(DIYA TV) – Criminal chargers are being brought against two companies whom manufacture and sell dietary supplements – one of the companies, California-based SK Laboratories, and its president, Indian American Sitesh Patel, has been charged with conspiring to dupe the public into buying dietary supplements which were loaded with dangerous and unsafe chemicals from China. This has now prompted many to search for supplements manufacturers to create their own dietary supplements, in order to ensure they’re getting a reliable product, and so they know full well what is going into their bodies.
The Department of Justice 11-count indictment alleges both companies, SK Laboratories and USP Labs, knowingly falsified ingredients and labeling on dietary supplements, putting American’s at risk. The DOJ further added the supplements were sold over the counter, promoted as products which would enhance workout results and improve health. Whilst there are many legitimate products like this, such as the liquid vitamin c options on the market, this company broke the law by pretending theirs was similar when it was very different in composition.
“When they found an ingredient that they believed was promising and knowing full well how the market for dietary supplements worked, they doctored packaging, labeling, and other paperwork to defraud others about what the product was,” Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Benjamin Mizer said.
USP Labs forged labels it used natural plant extracts in its product, when in fact it was using synthetic supplement manufactured in a Chinese chemical factory, according to the indictment. SK Laboratories role in the conspiracy included the manufacturing of said labels.
Recent private emails, which were sent by Patel, reveal the government’s claims could be true. “Lol, stuff is completely 100% synthetic,” Patel wrote in an email to SP Labs owners Jacobo Geissler and Jonathan Doyle.
“They falsified labeling and marketing materials to convince consumers who prize natural ingredients to buy their products,” Mizer said.
Emails sent from Geissler to a Chinese chemical company could reveal that accusation is true as well.
“Please send as green coffee samples…and don’t label the individual bags. Label as green coffee sample 1,2,3, etc.,” Geissler told a Chinese chemical supplier in an email. “Please use fake COA,” he added.
COA, or, “certificate of analysis,” is a standard certification of a shipped product’s ingredients.
According to its website, SK Laboratories prides itself on the integrity of their quality control and testing to ensure the purity of its supplements. The government opines a completely different story, claiming the products went completely untested or fell below set safety mandates. The government hopes the indictment will convince the general public to be much more skeptical of health and dietary supplements, especially ones which tout the ability to cure disease, reverse aging or significantly impact weight loss with little or no work required.
Mizer said it is the DOJ’s opinion that the companies sometimes tested the products, but only on themselves, omitting clinical trials.
“The indictment alleges that the defendants sometimes tested the products on themselves and sold the ones that made them feel good,” he said.