Husband, wife sold $3M in ‘misbranded’ performance drugs made in NJ basement, feds say
A New Jersey couple accused of peddling millions of dollars in unauthorized drugs they made in their basement could be headed to prison, federal prosecutors say.
Sylvia Kovaleski, 43, and her husband Keith Kovaleski, 57, both of of South Amboy, pleaded guilty to charges related to a “scheme to market and distribute over $3 million worth of misbranded drugs and unapproved new drugs,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey announced March 23.
The couple ran a company, All American Peptide, that they used to push products such as performance-enhancing drugs popular among bodybuilders, prescription drugs and other substances not cleared for human consumption, according to a news release.
In an indictment, authorities said the couple’s home drug business also offered products labeled with names similar to FDA-approved generic drugs. Prosecutors noted that several other AAP products had not been approved by the FDA for human use.
“The Kovaleskis used their South Amboy basement as a manufacturing facility to make and label AAP products,” they wrote, “including homemade capsules containing significantly higher dosages of (the prescription drug) tadalafil.”
The products also didn’t come with important instructions regarding use, dosing information or warnings about potential side effects, the release reads.
The Kovaleskis face up to five years in prison with a maximum $250,000 fine, prosecutors said. They’re also ordered to forfeit the $3 million they made selling the unapproved drugs.
The couple is set to be sentenced July 26.