Botox doctor who was kidnapped and left at club is accused of misbranded prescriptions
A South Florida doctor known for his prolific Botox practice has been charged by federal authorities with failing to have legal Rx labels on his prescription drugs for injections to smooth out patients’ wrinkles.
Dr. Nader Shehata, 63, who has been licensed in Florida since 2001, faces up to one year in prison for allegedly using misbranded Botox prescription drugs, a $600,000 fine and the possible loss of his medical license. His practice, Derma Laser Center in Hallandale Beach, has been charged with a similar offense that also includes “intent to defraud” the U.S. government.
Shehata and his company have pleaded not guilty to the misbranding charges, but they are expected to work out a plea deal with prosecutors.
Shehata, along with hundreds of other doctors across the country, had been warned by the Food and Drug Administration about buying Botox and similar prescription drugs from foreign sources without the proper Rx labels on them. While the prescription drugs are made in the United States, some are exported overseas without the Rx labels and then imported back into the United States at a lower cost to doctors such as Shehata, authorities said.
Last week, a magistrate judge in Fort Lauderdale federal court granted Shehata a $100,000 bond, and he is still allowed to practice medicine while he awaits the outcome of his case, according to his defense attorney, Lawrence Hashish. He said the doctor has been using Botox with the legal Rx label and continues to practice medicine.
“Usually, as a condition of your bond, you have to stop working,” Hashish told the Miami Herald. “But Dr. Shehata has been using the correct product and Rx label for the past year and a half.”
The drug misbranding case, filed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Robin Waugh, is not the first time that Shehata has had a problem with the federal government.
In 2011, a Drug Enforcement Administration investigation alleged that Shehata prescribed oxycodone, a painkiller, and alprazolam, an anti-anxiety drug, to undercover agents at his prior practice in Hollywood. Shehata’s certificate to prescribe those kinds of drugs was suspended as a result of that investigation, but his license to practice medicine in Florida remained active.
More recently, Shehata was the victim of a kidnapping at a Walmart near his Hallandale Beach medical practice, the Miami Herald has learned. Police found him bound inside a car at a strip club in the area.
On Jan. 15 last year, police were called to the parking lot of Cheetah Gentleman’s Club in Hallandale Beach because a car horn was sounding continuously. When officers arrived, they found a person in the front seat of the car with his hands and feet bound. The victim also had burns and lacerations, according to court records.
The kidnapping victim was Shehata.
Shehata said he was taken at gunpoint from Walmart, forced into a van rented from Budget and blindfolded. He was then tied up and repeatedly shocked with a Taser, according to investigators. His captors told him they’d kill him if he didn’t give them money, they said.
Shehata was taken to a storage facility, where his hands were burned with a blowtorch and he was hit by the suspects, who were trying to get information that would lead them to the doctor’s money, investigators said. He was then left tied up in the car in the Cheetah parking lot.
Last December, Justin Boccio, 33, of Deerfield Beach, was sentenced to 11 years in prison on kidnapping charges. His co-defendant, Serge Nkorina, arrested in Spain, awaits extradition in the ongoing FBI case.
