FORT LAUDERDALE - The husband-and-wife doctors who ran an Arizona company pleaded guilty Monday to federal charges involving the distribution of a poisonous knockoff of the antiwrinkle treatment Botox.
Dr. Chad Livdahl, president of Toxin Research International Inc., and Dr. Zahra Karim pleaded guilty to one count each of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and one count each of substantive wire fraud.
Livdahl and Karim, both 33, face a maximum of 20 years in prison. U.S. District Judge James I. Cohn set sentencing for Jan. 26.
McComb injected himself, his girlfriend and two other people with fake Botox last year, causing severe health problems including paralysis. The product contained a much stronger concentration of botulin than that used in real Botox.
TRI allegedly sold the fake product to more than 200 doctors nationwide. More than 1,000 patients were injected with it.
