Beverly Hills 6750—the controversial aesthetic and cosmetic surgery clinic once affiliated with ex-athlete David Bunevacz and wife Jessica Rodriguez—is now looking for a fresh start.
Yesterday, July 16, Beverly Hills 6750 officially launched the mother and daughter tandem of Gloria Diaz and Isabelle Daza Diaz as its new endorsers. The press conference was held at the Executive Lounge of the Ayala 6750 building in Makati City.
The occasion also marked Beverly Hills 6750's return to public eye after getting involved in an ugly controversy against David Bunevacz late last year. David, who once served as company president, was booted out after management alleged that he was using company funds to support his lavish lifestyle.
In a statement given to PEP (Philippine Entertainment Portal) last December 21, 2007, the high-end aesthetic clinic confirmed that it severed ties with the former decathlete turned corporate head.
Part of the statement reads: "Beverly Hills 6750, an aesthetic center specializing in cosmetic surgery, dermatology, cosmetic dentistry and cosmetic gynecology put up as a collaboration between businessmen and physicians, has been in the news lately ever since celebrity couple, David and Jessica Bunevacz, was reported to have left the company (and the country) because of alleged anomalous transactions which have cost BH6750 a considerable amount of money.
"The management of BH6750 confirmed that Mr. David Bunevacz has indeed resigned from his position as President of the corporation. The board of directors and owners has appointed a management committee to oversee the day-to-day operations of the center and a new election of officers will be held January next year."
LEGAL UPDATE. Beverly Hills 6750 immediately filed the necessary charges against David, who, together with his family hastily left the country to shun media attention. Since then, the company, including its lawyers, chose to remain quiet so as not to impede court proceedings.
Months after the controversy, Managing Director Eduardo Santos faced the media after the presscon to provide legal updates.
"The company has actually filed five cases, ‘yong limang ‘to revolve around estafa cases. From our understanding siguro may mga dalawang kaso that were already up for resolution within the next weeks and the third case siguro after another week is up for resolution. So ibig sabihin lahat ng pleadings have been filed already so nasa judge na lang," shared Dr. Santos.
The business executive also clarified that the cases pending on court are "mainly just against David"—meaning that Jessica is completely cleared of any involvement as far as legal liabilities are concerned.
Explained Dr. Santos, "I can't really say whether she was an owner, but the beneficiary at that particular time, ten percent of stock ownership was to David and the position that Jessica had at that time was director for marketing."
As for the exact monetary figure, Dr. Santos politely begged off from revealing details, saying, "I don't want to cite the exact peso value. I don't want to exactly quote how much. We could have filed more cases. But we didn't want to end up filing 20 cases."
ROAD TO RECOVERY. David's alleged transgression took its toll on the business. During that particular "dark period" Beverly Hills 6750 experienced a lull in terms of customer turnout. The controversy surrounding David's departure caused an 80 percent plunge in sales, according to Dr. Santos.
Being the main face of the business undoubtedly helped the company gain ground particularly during its infancy. But it also turned out to be dilemma in the end as the public developed an impression that David and wife Jessica were "Beverly Hills 6750 and because wala na sila, we're closed."
"So we had to spend some time trying to tell the public that we're open and it's business as usual. Again I'd like to thank our loyal clients who supported us during our initial crises. It wasn't a very long crisis. I would probably put it at about a month before we were able to pick up on sales again," Dr. Santos related.
And of course, there's a lesson learned brought by the entire experience. "Well, prudent financial management is a key... there's certain measures that we've done to assure more financial check and balance," said Dr. Santos in closing.