A glamorous ‘back-alley beautician’ has been arrested for allegedly injecting her clients with fake Botox and fillers.
Olena Malasheych, a Ukrainian national, was taken into custody last week at her apartment in Jacksonville, Florida – where authorities say she was ordering a ‘mystery mail-order filter’ and injecting people inside her home, Action News Jax reports.
She allegedly had no medical license to perform the operations, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement announced on X.
It remains unclear what substance she may have been injecting into her clients, but Dr. Cyndi Yag-Howard, the owner of Yag-Howard Cosmetic Dermatology in Naples told Fox 13 it ‘could be a couple of different things.’
‘People can individually order their own neurotoxins,’ she explained. ‘They can order that online from other countries. They can also order fillers online from other countries in a do-it-yourself fashion.’
These substances, however, can cause blindness, stroke or a permanent disability of facial muscles, Yag-Howard said. The federal Food and Drug Administration also warns the counterfeit injectables can cause blurred vision and even breathing issues.
Experts therefore say these types of procedures should only be done in a professional office, where emergency supplies are available.
Still, Malasheych was somehow able to lure women to her apartment for these ‘back-alley’ injections.
One unidentified neighbor described to Action News how she would regularly see women lined up outside Malasheych’s apartment.
‘I did see women go there,’ she said. ‘I said “Hi” to a few people passing by, going over there. But I had no idea what was going on,’ she said.
Another neighbor, Kamiya Timmons, also said she was completely unaware of what was happening inside her own apartment complex.
‘That’s crazy to me,’ Timmons said. ‘That’s a professional thing and she’s doing it in her own home, in my own neighborhood – and I didn’t even know.’
Malasheych was ultimately arrested following a joint investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the Florida Department of Health, Customs and Border Patrol Florida and Homeland Security Investigations Tampa.
Authorities have not yet revealed what prompted them to start looking into the Ukrainian woman’s operations or whether any of her clients suffered any health issues as a result of the counterfeit injectables.
But Malasheych is now facing charges of practicing or attempting to practice medicine without a medical license, and was released from custody on Thursday.
However, her legal troubles may only be beginning – as the Florida Department of Law Enforcement wrote online that Malasheych’s ‘work visa might be getting its own facelift sometime soon.’
The federal State Department has been cracking down on visa holders who commit crimes in the United States.
Last month, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced he was implementing a ‘one-strike’ policy for all temporary visa holders in a document marking Trump’s first 100 days in office.
‘There is now a one-strike policy: Catch and Revoke,’ Rubio wrote. ‘Whenever the government catches non-US citizens breaking our laws, we will take action to revoke their status.
‘The time of contemptuously taking advantage of our nation’s generosity ends,’ he concluded.