U.S. Files Criminal Charges Against USPlabs for Unlawful Sale of Jack3d

On Tuesday, the US Justice Department said that the USPlabs and six of its executives has been filed criminal charges for the unlawful sale of nutritional supplements like Jack3d.

The federal agency banned DMAA in 2012 and ordered several companies to remove it from their products. The company allegedly said Elimidrol was the No 1 opiate withdrawal supplement and was the only opiate withdrawal product “guaranteed to work”, according to the FTC.

During a November 17 press conference announcing the charges, Benjamin Mizer, principal deputy assistant attorney general, said, “Regulators, retailers and consumers trusted that the defendants were telling the truth about their products”.

“Lol. Stuff is completely 100% synthethic [sic]”, Patel wrote.

Sales of USPlabs products by GNC are immaterial, GNC reported.

USPlabs voluntarily destroyed $8 million worth of Jack3d and OxyElite Pro after the FDA move. The company did not reveal to retailers how these two diet supplements contained synthetic Chinese stimulants, claiming that the two only contained natural ingredients.

The company also added another ingredient, labeled as cynanchum auriculatum root extract, to OxyElite Pro to promote weight loss. Numerous products tested were contaminated with allergens, plant species left off the label, or other potentially unsafe substances, or so thoroughly “processed” that the genetic material of the original “natural” plant source was unrecognizable or not present at all.

When the new formula went on the market in October 2013, more than 50 residents of Hawaii, including a few military family members, developed acute hepatitis and liver failure. The indictment charges USPlabs; S.K. Laboratories Inc, Anaheim, California; and their operators with a variety of charges related to the sale of its products. At least one person died and three required liver transplants.

“It’s extremely important that the Department of Justice is moving forcefully to pursue criminal charges against a company that has placed profit ahead of our troops’ safety”, Cohen said. Because even if they are just supplements, they are still just drugs that you need to take on a regular basis in order for their effect to show, either during workout, or before a meal, their use being extremely widespread throughout the nation (more than 50% of Americans use supplements). But according to the indictment, instead of actually ceasing distribution of the product, the Department of Justice says the company “engaged in a surreptitious, all-hands-on-deck effort to sell as much OxyElite Pro as it could as quickly as possible”. But unlike with traditional drugs, which must undergo a series of clinical trials to prove they are safe and effective, the FDA has little means of flagging suspect supplements before they hit the market.

“We will … continue working with all agencies to ensure consumers are better protected”, the senators said in a statement. Besides the DOJ, the agencies involved in this “sweep”, as it is called, include U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Federal Trade Commission (FTC), U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS), Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Department of Defense (DOD), and the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency.