Operating an illegal clinic and practicing medicine unlicensed is a crime in itself, but what authorities were most concerned about was that it wasn’t Botox the woman was injecting in her customers.
Bu Young Kim, a South Korean national, is accused of “smuggling” and “delivering misbranded drugs with intent to defraud and mislead.” Botox is licensed and manufactured in the United States and is not made in South Korea. However, the compounds seized from Kim were clearly imported from overseas and did not have proper labels.
Kim was being held at the Federal Detention Center near the airport since her arrest on Thursday, March 31, but was transferred to a halfway house this past Tuesday after her $50,000 bail was posted. She is expected to be indicted in the next couple weeks.
Kim’s lawyer, Michael Green, told Hawaii News Now, “I was surprised at the amount of the bail, I was surprised at the conditions, because… Listen, it is a federal crime, but there’s a lot worse.”
Botox is becoming more and more popular among adults of all ages in the United States for reducing the appearance of wrinkles among other, more medically-beneficial uses. Botox has been known to effectively treat patients with hyperhidrosis who sweat four to five times as much as the average person, and researchers in Britain have recently discovered the benefits of using Botox to treat chronic pain.
It goes without saying that injecting an unknown substance into your face is never safe and undergoing a medical procedure, even one as simple as Botox injection, by someone other than a medical professional is incredibly reckless.