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The owner of Rat's Army, LLC, a now-defunct online company based in Kalispell, has been charged in federal court with illegally distributing a class of pharmaceuticals popular among some bodybuilders.
Tyler J. Hall was charged earlier this month in U.S. District Court in Missoula with the introduction of unapproved drugs into interstate commerce, a violation of federal law that requires approval by the federal Food and Drug Administration to sell the chemicals for human consumption.
A plea agreement has been filed in the case, according to court documents, and Hall is scheduled for a change-of-plea hearing on Dec. 3. The agreement calls for Hall to admit to the single charge in the case, and in exchange prosecutors will move for a reduction in his offense level at sentencing.
From July 2019 through March 2023, Hall brought in an estimated $3.8 million in income, according to prosecutors, "at least in part from the sale of unapproved drugs" including raloxifene, tamoxifen and pramipexole. The drugs were distributed from locations in Kalispell and Tennessee to customers in Helena and Washington state, the charges state.
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"Hall attempted to conceal the nature of his products by falsely portraying them on his website as 'research chemicals' and 'not for human consumption,' despite knowing and intending that the products were for ingestion by humans to affect the structure and function of their bodies," prosecutors wrote in charging documents signed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Karla Painter.
The drugs cited are known as selective estrogen receptor modulators, or SERMs, which "were often marketed and sold for body-building purposes to reduce male breast enlargement (gynecomastia), a commonly occurring side effect of the use of anabolic steroids and other synthetic chemicals," the charges state.
The drugs do have FDA-approved uses, for which a prescription is required. Raloxifene is FDA-approved for treatment of osteoporosis, tamoxifen is used to treat or prevent breast cancer and pramipexole is prescribed for treating Parkinson's disease.
But serious side effects can also accompany the use of some of the drugs, prosecutors allege. The National Institutes of Health state that two of those that Hall allegedly sold -- raloxifene and tamoxifen -- can cause pulmonary embolism, a potentially fatal condition when a blood clot reaches the lungs.
Rat's Army was registered as an LLC in Montana from August 2020 through December 2022, according to records on the Secretary of State's website. The company would "import, create, bottle and label drugs" and then market them to body-builders "to increase muscle mass, reduce body fat (and) counter the unwanted side effects of using bodybuilding drugs," according to prosecutors.
Reached briefly by phone on Wednesday, Hall said he was now based in Tennessee and agreed to an interview but could not be reached in a follow-up phone call. His attorney, Curt Collins, did not return a message seeking comment.
Charging documents state that Hall misled his customers, describing his business as "pharmaceutical manufacturing" despite not employing a licensed pharmacist.
Hall also "falsely implied" the products had been tested by a third party for purity and "posted misleading certificates of analysis" on his website, according to prosecutors. That allegation had also been levelled on social media websites by online commenters who stated that he had removed certificates from testing companies from his website.
Federal prosecutors also allege that Hall evaded possible seizure of the drugs in international shipments by falsely claiming that they were supplements or vitamins.
During the pandemic, Rat's Army was flagged by the FDA for allegedly peddling a "virus bioshield" that could "mitigate, prevent, treat, diagnose or cure COVID-19 in people," according to a December 2020 letter sent to the company by the federal Center for Drug Evaluation and Research.
The letter cited claims from the Rat's Army website that the product "severely lowered the mortality rate of COVID-19" in a study.
"FDA is advising consumers not to purchase or use certain products that have not been approved, cleared or authorized by FDA and that are being misleadingly represented as safe and/or effective for the treatment or prevention of COVID-19," the letter stated.
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