The owner of a New York City med spa has admitted to illegally administering bootleg Botox from Asia, leading one to client to develop botulism.

Klara Shuster, also known as Klara Chrzuszcz, made those admissions in the course of pleading guilty in federal court recently to conspiracy to commit smuggling, among other charges.

The US attorney’s office for the southern district of New York said Shuster’s involvement in the smuggling plot spanned from February 2020 to October 2025. Among other things, she ordered a drug containing botulism toxin over the internet from Korea.

“I imported mislabeled Botox illegally to this country,” Shuster said in court at her 3 August plea proceeding. “And then I dispensed it to clients mislabeled, and I knew it was against the law.”

Schuster, an esthetician, said she did that “without the prescription and without any medical supervision”.

“I plead guilty because I am guilty,” she said in court. “And I am aware of that.”

During that hearing, US district court judge John Koeltl asked if she “dispensed a prescription drug containing botulinum toxin that you asserted was a particular drug, but was not that genuine drug”. Koetl also said the person to whom Shuster gave that substance in Manhattan was then hospitalized for botulism, a potentially fatal condition caused by a toxin that attacks a body’s nerves, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Shuster replied: “Yes, your Honor.”

Prosecutor Joseph Rosenberg said in court that Shuster was an esthetician who owns Klara Beauty Lab medical spa in Manhattan’s tony Upper East Side neighborhood. There, as Rosenberg put it, Shuster “advertised and provided many services.

“Among those was administering Botox, but instead of administering Botox, [Shuster] often administered products containing the active ingredient of Botox, which is botulism toxin – but was not Botox.”

Shuster was not legally allowed to give “actual Botox” injections, according to Rosenberg. New York state prohibits estheticians from prescribing or administering Botox as it is a prescription drug often give to people to smooth wrinkles in their faces.

Rosenberg said the person to whom Shuster gave botulism became “quite sick” before being hospitalized.

Asked for comment, Shuster’s attorney Todd Spodek said that his client “has accepted responsibility for her actions”.

“Her foremost concern is the health and wellbeing of her clients,” Shuster said. “She cares deeply about them and recognizes the responsibility that comes with the trust they placed in her.”

Shuster’s sentencing was tentatively set for 9 December. She faces up to 13 years in prison, though federal defendants who plead guilty rather than stand trial do not typically receive the harshest possible punishments.

Beside conspiracy to commit smuggling, Shuster pleaded guilty to dispensing a misbranded drug while held for sale with intent to defraud or mislead as well as conspiring to dispense such a drug.

A 2 October court filing noted that Shuster planned to travel to Florida in November “to attend a professional seminar”.