Aesthetician charged with injecting customers with counterfeit Botox

NEW YORK — A New York City aesthetician was charged Wednesday with injecting customers with counterfeit Botox at his medical spa after some of them complained that it made them sick. The charges against Joey Grant Luther were announced by federal authorities, who said some clients faced life-threatening injuries after receiving injections between 2021 and last July at the spa business in the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood of Manhattan. Authorities said he’d been buying counterfeit Botox from countries in Asia, including China, between April 2023 and last July. The complaint said Luther also lied to clients, telling them that any side effects they felt were temporary and assuring them that he wasn’t using counterfeit Botox even though he knew that he was. During a raid last March on Luther’s business, investigators found records showing at least 700 appointments had occurred in which Botox-related services were provided, the complaint said.