I personally know him and his wife. There is a lot of important information left out in this wsj article. I met this dude while at USC grad school. That used Mercedes they were driving was really a 1-2 year old certified car. They just could not drive a corolla or anything else. While in dental school, his wife, Mrs Melissa Meru, starts working at USC which offers a generous perk of halfing your family members tuition for 4 semesters. Think about it, he was paying half of what everyone else paid for semesters and to add insult to injury, she pretty much quits once the 4 semesters of tuition benefit run out. The guy is real snake too: while in school, he was part of the ethics committee and class president, but behind that tall handsome person was a competitive shit talker and rule bender. Mind you, also, in the mid to late 2000s, most USC classmates of him were rooming in apartments that cost only 800-900 total. 1500 rents you a nice 1br in Santa Monica, Brentwood or Beverly Hills so you can imagine where they were living at that rent price (and those cities are far from where usc is). The article fails to mention how this family consistently took vacations to Central America during their school years, the well dressed and brand name clothes they sported, the free parking they received at usc just for being Mormons, the cheating that was prevalent in the Mormon community in obtaining and passing tests around within the Mormon community. Yea, some real upstanding guy chairing an ethics committee. Oh, did I forget the fact that these Mormons purposely had families while in grad school because they had all learned to apply for welfare? So, on one hand, they’re claiming how Hispanics and African Americans are having kids and using the government to not work, but they are doing the same thing. We just didn’t realize it until word got out in the second year of our graduate program.

Mr Meru did go to residency in orthodontics to chase the good financial work life balance but here’s what the article fails to mention. Fresh out of school, the family buys a Mercedes G wagon (yes, the insanely dumb looking 100k + gas guzzling boxy Mercedes SUV’s that even used cost a horrendous arm and a leg. They then purchase a completely decked out, custom ordered Mercedes minivan/utility car for their family adventures and trips. Mind you, all of these purchases are used as a tax ride-off because the article fails to mention Mr. Meru did have the ability to pay back his loans but chose to start a sunglasses company called Ltd optics and every life expense was used as a tax ride off. You should look at the Instagram and Facebook posts of the wife, Melissa Meru, and Dr Mike Meru himself: chaulkfull of vacations, great clothes, iPhone watches, custom designed Home furnishings/art and the list goes on... in one photo, Mrs. Meru posts an image of her and her two daughters wearing brand new Jordan’s. That’s at least $700 purchase. They regularly travel out of the country, every week Mr. Meru flies to aspen, Canada, Colorado or treks to different parts of Utah. Now, you might think how does he have time? Answer: the guy refuses to work full time. Most orthodontists that graduate work 6 days a week for 6-7 years but this guy works 3-4 days a week because those weekly snowboarding trips or monthly Malibu surfing excursions with the entire family can’t be done on 2 day weekends or heck 3 days even. All the while they are taking these vacations, they turn around and expense the entire thing because they advertise their cheasy sunglasses or stupid snow glasses. Just think, flight for four people to Aspen, all the snow gear for the family of four that runs into the thousands, hotel expenses, food, dining, kids entertainment and etc. costing into the thousands each weekend and then all they do is tag the hashtag ltdoptics to ride off the entire weekend as a tax expense.

Oh, and a used Tesla model X (the one his wife drives) costs still a cool $90k and requires an additional in house charging dock investment. Many have pointed out that Dr mike Meru is an entitled brat and if you know him, under the nice guy persona he uses to befriend and climb ranks is a real elitist. Btw, his entire goal with his sunglasses company was to build it up, mass market it and then sell it off to some sucker like Oakley did. The guy has the money to pay it. He just doesn’t want to. Oh, and word is, after pampering DrMeru at usc, the USC faculty and dean are super upset with the way article has portrayed the school. Dr Meru’s usc tuition was never that high during his school years and many of his classmates are well on their way to a responsible, comfortable life. He’s just looking for a freebie.