LOS ANGELES—Adult novelty distributors Eldorado Trading and Premiere Sales Group, Inc., along with several of their respective executives, are among a handful of companies and businessmen who have agreed to plead guilty to federal misdemeanor charges of distributing millions of dollars worth of male enhancement pills containing the active ingredient in Cialis that were falsely labeled as "herbal" supplements.
According to a release from the U.S. Attorney's Office - Central District of California, three cases related to this operation were filed Wednesday in United States District court, collectively naming the following:
• Ronald Daniel Scott, aka "Danny Scott," CEO of Premiere Sales Group, Inc.
• Premiere Sales Group, Inc., located in Santa Clarita, Calif.
• Contenda Health LLC, located in Southern Pines, N.C.
• Chase Evan Cranford, owner of Contenda Health LLC
• Randall Cranford, father and assistant at Contenda Health to Chase Cranford
• Eldorado Trading Company II, Inc., located in Broomfield, Colo.
• Jon Vogt, director of purchasing for Eldorado Trading
• Dennis Jones, senior buyer for Eldorado Trading
All parties have agreed to plead guilty to the charges, the release said, which allege that they conspired with John Seil Lee, the manufacturer of the misbranded pills, who pleaded guilty in February to felony charges stemming from their production and sale. As was detailed in court documents from his case, Lee smuggled the prescription drug Tadalafil—the erectile dysfuction medication sold under the brand name Cialis—from China and made pills with it containing up to 14 times the legally prescribed version's dosage that he sold across the U.S. under names including "Monster X," "One More Knight" and "Royal Master." Lee sold at least $11 million worth of such pills before his conviction.
In the case of Scott and Premiere Sales, each agreed to plead guilty to respective charges of introducing misbranded drugs into interstate commerce. In Scott's plea agreement, filed Wednesday, he admitted to purchasing at least 1.7 million male enhancement pills from Lee between 2013 and 2017, for which he paid $3.8 million.
Eldorado Trading, Jones and Vogt admitted in similar plea agreements to purchasing hundreds of thousands of pills from Lee, which they resold for a profit of at least $215,500, while Contenda Health and the Cranfords confessed to having bought over 1.4 million pills from Lee for approximately $2.1 million.
These cases were investigated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations and the Food and Drug Administration's Office of Criminal Investigations. Each of the five men charged in the three cases will face a statutory maximum sentence of one year in federal prison. The companies will face up to five years of probabtion and fines of up to $200,000 or twice the gross gain resulting from the offenses.
The Eldorado Trading defendants are scheduled for arraignment June 24, while those in the Premiere Sales case are scheduled to appear June 27, and those in the Contenda Health case for July 15. The three cases are being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Matthew W. O'Brien of the Environmental and Community Safety Crimes Section.
