Abhishek Krishnan, Defrauding Consumers, North Carolina 2018

A Raleigh business owner has been charged with defrauding consumers by selling protein powder products with false labels, according to a federal indictment.

Abhishek Krishnan, owner of American Pure Whey, LLC, was charged with 41 counts of mail fraud, introducing adulterated and misbranded foods into interstate commerce, and money laundering.

The indictment seeks forfeiture of approximately six million dollars and several Raleigh, North Carolina real properties.

Krishnan promoted the products on the website, www.americanpurewhey.com, which claimed the company followed strict quality control standards to produce the highest quality protein powder.

However, the Indictment alleges that contrary to the representations on American Pure Whey’s website and on the product labels, the protein powder products manufactured and sold by American Pure Whey contained markedly lower protein and significantly higher carbohydrate contents in order to fraudulently increase the companies’ profit margin.

The Indictment further alleges that between August 2015 and December 2018, U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) agents acting in an undercover capacity and posing as consumers made six purchases on American Pure Whey’s website of various types of protein powder products.

FDA analysis for protein and carbohydrate contents revealed significantly less protein and substantially more carbohydrates per serving than represented on the respective labels.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/usao-ednc/pr/raleigh-business-owner-charged-defrauding-protein-powder-consumers