Californian Sentenced to More Than 3 Years in Jail for Fraudulently Selling Dietary Supplements
- Sitesh Patel, former vice president of S.K. Laboratories played a key role in developing and manufacturing the popular workout and weight loss supplements.
Sitesh Patel, a former vice president of S.K. Laboratories was sentenced in a Texas federal court to 41 months imprisonment and one year of supervised release for his role in fraudulently selling popular workout supplements, the Department of Justice announced on Feb. 19. The court previously ordered Patel’s former company to forfeit $6 million in connection with the case.
According to documents filed in the case, Patel played a key role in developing and manufacturing the popular workout and weight loss supplements known as Jack3d and OxyElite Pro, which were distributed by Dallas-based USPlabs. The DOJ says Patel, of Irvine, California, knowingly profited by deceiving American consumers, causing harm to them by concealing the true ingredients of a product intended to improve the very health it damaged.
“Dietary supplement manufacturers must not be allowed to mislead the public about untested ingredients mixed into their products,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Prerak Shah for the Northern District of Texas. “We are proud to hold this defendant accountable for lying to the public about ingredients that had the potential to cause them harm.”
Patel pleaded guilty in 2019 to conspiracy to introduce misbranded food into interstate commerce. Patel and several of his co-defendants admitted that they imported substances with false and misleading labeling to avoid law enforcement and regulatory agency attention. Patel also pleaded guilty to introduction of misbranded food into interstate commerce. The misbranding charges relate in part to OxyElite Pro, which was recalled in 2013 in the wake of an investigation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) into whether the supplement caused liver injuries in consumers.
An indictment returned by a Dallas federal grand jury in 2015 against Patel and four other individuals associated with USPlabs alleged that the defendants sold some of their products without determining whether they would be safe to use.
The court previously sentenced Jacobo Geissler, 44, of University Park, Texas, the CEO of USPlabs, to 60 months’ imprisonment, and Jonathan Doyle, 41, of Dallas, the president of USPlabs, to 24 months’ imprisonment for their roles in the fraud. The court also sentenced defendants Cyril Willson, 40, of Ralston, Nebraska, a former consultant for USPlabs, and Matthew Hebert, 42, of Dallas, a co-owner of the company, to 18 months’ and 15 months’ imprisonment, respectively. In addition, USPlabs was ordered to pay $4.7 million in criminal forfeiture.