Federal prosecutors are seeking a court order to stop a Baltimore businessman from continuing to sell aloe vera treatments to critically ill customers, pending his retrial in a major alternative-medicine case.
Among the reasons listed in court papers, investigators said that a California woman died Sept. 3 after receiving intravenous aloe vera injections for her cancer and that other patients also have continued receiving the untested and possibly dangerous treatment.
The woman paid Allen J. Hoffman $15,000 for the treatment, which he administered to her in the Bahamas, court papers say.
Prosecutors are asking a federal judge to issue an injunction blocking Hoffman and his business, Astec Biologics Inc., from selling or shipping the aloe products. Federal authorities also want permission to have U.S. Food and Drug Administration investigators inspect Hoffman's business facilities and records.
Reached yesterday at Astec's office in Hanover, Pa., Hoffman said the government's charges are "all based on nonsense." He declined to comment further, referring questions to his attorney.
Baltimore lawyer Michael E. Marr, who represented Hoffman in his federal fraud trial this year, did not return a phone call seeking comment.
After a two-month trial in the spring, a jury acquitted Hoffman on one count of mail fraud, but deadlocked on the remaining 19 charges against him, including charges of introducing an unapproved new drug. The jury also deadlocked on charges against Hoffman's previous company, Baltimore-based T-Up Inc.
Hoffman described T-Up as a nutritional supplement that boosts the body's immune system. Prosecutors contended that claims about T-Up - such as its value as a cancer treatment - were a fraud.
A second trial is scheduled for April. Prosecutors argued in court papers filed last week that Hoffman should be blocked from selling or promoting his aloe vera product until then.
