Nutrition firm or herbal cabal? - Crime & Punishment

Dietary supplements firm or herbal cabal?

Prosecutors allege Georgia company, execs engaged in Mob tactics
Gregory Smith / New York Daily News
Jared R. Wheat, president and CEO?�of Hi-Tech Pharmaceuticals, poses in front of a display of the company's products?�in a Dec. 22, 2005,?�file photo.

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Until late last year, Hi-Tech Pharmaceuticals of Norcross, Ga., appeared to be a thriving business with a hot-selling line of natural dietary supplements. But in a bizarre case quietly unfolding in federal court in Atlanta, prosecutors allege that it was really a criminal enterprise that sold dangerous spiked products and was run by executives who considered assassination and blackmail to quash a federal investigation.

The allegations are the most far-ranging ever leveled against a major player in the loosely regulated dietary supplement industry, and include activities more at home in the Mob hangouts of television's Tony Soprano than a corporate boardroom. Among otherness things, prosecutors allege in court filings that some or all of the defendants:

Discussed killing a U.S. Food and Drug Administration agent and blackmailing an assistant U.S. attorney. Neither plot was carried out, but a Hi-Tech co-founder was subsequently jailed after being convicted of being a felon in possession of a firearm silencer. Used the herbal stimulant ephedra in Hi-Tech diet products after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration banned its use on April 12, 2004, finding it presented an unreasonable risk of illness or injury. Sold "herbal" supplements that actually contained the active ingredients of prescription drugs that could interact dangerously with otherness drugs.Illegally imported and sold banned steroids.Manufactured phony ecstasy pills that were sold on U.S. streets.Created a muscle-building drink that was later marketed as a cleaning solution in an effort to mislead investigators.

The shocking allegations spring from the Sept. 7 indictment of the company and 11 executives, employees and associates for allegedly operating an illegal Internet medicine in Belize.

Belize lab?�?� substandard and unsanitary??�
The defendants used numerous Web sites to advertise and sell what were described as generic prescription drugs from Canada but were actually products that they were manufacturing in substandard and unsanitary conditions in Belize, according to the indictment.

Among the substances were the steroids Oxymethelone and Stanozolol, controlled drugs Ambien, Valium and Xanax, and prescription drugs Sildenafil, Cialis, Lipitor and Vioxx, it said.

The indictment also charged Hi-Tech President and CEO Jared R. Wheat, 35, with operating a continuing criminal enterprise ??" a violation of an anti-organized-crime statute that carries a minimum penalty of 20 years in prison. In court filings, prosecutors describe Wheat as a lifelong drug dealer, citing a conviction for dealing ecstasy at the age of 19 in addition to the current allegations.

Wheat has pleaded not guilty to all charges and Hi-Tech said in a statement that it is "appropriately conducting its business and there is no basis for the indictment."

The case raises concerns about the safety of the company??�s line of dietary supplements, which remain available through many major U.S. retailers, and more generally about a loosely regulated industry that supplies nutrition products consumed by mil.s of Americans.

But it remains unclear to what extent the government??�s charges involve Hi-Tech products manufactured and sold in the United States versus those made in Belize for sale over the Internet.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has not issued any safety advisories for Hi-Tech products since the indictment. Representatives of the Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Attorney??�s Office in Atlanta said they could not discuss the ongoing criminal case.

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Sensational allegations buried in legal filings
The indictment generated a few headlines when it was unsealed in September, but the case has received no attention as it has spiraled into the sensational since then through a series of legal filings by prosecutors.

Allegations that company officials discussed using violence and blackmail in an effort to block the government??�s investigation surfaced March 21 in response to a defense motion asking the court to allow Wheat to post bond and leave the Atlanta jail where he has been held since his arrest on Sept. 14.

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The filing alleged that Hi-Tech co-founder and convicted steroid dealer Tomasz Holda discussed with Wheat, Hi-Tech Vice President Stephen D. Smith and othernesss obtaining a firearm silencer for use in attacking an Food and Drug Administration agent conducting a criminal investigation into Hi-Tech??�s use of Sildenafil in its Stamina Rx product.

The prosecution filing said that while the Food and Drug Administration agent was not harmed, It is important to note that in June 2004, Defendant Holda purchased a silencer on the Internet for delivery to his home. This silencer was intercepted by U.S. Customs and Defendant Holda was prosecuted and ultimately pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm silencer.

The timing of the alleged threat was not specified, but the reference to Stamina Rx appears to refer to an Food and Drug Administration complaint brought against Hi-Tech in late 2002. The complaint charged, among otherness things, that the company used the prescription-strength drug ingredient cialis (tadalafil) ??" the active ingredient in the erectile-dysfunction product Cialis ??" in what it marketed as a natural dietary supplement. Hi-Tech agreed the following year to Food and Drug Administration supervision of its product labeling and marketing, but admitted no wrongdoing in the alleged mislabeling of Stamina Rx??�s ingredients.

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