“5小時能量”飲料制造商搗毀大型制假網絡

????馬努基·巴爾加瓦是Living Essentials公司的母公司——創新風投公司（Innovation Ventures，位于密歇根州法明頓山）的所有人，最近憑借“5小時能量”飲料的銷售登上“福布斯富豪榜”（Forbes Billionaire）。公司稱，自Living Essentials從2004年開始生產這種飲料以來，公司已經賣出超過15億瓶它所謂的“飲食補充劑”產品。巴爾加瓦曾多次表示，公司的產品不存在安全風險。到目前為止，公司或美國農業部都還沒有收到任何報告，表明與假冒產品批號匹配的正品飲料引發了健康事件。

????法庭文件稱，波特向美國地區法官威廉·阿爾索普報告稱，位于紐約州長島朗肯科瑪的一家年銷售額數十億美元的批發經銷商Quality King在向Living Essentials提供的信息中透露，該公司在倉庫中囤積了超過600,000瓶假冒“5小時能量”飲料。文件稱，Quality King和另外一家大型批發經銷商Victory Wholesale Grocers都曾向連鎖藥店CVS Caremark銷售假冒能量飲料。

????這兩家公司都沒有就此發表評論。

????2012年8月6日至2012年11月1日期間，Quality King曾表示，該公司從位于加州的一家名為Dan-Dee的公司采購了超過870,000瓶飲料。法庭文件顯示，直接從圣地亞哥工廠進貨的Dan-Dee公司是該造假集團的“全國集散中心”。Dan-Dee公司通過Baja Distributors公司運送產品，而Baja Distributors的實際控制人約瑟夫與賈斯汀·沙尤塔被Living Essentials公司指控為“全國造假集團的主要頭目?！蔽募Q，Dan-Dee公司為約15，000箱共計超過300萬瓶假冒產品向Midwest Wholesale Distributors公司支付了超過380萬美元。而Midwest Wholesale Distributors公司的幕后老板也是約瑟夫與賈斯汀·沙尤塔，以及另外一名據稱是“主要頭目”的瓦利德·賈米爾。

????目前，被指控的相關人員或其律師均未發表任何評論。

????譯者：劉進龍/汪皓

????Manoj Bhargava, owner of Innovation Ventures of Farmington Hills, Mich., the parent company of Living Essentials, is a new member of the Forbes Billionaire's list, thanks to sales of 5-Hour Energy. Since Living Essentials began manufacturing the drinks in 2004, the company says it has sold more than 1.5 billion bottles of what it calls its "dietary supplementary" products.

????Bhargava has repeatedly insisted his product is not a safety risk. So far, no health incident has been reported to the company or the USDA from products that match the lot numbers of the fake goods.

????Potter told U.S. District Judge William Alsup that?Quality King, a multi-billion dollar a year wholesale distributor based in Ronkonkoma, Long Island New York, had more than 600,000 bottles of fake 5-Hour Energy drinks in its warehouses, according to information Quality King provided to Living Essentials, the court documents say. Quality King and another large wholesale distributor, Victory Wholesale Grocers, both sold counterfeit energy drinks to the drug store chain, CVS Caremark (CVS), the documents say.

????The companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

????Between August 6, 2012 and Nov. 1, 2012, Quality King said it had bought more than 870,000 bottles of the drinks from a California-based company called Dan-Dee Company, which was the "national distribution hub" for the conspiracy, and got the products directly from the San Diego factory, according to the court documents. Dan-Dee shipped the products through Baja distributors, a company controlled by Joseph and Justin Shayota, who are accused by Living Essentials of being "among the kingpins of the nationwide counterfeiting conspiracy." The documents say Dan-Dee paid more than $3.8 million for nearly 15,000 cases containing more than 3 million bottles of the counterfeit products to Midwest Wholesale Distributors, a company controlled by Shayota and another alleged "kingpin," Walid Jamil.

????None of the accused or their attorneys had any immediate comment.