Both Weaver and Kaplan were convicted of conspiracy, mail fraud, wire fraud and perjury after a 6-week trial last year. Twenty other people have also been convicted in connection with Vendstar, many of whom are awaiting sentencing. The defendants made false profit claims, exploited their own sales routes, locations, and ongoing customer support to trick victims into buying what was advertised as a complete business package, but turned out to be essentially worthless. Weaver and Kaplan were ordered to report to the prison on January 9, 2017. The British courts also retain inherent jurisdiction to administer court proceedings before them,[3] but this is rarely exercised. The stay of proceedings is normally carried out within the framework of the powers of case management[4] and can be ordered at the request of one of the parties or ex officio (the latter is rare). On July 27, 2018, the District Court sentenced three Chicago companies – Global Marketing Enterprises, Inc.; Lifeline Nutrients Corp. and Pronto Foods Company – as well as the owners of the companies, Eduardo Chua, and COO, Haidee Dawis, for violations of the federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act. According to the lawsuit in this case, the defendants manufactured and distributed adulterated dietary supplements that were not manufactured in accordance with current good manufacturing practices. The lawsuit also alleged that the defendants were illegally distributing new, unapproved drugs based on labeling claims that certain products treated diseases such as HIV and Alzheimer`s. The defendants agreed to be bound by a consent decree requiring them to take corrective action and obtain FDA approval before resuming the manufacture or distribution of dietary supplements.
On December 19, 2019, Johnny Hidalgo, Rodolfo Hermoza and Francesco Guerra were extradited from Peru to face charges of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, mail fraud, wire transfer fraud, and extortion in the Southern District of Florida. According to a grand jury indictment in Miami, the defendants were monitoring call centers in Peru that made calls to Spanish-speaking consumers in the United States. The appellants pretended to be lawyers or government officials and falsely told the victims that they had not paid for or received a shipment of products. The appellants falsely threatened victims with lawsuits, negative credit scores, imprisonment or immigration consequences if they did not immediately pay the alleged deliveries and “processing fees.” Many victims have made payments as a result of these gratuitous threats. In February 2007, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced that an ongoing outbreak of salmonellosis in the United States is directly attributable to peanut butter produced at the company`s plant in Sylvester, Georgia. The company voluntarily ceased production at the plant on February 14, 2007 and recalled all peanut butter produced there since January 2004. The CDC eventually identified more than 700 cases of salmonellosis linked to the outbreak with the onset of the disease beginning in August 2006. The CDC estimated that thousands more related cases have gone unreported. The CDC has not identified any deaths linked to the outbreak.
If the stay of proceedings is lifted, the proceedings shall continue. The provisions on interference with the suspension in all case management instructions (which specify the dates on which the parties must take action to the extent) are taken into account, so that the parties are not affected in time by the implementation or intervention by the stay. On April 29, 2021, Omar Cuzcano Marroquin pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail and wire transfer fraud related to a number of Peruvian call centers that used internet calls to contact Spanish-speaking consumers in the United States to threaten and defraud them. Cuzcano admitted that he ran and supervised call centers operated under the program, in which the defendants and their associates falsely claimed to be lawyers, court officials, federal agents and representatives of a so-called “misdemeanor court.” According to court documents, Cuzcano and his co-conspirators falsely told the victims that they were contractually obligated to pay for and receive products, and that they had caused legal problems for themselves and others by allegedly not doing so. The appellants also falsely threatened victims with lawsuits, negative credit report ratings, imprisonment or immigration consequences if they did not immediately pay for the allegedly delivered products and handling charges. Thousands of vulnerable victims paid money to the conspirators because of these threats, which cost victims in the United States more than $1 million in losses. Cuzcano is the first of the five defendants in the case to plead guilty. Two other accused remain in Peru and are awaiting extradition. The case is before U.S. District Judge Robert N.
Scola. On 4 November 2016, Sheikh Waseem Ul Haq was sentenced to imprisonment and three years of probation for his role in a long-standing plot to ship medicines from Pakistan and the UK to customers in the United States. The court also issued a consent order for the forfeiture of $388,265.12, Ul Haq`s share of proceeds from the sale of drugs to U.S. customers. From 2005 to 2012, websites operated by Ul Haq and his co-defendant Tahir Saeed sold $2 million worth of illegal prescription drugs, including anabolic steroids and other controlled substances, to customers around the world, including sales of nearly $780,000 to buyers in the United States. Many of the drugs sold by the defendants were generics not approved for sale in the United States; others were Schedule III steroids or drugs used by steroid users, such as Clenbuterol. Clenbuterol is only approved for sale in the United States as an equine bronchodilator, but is sold on the black market for use by bodybuilders. Ul Haq and Saeed were arrested in England in October 2012 and held without bail until their extradition to the United States in spring 2013.
In January 2014, Ul Haq pleaded guilty to 48 counts of conspiracy to import and distribute Schedule II, III and IV controlled substances, conspiracy to defraud the United States and its agencies, and smuggling falsely labelled drugs into interstate trafficking, conspiracy to commit international money laundering, and numerous physical offences under the Controlled Substances Act and of Federal Food. Drugs and Cosmetics Act.