Botox party is over as couple plead guilty in Hawaii wrinkle-reducing scam

A New York City couple pleaded guilty to charges of illegally injecting women in Honolulu with wrinkle-reducing drugs similar to Botox and attempting to smuggle to South Korea nearly US$80,000 cash hidden in sanitary napkin containers, federal prosecutors said.

Bu Young Kim and her husband Chan Hui Cho, of New York’s Whitestone neighbourhood, imported the drug Dysport from South Korea, according to court documents. Kim is also known as “Pretty Sister”, a document stated. The couple would fly to Honolulu where Kim injected women – mostly from the Korean community – with the drug in places such as rooms at Honolulu’s Pagoda Hotel, Assistant US Attorney Ken Sorenson said on Friday.

The couple charged between US$100 and US$500 for the treatments but didn’t tell customers that “Kim was administering and dispensing prescription drugs that only a licensed practitioner could administer and dispense”, according to a court document.

On March 6, the couple tried to board a flight to South Korea from Honolulu International Airport, where they told customs officials that they were only carrying US$9,000. Travellers carrying more than US$10,000 cash must declare it. When agents searched their luggage, there was US$79,986 hidden in packages of sanitary napkins, Sorenson said.