Mirabelle reaches into a gray plastic bucket and pulls out a roach motel, then a rat trap.

NPR: Calif. Program Helps Rid Triggers of Asthma

Mirabelle begins asking the children's mother, Erika Mesa, a litany of questions while a relative corrals Erika's three youngest kids onto the couch.

NPR: Calif. Program Helps Rid Triggers of Asthma

Mirabelle says when families visit the clinic, they often tell their doctors they don't have cockroaches or dust mites because they don't want to be thought of as dirty.

NPR: Calif. Program Helps Rid Triggers of Asthma

Mirabelle scans the floors and ceilings for cockroaches.

NPR: Calif. Program Helps Rid Triggers of Asthma

On trips to London he hired a chauffeur, stayed in a suite at the Connaught and dined with partners at the Mirabelle in Mayfair, says a onetime associate. ("I don't recall ever eating at Mirabelle, " counters Shapiro, adding that he only took taxis.) His sometime adviser in Europe was John Bryan, best known for sucking the toes of Sarah Ferguson while she was married to Prince Andrew.

FORBES: Corkscrewed