Feds arrest 3 in crackdown on unlicensed cosmetic care

A Bellevue beauty-salon owner and the co-owners of a Burien nail parlor have been arrested on federal indictments in a recent crackdown on unlicensed cosmetic care, prosecutors announced this morning.

Xin "Faith" He, 46, of Issaquah, who runs the Natural Beauty salon in Bellevue, is charged with injecting counterfeit Restylane, a prescription wrinkle-remover, into customer's faces, resulting in severe reactions that in one case required a woman to get plastic surgery. She is also charged with offering counterfeit Botox for sale.

In a separate case, Toan Le, 51, and Hang Ho, 41, who run the Crystal Nails parlor in Burien, have been indicted on two counts of bribery of a public official. The indictment contends they offered $500 and then $800 to a federal Food and Drug Administration inspector to overlook a dangerous, radiation-emitting laser skin-treatment device they had imported.

All three are being held in federal detention and are due in U.S. District Court this afternoon for first appearances.

Xin He could face up to three years in prison, while Le and Ho could face up to 15 years behind bars, prosecutors said.

According to the prosecutors, a Snohomish woman visited the Natural Beauty salon in 2004 and was injected with a substance drawn from a bottle with Chinese characters on it. She was told it was Restylane, a prescription-only drug for smoothing skin that must be administered by a doctor.

The Snohomish woman's face became inflamed and she had to seek treatment from a real dermatologist, prosecutors said.

He is a licensed manicurist and aesthetician — someone who gives facials and waxes — but not a doctor or a licensed health-care provider of any kind, the indictment said.

In 2006, the state Health Department ordered He to quit administering such substances, but two years later, in April 2008, she injected a Bothell woman with the phony Restylane, prosecutors said. That woman's face became hard and swollen, and she had to get plastic surgery.

Agents raided the salon, at 11004 N.E. 11th St., and seized "numerous vials of injectable substances labeled in Chinese characters," the prosecutors said.

At the Crystal Nails salon at 15728 1st Ave S. in Burien, owners Le and Ho last month attempted to import an unlicensed laser device that is not approved by the FDA, prosecutors charge.

"The device emitted radiation at unknown levels," a prosecution news release said.

When an FDA consumer-safety officer showed up to inspect the device, the owners offered her $500 to let them keep it, then upped the offer to $800, prosecutors say.

According to the indictment, Ho told the officer that if she helped them keep the device, "we will give you a present."

Cooperating with law enforcement, the FDA officer accepted an envelope with $800 in it, the indictment says.

Ian Ith: 206-464-2109 or iith@seattletimes.com