ALEXANDRIA, Va.--A 68-year-old man faces up to three years in prison after he admitted selling sexual enhancement products that contained the active ingredients in the prescription drugs Viagra and Cialis, federal officials announced last week.
The products were marketed as dietary supplements, dispensed without a prescription and failed to disclose the existence of the pharmaceutical substances, sildenafil and tadalafil, the officials stated in a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia.
Dietary supplements cannot include prescription drugs.
In a statement of facts filed with his plea agreement, Richard Deng, of Silver Spring, Md., admitted he operated a business that sold imported items through a Beltsville, Md. storefront and over the Internet, including sports apparel, DVDs and male sexual enhancement products.
Many of the products contained sildenafil, the active ingredient in Viagra, and/or tadalafil, the active ingredient in Cialis, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Deng acknowledged receiving $333,070 from the sale of tainted products from 2011 through 2013, the news release said. The tainted supplements included such names as Stree Overlord, Africa Black Ant, Titan, Mojo Risen and God of War Veyron.
Deng is scheduled to be sentenced on Aug. 1 and he faces a maximum penalty of three years behind bars.
The case was investigated by FDA’s Office of Criminal Investigations.