April 9, 2020
The U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia announced that it arrested a Georgia woman on federal charges of illegally importing and selling an unregistered pesticide that she marketed as protection from viruses. The pesticide was sold through eBay and had names like “Virus Shut Out” and “Stop the Virus” and purported to “reduce transmission risk by 90%.”
The charges are mainly brought under anti-smuggling laws and at the woman’s acts in illegally importing the pesticide in violation of federal anti-smuggling laws and under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act, FIFRA, which requires registration for any pesticide and prohibits selling unregistered pesticides. The pesticide in this case was unregistered and allegedly smuggled into the U.S. from Japan.
Click here to read the DOJ’s press release.