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Defendants Pled Guilty to Counterfeiting Charges
Shengyang Zhou and Qingming Hu pled guilty to charges of trafficking and distributing counterfeit versions of diet products, at court hearings during the last week of January 2011. Zhou and Hu were indicted by a federal grand jury in Denver on April 22, 2010, and the government sought a superseding indictment on November 17, 2010. Zhou then pled guilty to charges of trafficking and attempting to traffic in counterfeit goods, namely counterfeit versions of the pharmaceutical weight loss drug known as Alli, on January 24, 2011. On January 27, 2011, Hu, who aided Zhou in the illegal distribution of other purported weight loss products, pled guilty to distributing sibutramine. Law enforcement agents identified Zhou as the trafficker and importer into the US of counterfeit Alli™ and unapproved drugs marketed as weight loss products after a series of FDA alerts and a two-year federal undercover investigation. More information about the investigation is available in an FDA news release. Zhou faces a maximum penalty of 10 years imprisonment, a $250,000 fine, and restitution for the counterfeit goods offense to which he has pled guilty. Hu faces maximum penalty of five years imprisonment and a $250,000 fine for the distribution offense to which she has pled guilty.
