Injunction issued against former owners of supplement firm

Former Neways owner Thomas Mower Sr.; his two sons, Thomas Mower Jr. and Darick Mower; and their new companies, Sisel International LLC and SupraNaturals LLC, have been issued an injunction by U.S. District Judge Bruce S. Jenkins from using any Neways product formulas, distributor lists or vendor lists.

Neways, headquartered in Springville, distributes personal care and nutritional products in 29 countries through multi-level marketing independent distributors.

The new companies, which also distributes cosmetics and nutritional supplements through a multi-level marketing model, were started after Mower Sr. sold Neways to Golden Gate Capital, an equity firm based in San Francisco, for hundreds of millions of dollars, after which, Thomas Mower Sr. began serving a three-year prison sentence for tax evasion.

In a complaint filed May 23 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah, Neways International alleges that after selling Neways to Golden Gate Capital, the Mowers misappropriated many of Neways' trade secrets, including distributor fists, vendor lists and product formulas, in an effort to start a competing network marketing business.

Neways argued in its papers that Sisel "can compete, but they can't cheat."

The court's injunction against the Mowers and their new companies also requires them to return to Neways any computer disks containing information, including distributor lists and any other confidential and proprietary information.