Police: Phony doc arrested
Undercover officer busts Botox operation at West Palm Beach nail salon, cops say
After a month of posing as a customer, an undercover investigator visited a West Palm Beach nail salon one final time to lock in her appointment for Botox treatments.
The nail salon owner assured the investigator she’d be treated at the salon by a man with an “international medical license” — a professional who works with wealthy clients and conducts procedures at the salon on his days off, deputies say.
With the appointment secured, the investigator’s act ended.
Deputies say they took the phony Botox doctor, Carlos Andres Chaux Rodriguez, 38, of West Palm Beach, into custody on Thursday morning when he showed up to fulfill the woman’s appointment at Kay’s Salon, at 2814 S. Dixie Highway, Suite C, in West Palm Beach.
Authorities say he had planned to perform an injection of Botox around the woman’s eyes and forehead, two injections of plasma in her cheek area and two injections of collagen. The price tag: $3,000.
Rodriguez was charged with unlicensed practice of medicine, a third-degree felony punishable by up to a year in jail. Rodriguez, who was subsequently released from jail on $3,000 bond, could not be reached for comment Friday.
The nail salon owner, Kay Nguyen, was issued a notice to cease and desist for aiding and abetting the practice of medicine without a valid license, state officials said.
Nguyen, in a phone interview Friday, said she has owned the salon for about five years and thought Rodriguez “was an M.D. from Colombia.” She said she even received treatment from him for free to test his work.
“I always thought he was legal and he was licensed. I’m still pinching myself and slapping myself, ‘What did I do wrong, how did I get into this?’ ”
A multi-agency investigation began when the Florida Department of Health received a tip that Botox procedures formed at the salon.
The undercover investigator with the health department first visited the salon on Aug. 13, where she got her nails done and inquired about Botox.
The next day, according to an arrest report, the woman returned to the salon and spoke to the salon’s owner, who allegedly told her that she has a friend who has an international medical license and works for a Boca Raton doctor, and does procedures on his days off at the salon.
The owner “told her that her friend was very good and had a lot of wealthy clients in Palm Beach that he did procedures on,” according to the arrest report.
The owner took the woman’s contact information, and called her several days later to schedule a consultation, authorities said.
They met on Aug. 22 and, speaking through an interpreter, Rodriguez examined the woman’s face, neck and collarbones.
He explained the procedures he would do, then showed her before-and-after shots on his cellphone camera of alleged patients, according to the report.
He offered to begin treatment immediately, but the woman declined and scheduled for
were
being
per- another date, according to the report.
The owner of the salon later confirmed to the woman that her appointment was scheduled for Thursday morning, and that Rodriguez’s translator would be readying the woman’s face for the procedure, the Sheriff’s Office said.
On Friday, Nguyen said of Rodriguez: “I’m shaking because I don’t know who is this guy. … How could I trust people that easy?
“I don’t know much about him and he doesn’t speak English and I don’t speak Spanish. I don’t communicate with him, I just got into this by accident. We didn’t speak one sentence to each other.”
Other agencies involved in the joint investigation were the Food and Drug Administration and the Department of Homeland Security.
The agencies remind the public that receiving health care from unlicensed people is dangerous and can result in injury, disease or death. And in the sheriff’s report, an investigator warned that improperly administered Botox could cause botulism, which has dangerous symptoms.
Staff researcher Barbara Hijek and staff writer Juan Ortega contributed to this report.