FRESNO - Huu Tieu, 61, of Porterville, pleaded guilty Tuesday to three counts of introducing misbranded drugs into interstate commerce, U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert announced.
Tieu was the President and Chief Executive Officer of Golden Sunrise Pharmaceutical Inc. and Golden Sunrise Nutraceutical Inc. (collectively, “Golden Sunrise”). Golden Sunrise manufactured, marketed, and sold products that claimed to treat various medical conditions effectively.
According to court documents, beginning on March 30, 2020, Tieu began selling a set of herbal mixtures he called the “Emergency D-Virus Plan of Care” as a COVID-19 treatment. The treatment consisted of a box containing various vials of Golden Sunrise drug products, including one called “Imunstem,” and an “Emergency D-Virus Plan of Care” information sheet. Tieu mailed the products to various practitioners, public officials, and other individuals inside and outside California.
According to court documents, the labeling for the drugs, including the information sheet that accompanied the drugs, was false and misleading and stated that ImunStem and other Golden Sunrise products were “uniquely qualified to treat and modify the course of the virus epidemic in China and other countries.” Tieu falsely claimed the products had been the first dietary supplement in the United States to be approved as a prescription medicine by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat the COVID-19 virus. The drugs were not FDA-approved, and the FDA had ever approved no Golden Sunrise product for any purpose.
This case is the result of an investigation by the FDA Office of Criminal Investigations, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, with assistance from the Tulare County District Attorney’s Office. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jeffrey A. Spivak and Emilia P.E. Morris are prosecuting the case.
Tieu is scheduled to be sentenced before U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara A. McAuliffe on June 12, 2024. Tieu faces a maximum statutory penalty of one year in prison and a $100,000 fine on the three counts. The actual sentence, however, will be determined at the discretion of the court after considering any applicable statutory factors and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which consider some variables.
