PHF Supplements, Celtic Labs, Purity Solutions Owners Under DEA Investigation

[Millard]

board administration has posted a statement in regards to the above, if anyone is interested.

http://prohormoneforum.com/index.php/topic/91624-important-message-from-ba

Also archived from Wayback Machine: Important Message From Ba

Important Message From Ba​

Started by BoardAdmin , Jan 03 2017 03:41 PM

As many of you may already know, a recent article was posted online about us being targets of the DEA for alleged “anabolic distribution steroid ring”. Against my attorneys’ advice, Mrs. BA and I strongly feel that we now need to come to the forums and address this article and explain firsthand what we have been dealing with since our home and warehouses were raided in mid June. We also need to set the record straight on the misinformation that was mentioned in the article regarding being raided in 2004 once and for all. We would have discussed this on open forum months ago but from our experiences in the past we felt that it wouldn’t be good to cause alarm when there once again were no controlled substances to be found. Their claim that we have committed DASCA violations are resultant of a misunderstanding/misuse of DASCA’s definition of compounds that are structurally similar to testosterone for it to effectively serve as a new analogue act for similar compounds, whether or not they had been listed in the bill. As there have not been any charges and our strong views on the potential outcome of the investigation, we didn’t want to post private information and worry about rumors and misinformation spreading on other forums if it wasn’t necessary. When this article posted with no forewarning or chance to give our sides of the story upfront in rebuttal or defense, now we decided to make this post. The worst part is that the article was snuck in on Christmas Eve and it has already spread here and to several other online discussion forums before I had the chance to explain anything to members.
I want the chance to discuss the WHOLE story and finally break everything down…..ALL of our experiences since first opening our business in 2003 (known as Liquid Research at the time) to now, but it is most important to start with this initial release because otherwise this post would be about 20 pages long. Again when this first happened, we only told a few reps that we felt we could trust. My wife (Mrs. BA) wanted to come straight here to talk about what happened and so did I but I know how words can get twisted and haters will try to change the story around, so I asked her to wait. There were a few times that we mentioned coming to the boards to talk about the claims about DASCA being an analogue act and what they were trying to say we had done to break the law, but we chose not to. Our attorneys kept telling us not to discuss anything online every time we would say anything about bringing the discussion to our forum, so we didn't discuss what was going on.....only to have the DEA leak 45 pages of an application for a new search warrant that ended up in the hands of a reporter from the Advocate.
First, I want say the article is absolute bullshit and just a fraction of the truth about what all has happened to us since 2004 regarding any aspects of the handling of our businesses. The article was written by a New Orleans Advocate journalist, Jim Mustian, who seemingly was handfed a copy of the 45 page application for a search warrant by one of the DEA task force agents in attempts to defame my wife and I’s reputation shortly before the deadline for them to return seized property came around. The things I don't get are how a sealed investigation was openly available to the public and why now, not back in mid June when it first happened. So now it is OK for some random reporter (who frankly doesn't know his head from a whole in the ground about this or any investigation involving us) to bring news of the raid and investigation online (and in print) when we were told specifically not too? The only true FACT is that this reporter has been allowed (and quite possibly encouraged by enforcement agents) to selectively use bits and pieces of a search warrant application and an old article written about a raid that resulted with no illegal substances or activity being found and write this unfairly biased and skewed story.
We have asked multiple times for the "sealed" sections of the warrants served on our home and warehouses back in June for months but because they are sealed and we haven't been charged with anything our defense attorneys haven't even been able to have access it, but JIM was able to find it in a little over a month on some “public roster” and was so intrigued by the details of the warrant application as to push to release an article right in time for Christmas on his own regard and intuition. Very convenient timing by the way after there was a major media event the week before discussing the recent raids of “corrupt” DEA task force agents and Tangipahoa Parish Sherriff Office after an ongoing investigation of the whole task force has been ongoing by the FBI. Convicted drug offenders are being released and active investigations involving local DEA task force are being turned away by the Justice Department as FBI is just beginning to unravel the web of corruption. Our investigation involves DEA task force and the evidence for indictment against us was already lacking so as we are approaching the deadline to return property and issue an indictment the very task force trying to come after us is all over the news. What better way to counter the bad press then to set up this low blow in local media to make us look like an organized criminal enterprise that has been skirting the hammer of the law for over a decade. One of the first task force agents arrested has been referred to the “white devil” and compared to Denzel Washington’s character in Training Day, but worse.
Just a few of the recent articles involving DEA task force pasted below:
http://www.theadvocate.com/new_orleans/news/crime_police/article_9e707b84-c2eb-11e6-8888-e332dd5c4b9a.html

http://www.theadvocate.com/new_orleans/news/crime_police/article_e5c73558-9222-11e6-8cc2-c744a24067aa.html?sr_source=lift_amplify

http://www.theadvocate.com/new_orleans/news/article_b1a39fbb-dd91-5870-bf25-bca4c8b3bed8.html

http://www.theadvocate.com/new_orleans/news/politics/article_6b3d8fa6-c3b1-11e6-a4df-07a8c6a2c2b5.html?sr_source=lift_amplify
The agent quoted in the search warrant application, Brian Phillips, is a New Orleans Police Department street crime federally marshaled to assist DEA, the same DEA task force under investigation by the FBI.
There is a reason that there were never any charges filed against us in 2004 after Jefferson Parish Sheriff first raided our business when operating under the name NuRave Development and commonly known in the industry as Liquid Research. Jim went on to reference misinformation posted in 2004 by Times Picayune the day after we were raided. He is twisting details about us as if it were the hard facts about a proven illegal operation and painting us as hardened criminals.... We were raided by Jefferson Parish authorities in 2004 within the first year of starting our business (Liquid Research at the time) and before there was even time to inventory or test the so called "illegal" substances seized; Harry Lee (Sheriff of Jefferson parish also known for corruption in office) interrupted regularly scheduled programming to announce that they had had just busted the "largest drug operation in the history of Jefferson Parish". The large white barrels of powder were raw material of supplements such as Calcium carbonate and stearate, Acteylated Phenibut and 2 other phenibut derivitives that I planned to bring to the market at the time. The headlines in 2004 "alleged" us of online sales of steroids and GBL without any evidence of sales, any proof of intent to sell or even possession of either types of these drugs. DEA task force and US Customs used a bartering ram on my home all because an undercover agent bought steroids from an ex-employee of ours shortly after he left our home. The craziest part is that several of the deputies involved in ours and similar raids were being found guilty of their own misconduct including steroid use just a few months after they nearly destroyed our lives.
We were targets of a very sloppy and misguided operation by a local Sheriff department widely known for its corruption. Jefferson Parish was already known for scandals and corruption of the Sheriff and his deputies and shortly after we were raided it was uncovered that many were being investigated and had even been arrested for their abuse of power and crimes. The task force was conducting targeted and/or illegal searches and seizures looking for drugs (steroids were specifically mentioned), cash and other property that they had been "informed" of and that would be taken for their own personal use. Many deputies were in the news for being found to be on steroids themselves. We never saw their warrant, we were removed from the premises as they were still conducting the search and steroids were just one of the many spoils that the deputies were hoping to find. Our entire product inventory, computers and even a flat screen monitor were seized and never returned. The articles posted by local media would be used by competitors or haters for years to try to hinder any new business ventures as well as left an open-ended source for our reputation to be slandered for years to come.
What was not mentioned in the article is that we were also raided in 2007 during that whole "Operation Raw Deal" when operating as IBE. This was about a year after our Epistane first came out. We had a shipment of raw material get seized at the New Orleans airport and when tested under high heat it was mistakenly identified as a controlled substance. The US Customs agent that detained the shipment was present in 2004 and recognized the name and immediately pulled the shipment to analyze. This Customs agent already had a vendetta following the raid in Jefferson Parish because of a rebuttal post that described him and we learned shortly after he led the raid on our home and commercial properties Fortunately, we had already been testing all material we were ordering by a forensic toxicologist who was regularly called to testify for FDA, DEA and other grand jury and was able to quickly quash the claim of results from the US Customs test. Again no illegal substances or operations were found and the prosecuting attorney (AUSA) told our attorney at the time that we could continue to operate our business(es) after only a few weeks of investigating the documents and property seized. US Customs walked away with 50k from bank accounts, documents and 80k in product inventory and their 5 year window to indict us had expired, the only “property” returned to us was 20 boxes of documents.
Our operations have not changed since 2007 aside from adding new websites, adding new products/brands that were all similar to the existing catalog during previous investigation(s), and we even had an attorney specializing in federal steroid criminal law review both our current websites and he issued legal opinions letters for both ecommerce sites that quoted legal statutes currently listed under DEA/federal classification laws and even gives the exact url to locate the statutes his references and opinion had been derived and we did this so that we would not have to fear another unjustified legal enforcement. When DASCA became law we immediately discontinued and removed any products that could potentially be viewed as an illegal compound as defined in the new bill. Any products that were listed in DASCA were removed from our catalog nearly 2 weeks before the bill was actually signed. All products and raw materials were immediately removed from our online store and all stock discarded without hesitation. While most companies were selling last minute stock up to days before DASCA was enacted as law, we wouldn’t even risk selling the high demand product we had on hand. We had offers from many venues to purchase our remaining stock while still legal and we refused. We even recalled and refunded any pending orders waiting to ship because it wasn’t worth the chance that even one package be found in transit after DASCA became law. We weren’t willing to risk being raided for a last minute effort to liquidate stock to recover the financial loss we suffered. The loss of revenue and inventory due to our decisions were a major financial loss. DASCA changes left us with 50% less monthly gross revenue, receivables loans and other accumulated debt that could no longer be paid, and a resulting decline in membership and customer base as a whole. We also instructed all staff and representatives of our new policies regarding sales, the changes the DASCA would cause and instructions for communicating with customers and also a strict and close monitoring of any discussions being held on our online discussion forum so that all of this could be avoided. But here we are again, and the worst part is they raided us when we had already closed our brick and mortar store and had stopped taking orders from Pure Oils website due to losing our supplier in December 2015. We had a very limited amount of Celtic Labs product on hand.
We have never been charged or convicted of a crime, we were already raided on both a state and federal level and even after neither investigation provided significant evidence of controlled/illegal substances in possession, being stored, sold or used relative to any business or bring criminal charges against us for any of the previously alleged crimes.......we were raided again and here we are once again, guilty before innocent.
The thing that everyone needs to understand very clearly……. the US government isn’t after us, it is local task force and enforcement using the resources of the federal government that have held a grudge from the raid(s) before and this most recent raid is an attempt to try to finish what they started in 2004.

 

[ergomaniac]

Also archived from Wayback Machine: Important Message From Ba

I clicked on my old link and saw it was no more. I've heard about the Wayback Machine. That's a useful tool.

 

[biggerben69]

His wifes post was very touching. It stirred up feelings I haven't visited in some time. I have heard so many similar horror stories from decent, God fearing(and some not) people who weren't criminal masterminds but had become targets of our Gov't. In doing so, many of their loved ones became targets as well.
If an accused citizen decides to stand up for what he feels is an unjust prosecution/persecution, they gov't uses fear tactics such as threatening to go after parents or children of the accused. They are not idle threats.
I've seen marriages fall apart under the strain of an indictment. Once in the gov't's crosshairs, there isn't much a regular citizen can do.
Tactics used to break men include isolation, sensory depravation, threats of new charges and incarceration of friends and family if the gov't is met with any resistance.
Once in custody, the Bureau of Prisons is a device that can "lose" people through a series of seemingly never ending transfers which hide behind "Security Issues" that can terrify the family of a federal inmate.
Imagine if your wife or 18yr old child was picked up by the feds. All attempts to locate them turn up nothing. The bop.gov website shows your loved one "Not In Custody". If you're given any answer at all its that for security reasons the whereabouts of your loved one in unknown at that point. This can last for months. It could last indefinitely. Diesel Therapy is real. Its used as punishment for any convicted, but mostly people not yet found guilty and yet to be sentenced people who won't cooperate and go along with the gov't's wants.
Citizens are rousted out of sleep in the early morning hours and told they are leaving. They are placed in a holding cell and may or may not be changed out of the institutions clothing. They are not allowed to bring any commissary items they purchased and are given no other details.
You sit for a # of hours with inmates waiting to be housed and with court bodies(inmates with court that day) as well as any other inmates transferring to another institution.
It is a mass of hopelessness and despair. Fear is present and on display as is extreme mental illness as Prisons throughout the country are the mental hospitals of this generation. The BOP is where you can find society's undesirables.
A good way to judge a society or group is to see how their most vulnerable are treated. Its a human tragedy. People who are in desperate need of mental health treatment but who have no family or anyone are forgotten and are not even afterthought. Out of sight out of mind. These people are man handled and stripped of all dignity. Physically and verbally abused. Even the most basic of human rights gone.

Taken by bus or plane. Inmates are not told where it is they are being taken. You are handcuffed with belly chains and leg irons as well. Today, all inmates traveling are "Black Boxed". Used to be only trouble makers and those with past incidents of violence while in transit were black boxed. Today, through the infinite wisdom of the BOP, all inmates in transit get to experience the indignity and pain of the "Black Box". Its a device that is place over the space between the handcuffs. It further restricts movement. Makes trying to relieve ones self impossible. Eating is almost impossible as well.
An average sized person finds the specially altered seating on prisoner transfer buses cramped. I'm 6'2" 255 and sitting sideways would be how i sit but being chained to another human being means being twisted up. Any movement by you or the person you're chained to has the other being jerked in the opposite direction.
All this on a ride that I've been on literally dozens of times with the shortest being a 6 hour ride and the longest being just shy of 15hr which was from California to Oregon. Torture is how the rides are most often described.

Imagine going through the waking in the early morning hours(3:30am)...waiting in a holding cell...then the bus ride. Then waiting at the arrived at prison in a holding cell waiting to be given institution clothing as well as waiting to be housed. It can be almost midnight before being taken to a rack. Only to be woken 3 or 4 hours later to repeat the process again. Imagine doing that 5 days out of every week for months on end. It takes something out of a person. I'm certainly not the same person I was before my incarceration.
I'm not sure where I was going with this? I apologize. I'm suddenly exhausted after being incensed when I started this post. Sometimes when I write, I go through a myriad of emotions. I certainly feel for the woman who wrote that post. LE is polluted with corrupt and evil people. I used to pray for their demise.

 

[Millard]

His wifes post was very touching. It stirred up feelings I haven't visited in some time. I have heard so many similar horror stories from decent, God fearing(and some not) people who weren't criminal masterminds but had become targets of our Gov't. In doing so, many of their loved ones became targets as well.

Natalie Barton's life has been devastated especially after her husband died:

 

[Millard]

Natalie Barton's defense attorney is Arthur Lemann III. I found his court filings to be very colorful and entertaining. Most court documents are dry and boring. But not these.

A few things you should know about Louisiana before reading:

** "Boudreaux" is one of the fictional characters in the Boudreaux and Thibodeaux jokes mocking Cajuns.

** K&B was a famous historic New Orleans-based drug store chain (Katz and Besthoff) that was acquired and rebranded by Rite Aid in 1997.

** "Emeril" is a famous chef (Emeril Lagasse) specializing in Cajun and Creole cuisine.

** Morgus the Magnificent was the "horror host" of late-night sci-fi and horror movies in New Orleans from 1950s-1980s.

Here are a few excerpts...

And while the ordinary person would know that he might need to use a microscope to determine if one orange is related or substantially similar to another orange, he would know that no microscope was needed to compare an orange to an apple. And what ordinary bloke would know what desoxytestosterone acetate is, or what 2a-19a-dimethyl-5A-androstane-3, 178-diol is, or what acctyld ienolone is? And while the ordinary bloke might know one should not eat those things, Boudreaux might if there was crawfish mixed in. For sooth, even Boudreaux would know that heroin and cocaine were dope, but that to him, bodybuilding pills are more similar to lipstick and rouge. And not to mention “pharmacologically”. Alas, with K&B gone, where will our ordinary yat go to learn about that?

Perhaps the result would be different if the ordinary person was Frankenstein or Morgus the Magnificent. But here it is Natalie that must run the gauntlet! In the end, we must all remember that a criminal trial is not a scientific event. Thus, this parade down Poydras Street of unconstitutional prosecutions without any notice – cheered on by the DEA and its comrade Big Pharma – must come to a halt. The government should let these people flex in peace.

I. BETTY CROCKER

In contradistinction to the steroid Counts (1, 3, 4, and 5), the FDA or “Food Counts” (2, 6, and 7) remove Natalie from the likes of El Chopo, heroin, cocaine and opiates and, at least more appropriately, place her in the world of Betty Crocker, lipstick, rouge, toothpaste and oleomargarine.1 But rest assured, Big Pharma is still involved, if not in the recipe for angel food cake, in most other products that make man feel closer to Nirvana.

II. APHRODITE

For centuries mankind has searched for aphrodisiacs. The moon and stars aside, anything from ginseng root, to powdered rhinoceros horns, to broken dried remains of the blister beetle, to the yohimbe! tree in Central Africa – all without any scientific proof. In my youth, and in this part of South Louisiana, it was raw oysters.

At the Acme, at Felix’s, at Manale’s, one could imagine signs behind the raw oyster bar that proclaimed “Eat here and love harder!” And can one imagine, say Police Chief Giarusso, tearing down the signs as being lewd, or rather just eating more raw oysters, perhaps even on the house in the good ole’ days.

Now, in the 21st Century, finally eureka, a gold mine – Viagra and Cialis, giving one an erection for up to four hours – certainly enough proof for Boudreaux! And enough proof for Big Pharma to hoard over this gold mine in the bedroom, just as there was probably a similar tribe in Africa hoarding over rhinoceros horns. Aphrodisiacs, that is what the food counts are all about. In short, Big Pharma wants to send Mom and Pop to prison for encroaching on their gold mine in Boudreaux’s bedroom.

Finally a word on misbranding. One lesson that Big Pharma has learned is that the American consumers don’t care about labels. For example, a Big Pharma TV ad might state:

“Take this once a day to relieve arthritis. However, it may have the following side effects: a heart attack, kidney failure, diarrhea, vomiting, and even in some cases death. Consult your physician.”

Simply put, if it works, the consumer can care less.

And the same is true for Mom and Pop operations. Despite the label of “not for human consumption,” Natalie and her dead husband’s customers knew exactly what they were getting and were not misled in the slightest. They knew they were getting aphrodisiacs like Viagra and Cialis, which both worked and were cheaper than they could get from K&B. Moreover, unlike a controlled dangerous substance, it is not against the law to possess these products. Mais non, Boudreaux is no fool and he knew exactly what he was getting, just as he would know if Emeril was serving him oleomargarine rather than real butter like the kind Boudreaux churned for his ole’ mama. In truth, the only victim in this case is not the United States of America, not the American consumer, but Big Pharma – deservedly!

 

[Millard]

Oh yeah,

** Acme, Felix's and Manale's are historic oyster bars in New Orleans!

** Police Chief Giarusso (Joseph Giarrusso) was a populist politician and power broker in New Orleans from the 1960s thru the 1990s

You don't need to know law to understand these court documents, just local culture and history