A Massachusetts spa owner is in hot water for allegedly injecting her customers with counterfeit Botox and other cosmetic products. On Friday, federal officials arrested and charged the 38-year-old Rebecca Fadanelli with several counts related to the alleged swindle.
According to the charging documents made public Friday by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts, Fadanelli had been running this alleged scheme since at least March 2021. She is accused of having imported counterfeit Botox, Sculptra, and Juvederm (the latter two products being dermal fillers) from China and Brazil and using these products in thousands of injections across the two spa locations she owns in Randolph and South Easton, Massachusetts.
Officials say that she completed over 1,600 Botox appointments and over 1,000 filler appointments with these faux products between March 2021 and March 2024. Prosecutors say that Fadanelli was paid more than $900,000 for the injections altogether. Additionally, she is being accused of lying to customers and her employees about her credentials, reportedly claiming that she was a nurse when she was only licensed as an aesthetician. She also allegedly told prosecutors that she never injected customers herself, but other employees have reportedly said otherwise.
“For years, Ms. Fadanelli allegedly put unsuspecting patients at risk by representing herself to be a nurse and then administering thousands of illegal, counterfeit injections,” said Acting United States Attorney Joshua S. Levy in a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts. “The type of deception alleged here is illegal, reckless and potentially life-threatening.”
Fadanelli has been formally charged with one count of illegally importing merchandise contrary to law, one count of selling or dispensing a counterfeit drug, and one count of selling or dispensing a counterfeit device. She was arrested and made her initial appearance in federal court Friday.
Botox is routinely used to safely reduce wrinkles and treat other medical conditions, such as chronic migraines. While it’s possible that Fadanelli’s clients have avoided harm from her products, counterfeit Botox can definitely be a dangerous gamble. Earlier this April, the Food and Drug Administration warned the public that it had received recent reports of unsafe counterfeit Botox being found and used in several states. People injected with these products reportedly developed symptoms soon after, including blurred or double vision, difficulty swallowing, dry mouth, constipation, incontinence, and weakness, with some requiring hospitalization.
“Medications purchased from unlicensed sources may be misbranded, adulterated, counterfeit, contaminated, improperly stored and transported, ineffective and/or unsafe,” the FDA noted.
Federal prosecutors are asking people who believe that they may have received counterfeit injections from Fadanelli or at her spas since 2021 to reach out and fill out a questionnaire provided on the FDA’s website, linked here.
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