Man Sentenced To Prison For Selling Cheap Fertilizer As Fat-Burning Pill

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — A Sacramento man was sentenced to three years in prison Tuesday for causing misbranded drugs to be introduced into interstate commerce, the Department of Justice said.

According to court documents, 36-year-old Scott Edward Cavell developed a scheme with others to market and sell a drug, 2,4-Dinitrophenol (DNP) as a weight loss drug and fat burner. Cavell and the others developed the scheme between 2015 and 2017, knowing DNP is not FDA approved.

He sold DNP in pill form and called it fertilizer, a term it is legally sold under in older circumstances.

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Court documents show Cavell admitted to controlling website that marketed the drug as a supplement while also discouraging its use. He also sold DNP pills on thefertizerwarehouse.com, to purposely mislead FDA regulators.

DNP has been commercially used to manufacture dyes and wood preservatives, as a fertilizer, and as a pesticide. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has declared that DNP is too toxic to be used for human consumption under any circumstances.

The DOJ said Cavell collected at least $763,000 for manufacturing the cheap fertilizer into pills for human consumption.