“5小时能量”饮料制造商捣毁大型制假网络

    马努基·巴尔加瓦是Living Essentials公司的母公司——创新风投公司（Innovation Ventures，位于密歇根州法明顿山）的所有人，最近凭借“5小时能量”饮料的销售登上“福布斯富豪榜”（Forbes Billionaire）。公司称，自Living Essentials从2004年开始生产这种饮料以来，公司已经卖出超过15亿瓶它所谓的“饮食补充剂”产品。巴尔加瓦曾多次表示，公司的产品不存在安全风险。到目前为止，公司或美国农业部都还没有收到任何报告，表明与假冒产品批号匹配的正品饮料引发了健康事件。

    法庭文件称，波特向美国地区法官威廉·阿尔索普报告称，位于纽约州长岛朗肯科玛的一家年销售额数十亿美元的批发经销商Quality King在向Living Essentials提供的信息中透露，该公司在仓库中囤积了超过600,000瓶假冒“5小时能量”饮料。文件称，Quality King和另外一家大型批发经销商Victory Wholesale Grocers都曾向连锁药店CVS Caremark销售假冒能量饮料。

    这两家公司都没有就此发表评论。

    2012年8月6日至2012年11月1日期间，Quality King曾表示，该公司从位于加州的一家名为Dan-Dee的公司采购了超过870,000瓶饮料。法庭文件显示，直接从圣地亚哥工厂进货的Dan-Dee公司是该造假集团的“全国集散中心”。Dan-Dee公司通过Baja Distributors公司运送产品，而Baja Distributors的实际控制人约瑟夫与贾斯汀·沙尤塔被Living Essentials公司指控为“全国造假集团的主要头目。”文件称，Dan-Dee公司为约15，000箱共计超过300万瓶假冒产品向Midwest Wholesale Distributors公司支付了超过380万美元。而Midwest Wholesale Distributors公司的幕后老板也是约瑟夫与贾斯汀·沙尤塔，以及另外一名据称是“主要头目”的瓦利德·贾米尔。

    目前，被指控的相关人员或其律师均未发表任何评论。

    译者：刘进龙/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.