A spa owner injected her client's lips with an unknown substance during a lip filler appointment and wouldn't reveal what was inside the syringe when the woman asked, according to court documents.
Rebecca Fadanelli, a Massachusetts aesthetician, would only reveal that she buys her products from Brazil and China, according to an affidavit written by a special agent with the Food and Drug Administration's Office of Criminal Investigations.
Fadanelli then used the same syringe she used for her client's lips and injected it between the woman's eyebrows -- without her permission -- at Skin Beaute Med Spa's office in Randolph, Massachusetts, the client later told the special agent, the affidavit says.
The woman "experienced 'bumps' in her lips and tingling in her forehead" afterward, according to the affidavit, which says she paid Fadanelli $275 for the procedure.
Fadanelli is accused of lying to clients and employees about being a registered nurse and performing thousands of injections using fake Botox and filler for three years, from March 2021 through March 2024, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Massachusetts.
She wasn't licensed to provide injections or prescription drugs to clients but made $933,414 doing so, prosecutors said.
Fadanelli, 38, was arrested Nov. 1 on charges 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, the U.S. Attorney's Office said in a news release.
She's accused of importing the counterfeit Botox, Sculptra and Juvederm products she used on clients from Brazil and China.
"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," U.S. Attorney Joshua S. Levy said in a statement.
Thomas J. O'Connor Jr., a federal public defender appointed to represent Fadanelli, and her business, which has a second office in South Easton, didn't immediately respond to McClatchy News' requests for comment Nov. 4.
Complaints from clients
After the woman reported receiving "bumps" on her lips following her filler appointment with Fadanelli in September 2022, she called Fadanelli and asked for a copy of the prescription for the product used, according to the complaint.
"Fadanelli never provided one," the affidavit says.
Investigators discovered that some of Fadanelli's clients complained to her after their appointments, including one who said they had "droopy eyes" and another who said "little balls" formed in her lips, according to the affidavit.
After another client had a Botox and filler appointment scheduled with Fadanelli, the woman complained of a "hard 'lump' under her eye," the affidavit says.
The woman also told Fadanelli "that her eyes appeared to be 'sunken in' as a result of the procedure" and that "she did not see any results in her cheeks," the affidavit says.
In October 2023, U.S. Customs and Border Protection seized several misbranded and unapproved drugs from Fadanelli at Boston Logan International Airport after she returned to Massachusetts from a trip to Brazil, according to the affidavit.
From November 2023 through March 2024, CBP also seized packages containing injectable prescription drugs labeled as Botox, Sculptra and Juvederm that were shipped to Fadanelli or her employees from China, according to the affidavit.
On June 28, when law enforcement agents executed search warrants at both of Skin Beaute Med Spa's offices and spoke with Fadanelli, she told agents that Botox and filler services are provided to clients by a certified nurse and that she doesn't perform injections, according to the affidavit.
"When agents asked Fadanelli if she would like to retract or modify that claim if she knew there was evidence showing that she was in fact administering such products, she reiterated that she does not administer injections," the affidavit says.
Fadanelli told agents she buys injectable products from a Chinese supplier on Alibaba, according to the affidavit, which says she "claimed not to know whether these products are FDA approved."
The day of Fadanelli's arrest, she was released on a $10,000 unsecured bond and is due in court on Nov. 14, records show.
In a Nov. 3 message shared to Fadanelli's spas' Instagram stories, Fadanelli wrote that both of her businesses are open during normal hours and no appointments that have been booked were canceled.
Officials are asking anyone who suspects they were injected with a counterfeit substance from Fadanelli or Skin Beaute Med Spa between 2021 to date, to complete a questionnaire of the FDA's website, which can be found here.
"Individuals who dispense and administer counterfeit injectable cosmetic drugs or medical devices, such as Botox or Juvederm, put the health of unsuspecting American consumers at significant risk," Fernando McMillan, the special agent in charge of the FDA's Office of Criminal Investigations' New York field office, said in a statement.