Sacramento man sentenced to 3 years for selling toxic fertilizer as a diet pill on internet
A Sacramento man with ties to one of the region’s largest Ponzi schemes more than a decade ago was sentenced to three years imprisonment for marketing a toxic fertilizer as a diet pill while collecting more than $700,000 in the scheme, the Department of Justice said Tuesday.
Scott Edward Cavell, 36, pleaded guilty in February to one county of causing misbranded drugs to be introduced into interstate commerce after federal investigators found he was selling 2,4-Dinitrophenol, also known as DNP, “as a weight loss drug and ‘fat burner’ despite knowing that DNP is not approved by the FDA as a substance for human consumption,” according to a news release.
DNP is used commercially to make dyes, wood preservatives, and as a fertilizer or pesticide. The chemical is toxic to humans.
Cavell sold DNP pills on websites, saying it was a supplement. He also sold the pills on another now-defunct website, thefertilizerwarehouse.com, to mislead Food and Drug Administration regulators, officials said.
Cavell collected at least $763,000 from making and selling the DNP pills.
“Drugs that are produced and distributed outside of the FDA’s oversight present the prospect of harm to consumer health,” said Special Agent in Charge Lisa L. Malinowski of the FDA in a statement.
The case – prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul Hemesath – was investigated by the FDA, Drug Enforcement Administration, Homeland Security Investigations and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.
Cavell was no stranger to law enforcement, having left for Ireland after prosecutors named him as part of one of Sacramento’s largest Ponzi schemes dating back to the mortgage crisis with Roseville-based Loomis Wealth Solutions. He was arrested and held in the European nation on a marijuana charge until he volunteered to return to the U.S., where he spent about two years in prison for wire fraud in 2014.
This story was originally published May 28, 2019 at 5:01 PM with the headline "Sacramento man sentenced to 3 years for selling toxic fertilizer as a diet pill on internet."