PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — A Chinese company and its chief executive have agreed to plead guilty to federal charges of illegally selling human growth hormone and will pay a total $7.5 million.
Lei Jin and his company, Genescience Pharmaceutical Co., were scheduled to enter the guilty pleas and be sentenced Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Providence, R.I. The company has agreed to plead to a felony and Jin to a misdemeanor.
Genescience Pharmaceutical sold the drug under the brand name Jintropin without approval from the Food and Drug Administration.
Genescience was charged in 2007 during a massive crackdown on illegal sports doping, in which 120 people were arrested.
As part of the plea agreement, the two will agree to forfeit $4.5 million and to set up a $3 million fund that will work against doping in sports.
