So now they are yelling prosecutor misconduct - the last bastion of the guilty.
The bodybuilders made millions selling products designed to help their clients bulk up, but the government accuses them of fraudulently peddling dietary supplements containing dangerous designer drugs and illegal steroids.
Declaring the prosecution an effort by the government “to destroy the weightlifting industry,” the muscle men have promised to beat the case for the good of iron-pumpers everywhere.
If you listen to the defense, it’s a case of how Boca Raton-based Blackstone Labs and Ventech Labs turned selling dietary supplements into business success. If you listen to prosecutors, it’s a tale of South Florida salesmen making millions peddling compounds of questionable legality and safety.
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The government, in its 49-page, 14-count indictment, charges that Phillip Braun, Aaron Singerman, Robert DiMaggio, Anthony Ventrella, David Winsauer and James Boccuzzi conspired to sell hundreds of thousands of illegal products, including dietary supplements containing possibly dangerous designer steroids known as “prohormones."
All of the accused, with the exception of DiMaggio, are from South Florida.
The indictment alleges that six men and the two companies they owned distributed the purportedly dangerous products even though they knew they might be harmful to consumers, and that they engaged in litigation to silence the complaints of people who their product sickened.
“When you sell a product that doesn’t have a label that includes ingredients, that’s a crime,” argued Assistant United States Attorney David Frank to the federal judge during the hearing.
Arguing that the ingredients found in their products were either “natural,” or unregulated, Blackstone Labs CEO Phillip Braun and his four co-defendants have consistently denied the charges. In a statement released by Blackstone following the indictment, the company called the accusations “false and inaccurate” and accused the government of meddling in the nutritional supplement industry.
One defendant, Nevada-based Robert DiMaggio, pleaded guilty on Nov. 19.
On Monday and Tuesday, the weightlifters, who are out on bond, packed the courtroom of U.S. District Judge William P. Dimitrouleas as the judge held a marathon series of motion hearings to try and resolve a complicated set of legal issues that have arisen in the case.
Lawyers for the bodybuilders have themselves leveled accusations of prosecutorial misconduct against the government, claiming that Assistant United States Attorneys failed to turn over key evidence in a timely fashion.
In court filings, the defense attorneys claim the evidence in question shows that at least some of the performance-enhancing substances their clients are charged with selling weren’t actually illegal.
The attorneys also have moved to suppress evidence and dismiss five of the 14 charges against their clients. In one instance, court records show defense attorneys moving to exclude from possible future jury consideration a YouTube video of one of the defendants using a supplement and then copulating with an inflatable blow up doll in an attempt to show how well the product worked.
