So the saying goes; the wheels of justice turn slowly.

Honestly, sometimes in the MLM world it feels like they don’t move at all.

Back in 2014 BehindMLM published our MyNyloxin review.

MyNyloxin served as the official network marketing arm for Nutra Pharma.

Steve Gewecke headed up the company, which combined cobra venom pain relief with a “media unit” investment opportunity.

While Nutra Pharma was registered with the SEC at the time, the company failed to declare MyNyloxin’s media units.

By January 2015 MyNyloxin had collapsed. A reboot company Lumaxa was launched but didn’t last long.

Nutra Pharma itself “never turned a profit” and as of December 2016, was losing around $3.5 million annually.

Now, almost four and a half years since our MyNyloxin review, the SEC has filed a lawsuit against Nutra Pharma Corporation.

Cited as defendants in the SEC’s September 28th lawsuit are Nutra Pharma Corporation, CEO Erik Deitsch (aka Rik Deitsch) and Peter McManus, a former stock broker who was “banned from the profession”.

The SEC alleges thatNutra Pharma ‘raised over $920,000 by issuing millions of shares of its stock to over thirty investors‘.

Deceptive practices carried out by Nutra Pharma include instances of share price manipulation;

Deitsch … repeatedly engaged in manipulative trades of Nutra Pharma stock by submitting orders to buy shares at prices higher than the sellers’ ask prices in order to “walk up” the stock price

Nutra Pharma also issued press-releases filled with bogus info –

including a press release touting Nutra Pharma’s completed expansion and upgrade of a cobra farm, when in fact Nutra Pharma never had a cobra farm, never had cobras, and indeed had never produced cobra venom.

Specifically, Peter McManus told at least one investor that

Nutra Pharma had 1300 cobras on a farm in Florida and that the company “milked” the cobras for venom monthly.

McManus also lied about Nutra Pharma having business operations in India and China.

Meanwhile my initial reaction to McManus’ statement above was, “Oh snap, MyNyloxin didn’t even use cobra venom!”

BehindMLM reader GlimDropper, who gets full credit for bringing this story to my attention, pointed out that it didn’t necessarily mean MyNyloxin’s products didn’t contain cobra venom – only that it wasn’t sourced internally as claimed.

Whether MyNyloxin’s products contained cobra venom remains unclear. The SEC’s action extends only so far as alleged instances of financial and securities fraud.

Citing several violations of the Securities Act, the SEC has asked the court to grant a permanent injunction.

The SEC is also seeking

  • disgorgement of ill-gotten gains tied to Nutra Pharma is also being sought
  • additional civil penalties
  • permanently prohibiting Erik Deitsch from running or directing a company related to securities and
  • permanently prohibiting Deitsch and Peter McManus from participating in future penny stock offers

As of October 2nd Nutra Pharma and Erik Deitsch have been served. There are no service filings pertaining to Peter McManus.

I’ve added the case to our tracking calendar so stay tuned for updates as we receive them.

 

Update 3rd April 2024 – The SEC’s Nutra Pharma Corporation trial was continued in early March.

A settlement between the SEC and Nutra Pharma Corporation defendants has since been reached.