![[U.S. Food
and Drug Administration]](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20090513004008im_/http://www.fda.gov/icon/header.gif){kind=icon}
A California chiropractor was sentenced to three months in prison and three months in a halfway house and fined $2,000 for illegally distributing tainted liquids that sickened more than 100 partygoers at a New Year's Eve 1996 "rave" party in Los Angeles.
Thirty-year-old Daniel Bricker was sentenced Feb. 2, 1998, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California after pleading guilty to misbranding a food or drug product. The product contained a chemical related to the dangerous and sometimes lethal substance gammahydroxybutyrate (GHB).
Police and firefighters were called to the party when revelers began complaining of symptoms ranging from dizziness and nausea to difficulty breathing. The officials dispersed the crowd, estimated to exceed 10,000 people, and seized about 10,000 vials of the brew that had been distributed free at the party to promote the product.
On New Year's Day, investigators from FDA's Los Angeles district office interviewed some of the more than 30 people who had been taken to area hospitals.
Also that day, the agency warned consumers not to ingest the products blamed for the injuries, which were labeled "Cherry fX Bombs," "Lemon fX Drops," and "Orange fX Rush."
On Jan. 2 and 3, 1997, FDA sent a number of vials of the liquid to the agency's laboratories in Cincinnati, Seattle, and Washington, D.C. The laboratories determined that they contained an industrial solvent known to target the central nervous system if swallowed.
On Jan. 28, special agents with FDA's Office of Criminal Investigations searched Bricker's business, Bricker Labs of Escondido, Calif., and gathered evidence that helped link Bricker to the crime, including vials, stoppers, and packaging related to the product.
On the same day, during a search of Bricker's home in Valley Center, Calif., special agents found documents containing results of laboratory tests on the products, which showed that Bricker knew when he distributed the fX products that they contained the harmful industrial chemical.
According to one special agent with FDA's Office of Criminal Investigations, Bricker substituted the industrial chemical for an ingredient from the kava-kava plant that he planned to use because he couldn't get the plant substance in time for the party.
"He knew in advance that these people would get sick from it," the investigator says, "and he distributed it anyway in the hopes of making some money. It was an extremely dangerous thing to do."
Bricker pleaded guilty in November 1997 to the misbranding charge. He began serving his sentence near the end of March, and at press time was expected to go to the halfway house in July.
Bricker's accomplice, Michael Moffett, whose company mislabeled the industrial solvent as kava-kava extract, pleaded guilty in October 1997 to a misbranding charge. He cooperated with FDA's Office of Criminal Investigations and received a $2,000 fine and a two-year probation.
Tamar Nordenberg is a staff writer for FDA Consumer.
At FDA's request, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York issued a seizure warrant Jan. 26, 1998, for the food--about 5,488 cases of imported rice cakes, candies, dried vegetables, and other assorted products--after the food's owner and distributor, Yick Cheung Corp., doing business as Goodworld Trading Co., refused to rid the Brooklyn warehouse of rodents.
"A seizure can give substantial motivation to those responsible for cleaning up their act," said Lillian Aveta, a compliance officer in FDA's New York district office. "They want to get their facility back into business."
Goodworld's poor sanitary practices were first identified in February 1995 when, as part of a crackdown on misbranded products, New York state authorities inspected the storage facility. In addition to sanitation violations, state chemists detected staphylococcal bacteria in mushrooms Goodworld had for sale. The state seized more than 1,000 cases of mushrooms and cited Goodworld for sanitation violations.
Subsequent inspections later that year found continuing sanitation problems and resulted in further seizures and fines of more than $1,500.
But the violations continued. As part of a routine schedule, FDA inspected Goodworld in October. In repeated visits through December, FDA investigators Cornelius Gallagher, Peter Caparelli, Kwong Lee, and Donald Ullstrom observed a dog roaming freely within the food storage area, fresh rodent pellets "too numerous to count" throughout the walk-in refrigerator, cases of food that looked like they had been gnawed, and gnawed holes through the base of the north and west walls of the warehouse. Food samples collected and later analyzed by FDA indicated rodent contamination.
Company president Wing Chan told FDA that garbage was picked up once weekly and that the company acted as its own exterminator, using a BB gun and placing unenclosed rodenticide on the floor throughout the warehouse.
On Nov. 7, FDA investigators, along with FDA chemist Nariman Ayyad, met New York state inspector Sonia Morales at the warehouse. New York state is under contract with FDA to assist with some inspections. Morales placed all food lots sampled by FDA under state embargo to ensure that the food items in question would not be distributed while the seizure was being processed.
At a Dec. 3, follow-up inspection, agency investigators noted that previously documented building deficiencies had not been corrected. Company president Chan told FDA that he rented the warehouse from the owner who, he said, was looking to sell the property. He also said that if the property was not sold within six months, he "may make the building corrections" himself. Until then, he said, he intended to leave the building deficiencies "as is" for financial reasons, Aveta said.
The agency can order a warrant for mass seizure based on six violative lots of food, Aveta said. She added that Goodworld was in violation with a total of nine lots of food.
The seizure on Jan. 26, 1998, only affected products in soft packaging because other types of containers used had not been found to be contaminated.
At press time, the company was allowed to distribute only products packaged in rigid containers, such as metal and hard plastic, as well as in soft packages received after the seizure date.
--Carol Lewis
FDA Consumer magazine (July-August 1998)
FDA Home Page | How to Subscribe | Back Issues | Table of Contents