Industry Roundup: FDA Investigation Prompts Criminal Charges Against Supplement Marketer

The operator of Floyd Nutrition LLC in Harrisburg, Pa., enters a plea agreement with the Department of Justice following an FDA investigation that determined the firm imported drug-spiked products marketed as weight loss supplements. The U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Middle District of Pennsylvania said on April 15 a criminal information was filed in U.S. District Court in Harrisburg charging Floyd Nutrition owner Cheryl Floyd with introducing misbranded drugs into interstate commerce and money laundering. Floyd Nutrition between July 2010 and July 2014 allegedly marketed weight loss products containing sibutramine, a prescription drug removed from the market in 2010, and phenolphthalein, previously available as an OTC stimulant laxative ingredient until FDA in 1999 reclassified it as not generally safe because it posed a carcinogenic risk, according to DoJ. After FDA detained shipments of the products coming from China intended for Floyd’s business, federal officials in July 2014 seized from Floyd Nutrition products sold online under brands including “Slim Trim U,” “ZXT Slim Bee Pollen” and “Natural Body Solutions.” The plea agreement, which includes forfeiting assets and properties and suggests that Floyd likely will be sentenced to supervised probation, is subject to the approval of the district court. In addition to FDA’s Office of Criminal Investigations, the case was investigated by the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigations and the Dauphin County Drug Task Force.

The Nutri-Knowledge database allows consumers as well as manufacturers and marketers to search vitamins, minerals, botanicals and other macro- and micronutrients quickly and easily, says dietary supplement ingredient developer Watson Inc