Des Moines man pleads to selling vitamin B12 as weight-loss drug

DAVENPORT — A Des Moines man was convicted Wednesday of fraud for selling misbranded vitamin B12 injectable drugs as weight-loss drugs.

Brady Tomlinson, 46, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to one count of introducing a misbranded drug into interstate commerce with the intent to defraud or mislead, according to a U.S. Department of Justice news release.

According to court documents, Tomlinson sold injectable vitamin B12 solutions online beginning in May 2015, marketing the injections as weight-loss drugs.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration informed Tomlinson during a December 2016 inspection that dispensing the drugs without valid prescriptions violated the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, court documents stated.

Tomlinson closed his business for a week after the inspection, but then created a new website and continued selling the same kinds of misbranded B12 injections from December 2016 until his arrest in April 2019.

“Dispensing drugs such as these without a prescription or the involvement of a medical professional endangers consumers and violates the law,” Acting Assistant Attorney General Brian M. Boynton of the Justice Department’s Civil Division, said in a statement.

“Selling prescription drugs online — with no medical supervision — can cause serious harm and put consumers’ health at risk,” Special Agent in Charge Charles L. Grinstead of the FDA Office of Criminal Investigations Kansas City Field Office, said in a statement.

“We will continue to pursue and bring to justice those who jeopardize U.S. consumers’ health and safety.”

Sentencing is set for April 15.

This case was investigated by FDA’s Office of Criminal Investigations, and the case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Adam Kerndt and attorneys Ross Goldstein and Marcus P. Smith of the Civil Division’s Consumer Protection Branch.

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