Owner Of Consumer Products Testing Company Arrested For Fraud Scheme Involving Fabricated Test Resul

[nitpicker]

https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/owner-consumer-products-testing-company-arrested-fraud-scheme-involving-fabricated-test

Department of Justice
U.S. Attorney’s Office
Southern District of New York

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, August 9, 2019

Owner Of Consumer Products Testing Company Arrested For Fraud Scheme Involving Fabricated Test Results

Former Executives and Supervising Laboratory Technician Have Pleaded Guilty in Multi-Million Dollar Scheme

Geoffrey S. Berman, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Catherine A. Hermsen, Director of the United States Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) Office of Criminal Investigations (“OCI”), William F. Sweeney, Jr., Assistant Director-in-Charge of the New York Field Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”), and Kevin Gilleece, Acting Rockland County District Attorney, announced that GABRIEL LETIZIA, Jr., the owner and executive director of AMA Laboratories, Inc. (“AMA”), a consumer products testing company in New City, has been charged with wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud in connection with his participation in a scheme to defraud AMA’s customers by reporting false laboratory test results. Letizia was arrested this morning and was presented and arraigned this afternoon before Magistrate Judge Paul E. Davison in White Plains federal court. The case is assigned to U.S. District Judge Kenneth M. Karas.
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AMA is a consumer products testing company in Rockland County, New York. LETIZIA is AMA’s owner and executive director. David Winne served as AMA’s technical director, Mayya Tatsene served as AMA’s clinical laboratory director, Patrycja Wojtowicz served as AMA’s associate director of clinical studies, and Kaitlyn Gold served as AMA’s supervising laboratory technician. AMA tested the safety and efficacy of cosmetics, sunscreens and other products on specified numbers of volunteer panelists for consumer products companies.

From 1987 through April 2017, LETIZIA and others at AMA defrauded AMA’s customers of tens of millions of dollars by testing products on materially lower numbers of panelists than the numbers specified and paid for by AMA’s customers. LETIZIA, and AMA employees acting under his direction, sent the customers fraudulent reports, which falsely represented to the customers that AMA had tested the products on the number of panelists specified by the customers. LETIZIA and AMA employees acting under his direction also made materially false and misleading statements about the results of the tests to AMA’s Customers.

LETIZIA, 69, of New City, New York, was charged in the Indictment with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and wire fraud. The charges each carry a maximum prison term of 20 years.
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[bluedigger]

1. It worked for three decades though.

Pretty good ROI.