NC woman pleads guilty to selling fake COVID drug, until she sold to undercover agent
A Charlotte woman pleaded guilty Wednesday to peddling a fake COVID-19 cure during the height of the pandemic, federal prosecutors in New Hampshire said.
Diana Daffin, the owner of Savvy Holistic Health, was arrested outside her south Charlotte home in May 2021 after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration accused her of shipping the supposed remedy drug HAMPL to an undercover agent in New Hampshire, The Charlotte Observer previously reported, citing an FDA news release.
According to a criminal complaint, the FDA first warned Daffin and the drug’s Australian manufacturer in April 2020 that she was selling “an adulterated, misbranded, and unapproved drug” and should take “immediate action to correct the violation,” according to the FDA release.
The label on the container of the drug falsely said it would give “a stronger immunity against CV” and promised “immunity for humans,” according to the complaint. The label with the claim was on the drug she sent to the undercover agent.
Daffin, 69, told the FDA she removed the product from her website, according to an agency release. But she continued selling unapproved HAMPL brand drugs, even after the FDA warned her again in August 2020, prosecutors said in the complaint.
She again told the FDA she would close the product line and website, according to the complaint, but she didn’t.
Daffin didn’t return a phone message left on her cellphone by the Observer on Wednesday night.
She is scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 2, according to a New Hampshire U.S. Attorney’s Office news release Wednesday. Prosecutors didn’t say how many years in prison she faces.
This story was originally published July 28, 2022 at 6:00 AM with the headline "NC woman pleads guilty to selling fake COVID drug, until she sold to undercover agent."