Financial Fraud: Group Of Five Persons Pleaded Guilty To Felony Charges In Connection With a Scheme To Fraudulently Sell Workout Supplements

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Five Individuals and Two Companies Plead Guilty to Felony Charges in Multimillion Dollar Scheme to Fraudulently Sell Popular Dietary Supplements

<h2>Five Individuals and Two Companies Plead Guilty to Felony Charges in Multimillion Dollar Scheme to Fraudulently Sell Popular Dietary Supplements<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p>Five individual defendants and two companies pleaded guilty in Dallas to felony charges in connection with a scheme to fraudulently sell workout supplements&comma; the Department of Justice announced today&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>All of the defendants played roles in developing&comma; manufacturing&comma; or marketing the popular workout and weight loss supplements known as Jack3d and OxyElite Pro&comma; which were distributed by Dallas-based dietary supplement company USPlabs&period; Cyril Willson&comma; 38&comma; of Ralston&comma; Nebraska&comma; and Matthew Hebert&comma; 40&comma; of Dallas&comma; pleaded guilty today to introducing misbranded food into interstate commerce with the intent to defraud or mislead&period; Jonathan Doyle&comma; 40&comma; of Dallas&comma; the president of USPlabs&comma; pleaded guilty February 21 to conspiracy to introduce misbranded food into interstate commerce&period; Sitesh Patel&comma; 35&comma; of Irvine&comma; California&comma; the vice president of S&period;K&period; Laboratories&comma; a California dietary supplement manufacturer&comma; pleaded guilty on February 25 to conspiracy to introduce misbranded food into interstate commerce and to the introduction of misbranded food into interstate commerce&period; Jacobo Geissler&comma; 42&comma; of University Park&comma; Texas&comma; the CEO of USPlabs&comma; pleaded guilty on February 28 to conspiracy to introduce misbranded food into interstate commerce&period; In addition&comma; S&period;K&period; Laboratories pleaded guilty on February 25 to introduction of misbranded food into interstate commerce&comma; and USPlabs pleaded guilty to conspiracy to introduce misbranded food into interstate commerce on March 5&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The misbranding charges all relate in part to OxyElite Pro&comma; which was recalled in 2013 in the wake of an investigation by the Food and Drug Administration into whether the supplement caused liver injuries in consumers&period; All of the defendants were charged in a 2015 indictment returned by a Dallas federal grand jury in the Northern District of Texas&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Dietary supplement makers may not disregard the law and trick consumers about what is in their products&comma;” said Assistant Attorney General Jody Hunt of the Department of Justice’s Civil Division&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Consumers are entitled to trust that the products they consume are safe&period; We will continue to investigate and prosecute those who enable the sale of mislabeled and potentially unsafe dietary supplements&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The indictment alleged that the defendants participated in a conspiracy to import dietary supplement ingredients from China&comma; including the stimulant known as &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;DMAA&comma;” using false certificates of analysis and false labeling&comma; and then lied about the source and nature of those ingredients&period; According to the indictment&comma; the defendants told some of their retailers and wholesalers that USPlabs products contained natural plant extracts&comma; when in fact they contained a synthetic stimulant manufactured in a Chinese chemical factory&period; The indictment also alleged that the defendants sold some of their products without determining whether they would be safe to use&period; According to the indictment&comma; USPlabs products related to the conspiracy brought the company hundreds of millions of dollars&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In pleading guilty&comma; Doyle&comma; Geissler&comma; and Patel admitted that they imported substances with false and misleading labeling in part to avoid law enforcement and regulatory agency attention&period; Willson and Hebert admitted that they helped to cause a dietary supplement to be shipped with false labeling regarding the ingredients it contained&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Consumers deserve to know exactly what’s in their dietary supplements&comma;” said U&period;S&period; Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Erin Nealy Cox&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;We cannot stand by as supplement companies deceive customers – especially when they use untested&comma; suspect ingredients in their products&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Americans who choose to take dietary supplements expect that those products are safe and properly labeled&comma;” said FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb&comma; M&period;D&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Dietary supplement labeling that falsely or misleadingly declares its contents presents a risk to the public&comma; and the FDA will exercise its full authority under the law to bring to justice all those who produce and distribute misbranded dietary supplements&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Doyle and Geissler pleaded guilty before U&period;S&period; Magistrate Judge Renee Harris Toliver&period; Patel&comma; Willson&comma; Hebert&comma; S&period;K&period; Laboratories&comma; and USPlabs pleaded guilty before U&period;S&period; District Judge Sam A&period; Lindsay&period; Patel faces a maximum sentence of six years’ imprisonment&semi; Doyle and Geissler face up to five years’ imprisonment&semi; and Willson and Hebert face up to three years’ imprisonment&period; The individual defendants&comma; together with the companies&comma; agreed to pay criminal fines and forfeitures totaling about &dollar;60 million&period; The court set sentencing hearings for Willson and Hebert on July 8&comma; 2019&comma; for Patel and S&period;K&period; Laboratories on Aug&period; 12&comma; 2019&comma; and for USPlabs on Aug&period; 19&comma; 2019&period; The remaining sentencing dates have not yet been set&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The case was investigated by FDA’s Office of Criminal Investigations&period; The case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorneys David Sullivan&comma; Patrick Runkle&comma; and Raquel Toledo with the Department of Justice’s Consumer Protection Branch&comma; and Assistant United States Attorneys Errin Martin and John DelaGarza of the U&period;S&period; Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Additional information about the Consumer Protection Branch and its enforcement efforts may be found at http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;justice&period;gov&sol;civil&sol;consumer-protection-branch&period; For more information about the U&period;S&period; Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas&comma; visit its website at https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;justice&period;gov&sol;usao-ndtx&period;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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