Hayley Nicole Atwood, 33, pleaded guilty to federal wire fraud after falsely presenting herself as a master esthetician and performing laser treatments that injured several clients at her spas in Chesapeake and North Carolina.
Several customers suffered burns and scarring from the treatments, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia, which announced the plea Nov. 2.
Atwood held a basic esthetician license from the Virginia Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation (DPOR). She did not hold a master esthetician license. Beginning in at least 2017, she repeatedly told colleagues and potential customers she was a master esthetician, according to federal prosecutors.
The distinction matters. Virginia's professional licensing law defines master esthetics as including certain advanced skin-care procedures but excludes laser technology from that scope of practice. A master esthetician license alone does not authorize laser treatments.
Under a separate Virginia law governing laser hair removal, a properly trained person may perform the procedure under the direction and supervision of an authorized licensed medical professional.
Atwood owned and operated esthetics spas in Chesapeake and Elizabeth City, North Carolina, according to court documents cited by prosecutors. In March and April 2021, she purchased two Spectrum Laser devices for those locations.
Court records described in the federal announcement show Atwood employed a medical director from December 2019 through July 2021 and a second from July 2021 through November 2022.
Neither director supervised or authorized Atwood or anyone at her business to perform laser tattoo removal, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
The second director supervised laser hair removal but had never evaluated Atwood or her staff or examined their patients, prosecutors said.
Despite those gaps in oversight, Atwood continued advertising, offering and performing laser tattoo and hair removal treatments.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Douglas E. Miller accepted Atwood's guilty plea. The case was announced by the U.S. Attorney's Office, the Food and Drug Administration's Office of Criminal Investigations and the Virginia State Police.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kristen S. Taylor and Rebecca Gantt are prosecuting the case.
Atwood faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, although the actual sentence will be determined by a federal district judge after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
Sentencing is scheduled for March 5, 2027.
