Enlarge (credit: B4B earth tea llc)
The Department of Justice, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Federal Trade Commission together filed a civil lawsuit against a New York man for falsely and repeatedly claiming that a $60 16-ounce bottle of herbal tea can prevent and cure COVID-19.
The agencies accused Andrew Martin Sinclair, who solely owns and operates B4B Earth Tea LLC, of selling snake oil and preying on vulnerable patients during a pandemic that has, to date, claimed the lives of more than 6 million people worldwide.
According to the lawsuit filed Thursday in the Eastern District Court of New York, Sinclair was warned multiple times by the federal agencies that his health claims for “Earth Tea” were illegal. Yet the Brooklyn resident, who goes by “Busta Sinclair,” continued to claim online and on social media that his herbal tea—said to be made of unnamed vegetables, aloe vera, honey, and bottled spring water—”works within minutes” to cure COVID-19 and can get someone “out of quarantine within 24 hours.”
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