility to expose Palo for the man that he really was because she feared that this guy was operating on people, and there were a lot of complaints and concerns about his practices. So Bonita ended up writing two emails to the Carolina Institute to tell them that Palo was not the man that he was claiming to be.

But what Benita didn't know is there was others doing this too. A lot of the colleagues who had caught on to Palo's misconduct were also trying to bring it to the attention of the public and his employers. One journalist, in particular, Adam Surawski, had heard of Palo, the world-renowned surgeon, who had actually been having a fair with a TV producer who was covering his story, and he decided to go ahead and look into Palo. He wrote down all of the places that Palo had claimed have been, studied, or worked. He thought it was just crazy that this was a big lie perpetuated by someone who was really at the pinnacle of their profession.

So he said he decided to do a deep dive and pulled every CV he could find from any conference he had ever been at, any medical institution that had ever had him, and I actually put them all on a giant spreadsheet. And when he looked at everything that Palo had claimed to do, he realized there was no possible way. It was true. He realized that if his claims were true, he would have had to be a tenured professor at four universities all at the same time. Palo had listed that he was at University of Alabama receiving his master's degree in biostatistics at the same time that he was doing a fellowship in thoracic surgery. So the journalist Adam Adam, contacted the university

and found out that the biostatistics degree was fake and so was the fellowship. It became clear that he was lying about what he had done in the United States and what medical training he had received. And obviously that is all very concerning for a guy who is performing serious, groundbreaking surgeries and working

on people's throats. And to make matters even worse, Adam actually discovered that Palo had lied about teaching at a university in Italy, and some of his colleagues actually knew about it and had been trying to raise the alarms for a while. So now it was extremely clear that Palo was a giant fraud. He had lied about his qualifications and his experience and he was now traveling the world, performing human experiments pretty much, disguised as groundbreaking surgeries. So the reporter and other colleagues that he had worked with in the past tried their

best to get the attention of the higher-ups to warn them about Palo. So members of the Carolinska Institute at first became concerned about Palo's seemingly groundbreaking surgeries when 24-year-old Turkish woman named Yassim Satir was brought into Palo after a routine elective surgery in her home country resulted in a nicked trachea, and she was hoping that Palo could help her. When her surgeons were unable to correct this mistake, Palo was consulted and ended up deciding that the best course of action was for him to operate. And at this time that he was called into operate on her, he had already performed four of his trachea implants.

So Yassim was flown into Sweden where Palo would operate, but his operation made everything so so much worse. She ended up requiring over 191 additional procedures to correct new and old complications with her trachea. These complications led to multiple strokes, leaving her partially blind and unable to walk. And the emotional and physical stress that Yassim was going into really took a toll on her caretakers in the ICU because they said it was just such torture to see this young girl

and how badly she was suffering. It was obvious that she was not getting any better, so her care team started looking more into Palo. And after looking through his medical papers about his successful and groundbreaking surgeries, once again, it was clear to them that things did not add up. When comparing the documentation published by Palo versus the actual medical charts of the patients, they realized that Palo had been falsifying data to make his surgery look better. The results to look better.

For example, one of his patients, one of his first patients back in 2011, who went through the procedure, became much worse after the procedure. But Palo reported that he was asymptomatic and also tumor-free. And he claimed that a healthy trachea was developing for the patient.

However, a real biopsy showed that the trachea was completely dead. The patient ended up with a collapsed lung because of the operation. Another one of his reports was written in a way that made it seem like his patient was doing well and recovering post-surgery, but it turns out they had actually died. So once his colleagues were certain that Palo had been falsifying this data and endangering the lives of all of these patients, they put together a 500-page complaint outlying all of their accusations.

However, the response to the report was basically nothing. It took the Carolinska University officials several more months to even launch an official investigation into Palo. But eventually, they put out a statement saying that even though his work didn't always meet their standards, there was no scientific misconduct that occurred, and so his work would be continued. And everyone who was involved in trying to expose Palo was pissed. But meanwhile, Bonita is planning how she is going to share her whole story with the public for the first time. And she ended up deciding to go with a Vanity Fair article.

And in January 2016, the Vanity Fair article that was published by the journalist, Adam Syralsky, finally came out and it detailed, you know, all of the personal and professional misconduct of Palo. And when the public heard about all the details and all of the fraudulent activity of Palo, people were pissed and not long after the Vanity Fair article came out, an additional documentary was published called Fatal Experiments. And it really raised additional concerns about his techniques and they even published footage of Palo admitting to an issue with one patient's

artificial trachea, even though he was still moving forward with another patient. And during all this palo just deferred the blame, saying that these patients who had lost their lives died from prior complications that were underlying. He denied everything and said that it wasn't his work that led to their deaths. It's difficult. It's difficult to be attacked on the front pages. And at least we would have done something wrong. Then I would understand it. But I believe we didn't. However, the public just did not believe him and with all the additional information

from the Vanity Fair article, I mean, it just was not going to work. So the Carolinska Institute TET had no choice but to further their investigation. And during this investigation, the leadership of both the Carolinska Institute TET and the leadership of the Noble Prize Committee in medicine all resigned.

They finally ended up deciding to reverse their initial conclusions on Palo. They suspended him and found him guilty of scientific misconduct. And to this day, only one out of the eight people who received an artificial trachea from Palo is still alive. And that person actually had their trachea removed and replaced with a donor organ. I want him to go to trial. I want to go to the trial. And I want him to look around that. I want to go to the trial. And I want him to look around that courtroom

and see the families of the patients whose lives he destroyed and see my face. And at least be forced for whatever few seconds to look at us all on the eye and maybe understand what he did. And then I want him to be held accountable. I think he needs to be behind bars. Benita's last communication with him was a long text saying,

Jigs up, I know it all, you're a fraud. How could you do this to me? And it was a long message and all that motherfucker could say back was, wow, just like before. It's just his favorite response, a good wow. In the end, Benita says that she's most angry about what paladid to her daughter. She's an innocent child who lost her father to cancer, has been through so much, and really

had hope that Palo was gonna be a great person in her life, a father figure potentially, and all of that was ripped away from her. Palo was officially indicted for aggravated assault for three deadly procedures that took place in Sweden, and as of right now he is continuing to deny all charges and trial is supposed to take place sometime in 2022. So we'll have to see how this unravels. But that's all I have on this story right now. I might have to revisit it when the trial is going on.

You'll have to let me know if you'd be interested in that. But I definitely want to hear your thoughts on Palo in the entire situation. I mean, it's really hard to believe and hard to wrap your mind around really, how many fraudulent doctors there are out there. I mean, the fact that he was able to just fake his credentials, fake his experience.

It's scary, man, thinking about it. What do you think about the whole wedding and the Pope and how it was all a big lie? I mean, how do people keep that going? I mean, how do you get through your day? How do you sleep at night when you're lying to so many people, so many people who claim to love and care about, it's just like a whole new level of crazy. That is going to be it for me today guys. Thank you for joining me for another episode and make sure you follow the show on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

It really does help me out. If you want to watch the video version of this show, you can find it on my YouTube channel, which will be linked, or you can just search Kendall Ray. I will be back with another episode soon, but until then, stay safe out there. [♪ Music playing in background,'m always here for you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I can use the mobile app if I need help. Sorry, you're in my wife's seat, though. Oh, yeah, I gotta go anyway. Tell Grace, she nailed her chassis.

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