A COVID-19 treatment billboard tied to Golden Sunrise Principal Tuu Hieu. Image via FTC

A Porterville man pleaded guilty Tuesday to three counts of introducing misbranded drugs into interstate commerce after selling what he claimed to be federally approved treatments for the COVID-19 virus, according to the U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert.

According to a deceptive advertising complaint filed against the company in July 2020 by the Federal Trade Commission, the COVID-19 treatment plan was advertised to cost $23,000. Other dietary supplements sold by the company as treatments for cancer and Parkinson’s disease cost as much as $200,000.

Mainly the supplement comprised various herbs and spices, according to the FTC.

Huu Tieu, 61, was the president and CEO of Golden Sunrise Pharmaceutical Inc. Tieu pleaded guilty to the charges after investigators discovered that he had mailed the products to various individuals and practitioners in and outside California.

Court documents said that, starting on March 30, 2020, Tieu began labeling the drugs, including the accompanying information sheets, in a false and misleading method, stating that ImunStem and other Golden Sunrise products were “uniquely qualified to treat and modify the course of the virus epidemic in China and other countries.”

Tieu claimed the products were the first dietary supplement in the U.S. to be approved by the Food and Drug Administration to treat COVID-19.

The drugs were not FDA approved, nor had Golden Sunrise ever produced an FDA-approved product for any purpose, according to Talbert.

Tieu is scheduled to be sentenced on June 12 by U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara A. McAuliffe in Fresno. He could face a maximum statutory penalty of one year in prison and a $100,000 fine for each of the three counts.