Tainted toothpaste update
This article was originally published in The Rose Sheet
Executive Summary
Two men and two corporations pleaded guilty in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York to charges of trafficking counterfeit Colgate toothpaste, including some that contained diethylene glycol, the Department of Justice announces Aug. 21. Saifoulaye Diallo and Habib Bah, both of New York, and two New York companies, Mabass Inc. and Vidtape Inc., admit to having trafficked a total of 518,028 tubes of the counterfeit Colgate toothpaste, with an estimated retail value of $730,419, and selling the products to secondary distributors and small- to medium-sized discount stores in several states. The products were imported from China, packaged in Colgate-looking trade dress, and did not contain fluoride while some contained microorganisms such as bacillus spores, according to DOJ. Diallo and Habib each face up to 10 years in prison, a $2 million fine and three years' probation after release, DOJ says. U.S. Customs and Border Protection seized more than 1,400 tubes of toothpaste adulterated with antifreeze ingredient DEG in Charleston, S.C. in fall 2007 after FDA ordered the detention of all such products that summer (1"The Rose Sheet" Oct. 8, 2007, In Brief)
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