Man pleads guilty after selling misbranded goods
A man has pleaded guilty to charges of selling misbranded veterinary medications without a prescription.
On Monday, September 11, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) released a statement outlining the charges.
Sean Gerson, the owner of pet products company Vaccination Services, in Lake Forest, Los Angeles, admitted that his scheme had raised $2.5 million over the past 15 years.
Gerson pleaded guilty to smuggling and the sale of misbranded animal prescription drugs with the intent to defraud and mislead the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
According to ICE, the misbranded drugs were Comfortis (spinosad), an anti-flea medication, and Ciprofloxacin (cipro), an antibiotic used in cats and dogs to treat skin, respiratory and urinary tract infections.
Comfortis was designed for the South African market and has not been approved for distribution in the US.
The case against Gerson resulted from a probe conducted by ICE, along with Homeland Security Investigations , the FDA’s office of criminal investigations, and the Environmental Protection Agency.
In a plea agreement, Gerson said he was aware that the drugs had been smuggled i to the US “because the drugs were foreign-market branded and not approved by the US FDA for entry into the US”.
His case was heard by US District Judge Gary Klausner, who will be sentencing Gerson on December 11 at the US District Court for the Central District of California.
Prosecutors and Gerson have agreed that the appropriate sentence in this case is 30 months in federal prison and a fine of $200,000.
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