Businessman permanently banned from supplement industry

The final decree, which was approved on a 5-0 vote, bans Texas businessman Kramer Duhon and two businesses he operated — Health Research Laboratories, LLC, Whole Body Supplements LLC — from the industry.

The docket connected to the case included a financial statement indicated that Duhon and his companies had taken in more than $2.6 million in revenue on four supplements on which the companies were making impermissible disease claims in the period of January 2018 to May 2019.

Duhon is a repeat offender, having paid agreed to pay an $800,000 fine in the past, as well as having received an FDA warning letter in 2014.

In addition to the unsubstantiated disease claims he was making, Duhon and his company  were alleged to have violated provisions of the Telemarketing and Electronic Fund Transfer Acts, in that consumers found it difficult to stop recurring debits from their accounts once they had signed up for deliveries of products, fraudulent ‘risk free’ trial periods as well as other violations.