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FISCAL YEAR: 2023
1. PRINCIPAL DEFENDANT: Paul Andrecola
D.  New Jersey  1:22-cr-00397

Paul Andrecola, who owns and operates three companies based in Mount Laurel, New Jersey, manufactured various disinfectant products, including liquids and wipes, under the brand name “GCLEAN.” GCLEAN products were unregistered pesticides under FIFRA and none of the products were on EPA’s “List N of Disinfectants for Use Against SARS-CoV-2.” Rather, Andrecola placed another company’s EPA Registration Numbers on his company’s products, and falsely marketed that his products were EPA-approved to kill Coronavirus by creating numerous false documents to support his claims. Specifically, Andrecola, or others at his behest, provided this falsified documentation to potential customers, falsely representing that various sanitizer and wipe products in the names GCLEAN and/or GC200 were EPA-registered products on EPA’s “List N: Disinfectants for Use Against SARS-CoV-2,” to persuade them to purchase the unregistered pesticide products.

From approximately March 2020 through May 2021, Andrecola used these fraudulent representations to make more than 150 sales of unregistered pesticides for a profit of more than $2.7 million. The purchasers of these unregistered pesticides included a police department in Delaware, a fire department in Virginia, a medical clinic in Georgia, a janitorial supply company in New York, a school district in Wisconsin, as well as numerous U.S. government agencies (namely, the U.S. Marshal’s Service, Moody Air Force Base, the Department of Veterans Affairs and the U.S. Forest Service).



December 8, 2022
Andrecola was sentenced to five years in prison and three years of supervised release and forfeiture of $2.74 million. A special assessment of $225.00 was imposed.
CITATION: 18 U.S.C. 1343, 18 U.S.C. 287, 7 U.S.C. 136j(a)(1)(A)
STATUTE:
  • Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA)
  • Title 18 U.S. Criminal Code (TITLE 18)

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