WHITE PLAINS – A 77-year-old New City man, the owner and executive director of AMA Laboratories, Inc., a consumer products testing company in that Rockland County community, pled guilty on Tuesday to defrauding customers by reporting lab test results for panelist testing that was not fully performed.
According to allegations in court documents, Gabriel Letizia, Jr., and his co-conspirators, defrauded AMA’s customers of more than $46 million by testing products on materially lower numbers of panelists than the numbers specified and paid for by AMA’s customers.
Letizia and AMA employees acting under his direction sent the customers fraudulent reports, which falsely represented that AMA had tested the products on the number of panelists specified by the customers, causing the introduction of misbranded products into interstate commerce.
Letizia pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, which carries up to five years in prison; and two counts of causing a misbranded drug to be introduced into interstate commerce, each of which carries up to one year in prison.
Former AMA employees David Winne, Mayya Tatsene, Patrycja Wojtowicz, and Kaitlyn Gold previously pled guilty in connection with their respective roles in the scheme.
