Six charged in illegal supplement scandal

Two Boca Raton dietary supplement companies and six individuals have been charged with conspiracy to distribute unapproved drugs and controlled substances, the Department of Justice said.

The companies are Blackstone Labs, located at 1090 Holland Drive, Suite 1, and Ventech Labs, at 1140 Holland Drive, Suite 13, in Boca Raton.

The people charged in the 14-count indictment returned by a federal grand jury were: Phillip Braun, 38, of Boca Raton, Aaron Singerman, 39, of Delray Beach, Robert DiMaggio, 49, of Henderson, Nev., Anthony Ventrella, 41, of Boynton Beach, David Winsauer, 32, of Boca Raton, and James Boccuzzi, 34, of Parkland.

The indictment alleges that the defendants sold hundreds of thousands of illegal products, including steroids. The indictment says they distributed the products, knowing they were “unsafe or could not legally be sold to consumers.”

“Fraud by supplement manufacturers and distributors is extremely dangerous for consumers, who rightly assume that a dietary supplement product sold in stores or online will not contain unapproved drugs,” said Assistant Attorney General Jody Hunt for the Department of Justice’s Civil Division.

Braun’s lawyer, Ben Kuehne of Kuehne Davis law firm in Miami, sent a statement from Blackstone Labs and Braun calling the charges “false and inaccurate.”

Blackstone Labs plans to fight the charges, according to the statement, which it says are “overreaching” as part of a government agency “attack on strength and bodybuilding athletes and the nutritional supplement industry.”

Braun is listed as manager of Blackstone Labs, according to the Florida Division of Corporations. Ventech manufactured products for Blackstone Labs, according to the indictment. No one could be reached for comment at Ventech Labs on Monday despite phone calls and an email.

The indictment was unsealed last week in U.S. District Court, Southern District of Florida.

All defendants were charged with one count of a conspiracy to defraud consumers and the Food and Drug Administration by selling products labeled as dietary supplements that contained unapproved new drugs, illegal steroids and other ingredients that were hazardous and prohibited by law.

The indictment also charges Braun, an owner of Blackstone Labs, and Singerman, a former company owner, with two counts of introducing a product known as Super DMZ RX 2.0, an unapproved new drug, into interstate commerce.

If found guilty of the crimes, the defendants could face up to five five years in prison as well as fines, according to the Department of Justice.