Comment · Fri, February 13, 2026 · Natrium Health & Nootropics Depot
The story behind the FDA raid of Nootropics Depot
What they were answering
verifitting · 2 points
I plead guilty to a strict liability misdemeanor, and the government did not allege intent, or push for a felony with me. I genuinely thought that there was a legal pathway to selling these things as long as you did it the right way. That was my honest position. Because of that, neither myself nor my companies were charged with felonies.
So what was the end/net result of this all? I know you were lucky to have gotten out of this crazy situation, but besides legal costs what did it end up costing you?
u/MisterYouAreSoDumb · Natrium Health & Nootropics Depot
Depends on how you calculate it. It cost me around $15M directly, because I had to sell all the company crypto to pay legal fees after we had the crash in 2022. It was around $4.5M in seized and destroyed inventory from the day of the raid, and other batches they missed that we destroyed on our own. It was $3.2M in lawyer costs and legal fees. It was $2.4M in cash forfeiture as part of the plea. Then I had to liquidate holdings to keep the company alive during the process, which was around $5M. So direct costs of around fifteen million dollars. If you calculate lost revenues and indirect costs, much much more than that. I also agreed to a year probation. It was funny, because at every step the US Marshals and US Probation officers were like WTF are you doing here? My probation officer had to come to my house... to make sure it was a suitable environment for external supervision. LOL. She showed up in a bulletproof vest with sidearm on her hip, to my house fully decked out for Christmas. I go crazy for both Halloween and Christmas for decorating, so it was like walking into the North Pole, with my wife and toddler playing on the floor. She was confused, asking WTF was she doing there. Very quickly afterwards, I was transferred to a low risk probation officer in a totally different city that I never even met. I just emailed once a month and that was it. It was a total waste of time for everyone. I joked with the US Marshal that took my mug shot. He was like: "We don't get to see people like you here." The funny thing was that he told me he was buying peptides online for himself. I said be careful, that's illegal!