561.404.4350 [email protected]

Jared Wheat (pictured, left), CEO and founder of Atlanta supplement maker Hi-Tech Pharmaceuticals, was sentenced to 50 months in jail earlier this month for illegally selling prescription drugs online. Wheat and his co-defendants must also relinquish $3 million in proceeds.

Under a plea deal, three other defendants were sentenced to jail terms of 16 to 27 months; the judge found the 37 months for Wheat suggested in the plea was not harsh enough for his actions. During plea negotiations, prosecutors dropped allegations of racketeering, spiking supplements with ephedrine alkaloids and conspiracies of blackmail and murder.

In an odd twist, the family of one of the convicted Hi-Tech executives has sued the federal prosecutor on the case claiming he drove the executive’s wife to suicide by threatening to indict her to get her to incriminate her husband.  The lawsuit, lawsuit filed last week in Atlanta, contends former prosecutor Aaron Danzig kept Jessica Holda “in a state of terror and dread.”

According to the Atlanta Journal Constitution, two years ago, Holda took a .40-caliber Ruger pistol and shot herself in the head. The lawsuit contends she killed herself after Danzig threatened to prosecute her for selling a luxury car that the government had targeted for seizure if she didn’t assist in the federal investigation.

About 

Joel B. Rothman represents clients in intellectual property infringement litigation involving patents, trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets, defamation, trade libel, unfair competition, unfair and deceptive trade practices, and commercial matters. Joel’s litigation practice also includes significant focus on electronic discovery issues such as e-discovery management and motion practice relating to e-discovery.