PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — A former pharmaceutical executive was found guilty of selling fake cancer drugs for dogs.
Jonathan Nyce, 73, from Collegeville, was charged by Indictment for this scheme in February 2020 and convicted by a federal jury of wire fraud and shipping misbranded animal drugs Thursday.
Nyce made tabloid headlines in 2004 when he was convicted of manslaughter for beating his wife to death in their mansion in Hopewell Township, New Jersey, then driving her body into a creek.
Prosecutors say he served eight years in prison for that crime and, after his sentence was up, in 2012, he began to sell cancer-curing drugs for dogs, claiming they would restore a dog’s appetite, but they were nothing more than a collection of "bulk ingredients" that Nyce blended together himself at a facility on Arcola Road in Collegeville.
He created several companies – “Canine Care,” “ACGT” and “CAGT” – and claimed in promotional materials that their research was “funded in part by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration,” selling nearly $1 million in drugs to 900 pet owners.
However, the government presented evidence at trial that Nyce’s drugs were not FDA-approved.
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Prosecutors said Nyce also told pet owners if they paid him “large sums of money,” he could enroll their pets in clinical trials.
U.S. Attorney Jacqueline Romero said in a statement that Nyce took advantage of the bond between pets and their owners by defrauding customers and giving them false hope that they might be able to save their dying pets.
“That is both cruel and illegal, and we hope this verdict brings his victims a small measure of justice for their suffering.”