Prison, fines for perpetrators of food and drug fraud

FDA Consumer, Sept-Oct, 1997

Three men face up to three years in prison for selling rotten shrimp and an unapproved drug touted as a cure-all for serious diseases. Those who sold the rotten shrimp were fined, and the company was ordered to pay $1 million.

Charles R. Pixley, a New York book publicist found guilty of selling the unapproved drug 714X, lost his appeal and will serve one year and one day in federal prison, as ordered in 1996.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit, based in New York, affirmed Pixley's conviction May 7, stating that because 714X was promoted as a treatment for cancer, AIDS and other diseases, it is subject to FDA's new drug approval requirements. FDA's case against Pixley was reported in the Investigators' Reports section of the November 1996 FDA Consumer.

In another case, reported in the April 1997 FDA Consumer, a company and three employees were sentenced for selling rotten imported Chinese shrimp that had been chemically treated and passed off to consumers as "fresh frozen."

Sigma Corp. Inc. of St. Petersburg, Fla., and Sigma managers William A. Walton and Charles Sternisha were sentenced May 9 in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida. Robert Fields, a salesman, had been sentenced March 24.

The corporation was fined $1 million, placed on five years' probation, and ordered to pay $160,916 in prosecution fees, special assessments, and restitution. Walton was sentenced to three years, five months in prison and two years' probation and fined $10,600. Sternisha was sentenced to two years, three months in prison and two years' probation and fined $6,250. Both men remain free without bond, pending their appeals. Fields was sentenced to two years' probation and fined $2,500.