Advanced Muscle Science fined just $125000 for selling steroid laced supplements via Bodybuilding.com

A U.S. district judge fined two Western companies thousands of dollars Tuesday for distributing steroids disguised as dietary supplements to a Meridian-area retail company.

Representatives for the companies DCD, LLC, also known as Advanced Muscle Science, and R & D Holdings pleaded guilty to charges last fall of introduction and delivery into interstate commerce drugs that were misbranded with the intent to defraud.

Prosecutors say both companies were charged in Idaho because they distributed their products to an unnamed large Internet-based retailer headquartered in Meridian, that also has warehouses in Boise.

The companies were charged in Idaho because they distributed the steroids to the Meridian-area retailer, who had the ability to sell them to the rest of the United States.

On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill fined DCD, LLC $125,000 and R & D Holdings $21,000 — which is close to the gross revenue the companies generated from selling the fake supplements to the Meridian company and retailers in other states, according to U.S. Department of Justice reports.

Winmill also placed DCD, LLC on probation and is requiring that company to implement a testing protocol for its products to ensure future products sold as dietary supplements do not contain steroids for five years.

Prosecutors say R & D Holdings no longer manufactures supplements and is banned from doing so for the next two years as part of their probation.

DCD, LLC is a Nevada-based corporation with offices in California and Michigan. R & D Holdings was located in southern California, according to court records

Court documents do not identify the Meridian-based company.

In 2009, Meridian-based online dietary supplement retailer Bodybuilding.com agreed with the Food and Drug Administration to recall 65 products after an investigation revealed the products, including those distributed by DCD and R & D Holdings, contained or may have contained steroids.

No comments:

Post a Comment