Couple Sentenced For Smuggling And Injecting Clients With Fake Botox

Source: The Counterfeit Report

As reported by Hawaii News Now, Bu Young Kim and her husband, Chan Hui Cho, received sentences for their roles in a scheme that saw them illegally injecting hundreds of Hawaii residents with non-FDA approved products in hotels and homes. Kim and Cho were sentenced to three and two months under house arrest respectively. After release, Kim will return to her native South Korea and Kim will return to live with his family in New York.

As previously reported on PSM, the pair routinely traveled to South Korea to purchase the fake cosmetic injectables, smuggled them into the United States and administered them to individuals. Customs and Border Protection Inspectors in Honolulu, Hawaii discovered the couple in March 2016 attempting to smuggle nearly $80,000 on their persons and in their luggage. The cash was concealed in sanitary napkin containers.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Kenneth Sorenson said, “We were initially surprised. The conduct was something we had not seen before. You can understand it happening on a small scale but this was a much larger scale than we had seen before.” Hawaii News Now reports that two of Kim and Cho’s clients suffered permanent nerve damage after receiving injections, with the substance clumping around their eyes. As reported by Fox News, the case against Ozan Melin, which is working its way through the British court system, shows the damage that fake Botox can do.

Federal agents believe there are other large-scale, underground operations like this one in Hawaii and said this case has helped them know what to look for.