LOS ANGELES — Three companies and five executives have agreed to plead guilty to federal criminal charges associated with the distribution of millions of dollars’ worth of sex enhancements falsely labeled as containing all-natural herbal ingredients.
In three different cases that were filed on May 15 in United States District Court, the defendants were charged with misdemeanor charges of conspiring with John Seil Lee, 40, of Walnut, Lee to distribute his misbranded products erectile dysfunction. In the plea agreement, Lee is named as the manufacturer of the pills who pleaded guilty in February to a series of felony offenses related to his illegal business.
In one of the cases, Ronald Daniel Scott, a.k.a., “Danny Scott,” 49, of Stevenson Ranch, agreed to plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge of introducing misbranded drugs into interstate commerce. Scott is the chief executive officer of Premiere Sales Group, Inc., a Santa Clarita-based company that also agreed to plead guilty to the same charge. Scott admitted in a plea agreement filed today that, from 2013 until early 2017, he purchased at least 1.7 million male sexual enhancement pills for $3.8 million from Lee.
The defendants also include: Contenda Health LLC, a Southern Pines, North Carolina-based company, Chase Evan Cranford, 36, of Raleigh, North Carolina, the owner of Contenda Health LLC, Randall Cranford, 65, of Pinehurst, North Carolina, who is Chase Cranford’s father and who assisted him at Contenda Health; Eldorado Trading Company II, Inc., a distributor of adult toys and other sexual products, based in Broomfield, Colorado; Jon Vogt, 58, of Erie, Colorado, the director of purchasing for Eldorado Trading; and Dennis Jones, 65, of Thornton, Colorado, the senior buyer at Eldorado Trading.
According to court documents, Lee smuggled powder Tadalafil — the prescription drug used to treat erectile dysfunction and sold under the brand name Cialis — from China. Lee then manufactured the powder Tadalafil into pills that he sold to distributors across the U.S.
To boost sales, Lee made the pills with up to 14 times the level of Tadalafil contained in Cialis. Lee sold at least $11 million worth of pills across the U.S. — under names such as “X Again,” “X Monster” and “Royal Master” — with labels that did not list Tadalafil in their ingredients and falsely stated that no prescription was necessary.
Once they enter their guilty pleas, the five businessmen that were charged each will face a statutory maximum sentence of one year in federal prison. The three corporate entities will face up to five years of probation, as well as monetary sanctions of up to $200,000 in fines or twice the gross gain resulting from the criminal offenses. Arraignments in the three cases have been scheduled for June 24, June 27 and July 15.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations and the Food and Drug Administration’s Office of Criminal Investigations conducted the investigation into the cases. Assistant United States Attorney Matthew W. O’Brien of the Environmental and Community Safety Crimes Section is prosecuting the cases.
