US Businessman Ignores Federal, State Regulators’ Warnings, Faces Criminal COVID-19 Fraud Charges

A Seattle-area businessman hit a regulatory trifecta related to bogus COVID-19 “vaccine” claims with his arrest on criminal charges.

Federal prosecutors’ latest criminal case alleging fraudulent advertising and sales of vitamins and other nutrients available nonprescription in the US as remedies for infections from the novel coronavirus is against Johnny Stine, owner and operator of North Coast Biologics in Seattle.

The US Attorney’s office for Western Washington stated in its announcement that law enforcement officials have learned that “at least one person who had been ‘vaccinated’ by Stine was in the hospital battling COVID-19.”

Stine’s arrest on 21 January came after he and his business were warned by federal agencies and received a cease and desist letter from Washington state regulatory authorities about charging $400 per dose of a vaccine described as “a recombinantly expressed protein” delivered subcutaneously.

US Attorney for Western Washington Brian Moran said Stine “held himself out as a biotech expert” and “was injecting people with an unknown substance claiming it was a vaccine for COVID-19.”

Johnny Stine indicated sales of his purported covid-19 vaccine increased after washington state auithorities ordered him to stop.

Regulatory officials’ latest contact with Stine was in August after he traveled to Idaho to “vaccinate” an undercover agent. Authorities seized the “vaccine”  and executed a search warrant at the  warehouse where Stine claimed to conduct his research, in the Seattle suburb Redmond.

Investigators’ initial contact with Stine was in March when the Food and Drug Administration’s Office of Criminal Investigation was alerted to his posts on social media referencing a COVID=-19 vaccine. Stine told an undercover investigator that he had for sale a COVID-19 vaccine he created using a similar biotech method for developing “vaccines that attack cancer tumors,” according to federal prosecutors.

FDA investigators reported that “even as the undercover investigation was ongoing,” the office “received a complaint from an area resident about Stine injecting a friend of the complainant with a ‘vaccine’.”

Additionally, Washington state authorities’ attempt to shut down Stine’s coronavirus scam apparently had little impact. Stine didn’t heed the order but “indicated it had just increased demand for his injections which he now called ‘immunogen’ instead of a vaccine.  But in June he signed a consent decree with Washington’s attorney general not to promote or sell his COVID-19 vaccine.

In addition to the FDA-OCI, Department of Homeland Security Investigations and the Seattle Police Department are investigating the case, which is being prosecuted by Assistant US Attorney Brian Werner, the COVID-19 fraud coordinator for the US Attorney’s Office.

COVID-19 Criminal Cases Climbing 

An FDA/Federal Trade Commission warning letter to Stine and his business published in May said he stated in social media posts that his firm’s “COVID19 spike protein vaccine is being made available to those who are either at risk or for anyone who simply needs some reassurance. Two shots get you a titer that binds the spike protein and the receptor binding domain. Message us here to create a spot in the queue.” (Also see "Seattle Biologics Firm Offers COVID-19 ‘Vaccine’ OTC Before Warnings By State, Federal Agencies" - HBW Insight, 28 May, 2020.)

Criminal charges linked to fraudulent claims for COVID-19 remedies, like claims made for consumer health products available nonprescription in the US, are rare in comparison to the number of warnings submitted and similar actions taken by federal and state authorities. However, criminal cases are brought by the Department of Justice representing the FDA typically only after a business or a person has failed to comply with multiple chances offered by regulatory agencies. As well, federal prosecutors don’t always agree with requests by FDA officials to move to criminal cases after the agency has exhausted its authorities to compel compliance.

Stine and his business aren’t the first to face federal criminal charges linked to COVID-19 fraud, though.

The owner of Georgia firm Fusion Health and Vitality LLC, Matthew Ryncarz, was sentenced in October to three years’ probation after pleading in US District Court for Southern Georgia under plea agreements for two counts filed separately of marketing a misbranded drug related to the COVID-19 claims. Prosecutors in August filed criminal charges against the firm and Ryncarz, identified by the FDA as also known as Clint Winters, alleging false advertising of a product branded Immune Shot as lowering risk of contracting COVID-19 by nearly 50%. (Also see "US Supplement Firm Shut Down By Decree After Using Ingredient On FDA ‘Advisory List'" - HBW Insight, 24 Nov, 2020.)

In July, the FDA and the DoJ announced that Utah businessman Gordon Pedersen was indicted on criminal charges linked to posing as a physician to fraudulently promote and sell ingestible silver-based products as a cure for COVID-19 despite having no evidence that his products could treat or cure the disease. The indictment came three months after the DoJ obtained an emergency court order in the US District Court for Utah alleging that an American Fork business, My Doctor Suggests LLC, worked with Pedersen and his company, GP Silver LLC, to fraudulently promote and sell silver products for preventing and treating COVID-19. (Also see "After Guilty Plea In COVID-19 Scam, Utah Firm Will Cooperate In Prosecution Of Former Owner" - HBW Insight, 2 Aug, 2020.)

Also in July, an indictment on criminal charges was handed up in Florida federal court against members of a church organization in Bradenton who declined to stop marketing a bleach mixture as a coronavirus treatment and threatened a judge who ordered an injunction to shut down the sales. (Also see "US COVID-19 Fraud: Tincture, Sanitizer Warnings, Criminal Contempt Charges And Civil Settlement" - HBW Insight, 14 Jul, 2020.)

In California the same month, the president and CEO of Golden Sunrise Pharmaceutical Inc. and Golden Sunrise Nutraceutical Inc. was indicted on federal criminal charges linked to marketing a package of herbal mixtures branded “Emergency D-Virus Plan of Care” with claims to treat COVID-19. The FTC also filed a civil complaint to shut down the businesses. (Also see "Sun Sets On California Firm: FTC Pandemic Fraud Complaint Follows Criminal Indictment" - HBW Insight, 2 Aug, 2020.)