The owner of a United States laboratory that tested sunscreen products sold in New Zealand has pleaded guilty to falsifying results.
Gabriel Letizia Jr, the owner and executive director of AMA Laboratories, a consumer products testing company in New City, pled guilty on May 7 to defrauding customers by reporting laboratory test results for panellist testing that was not fully performed.
From 1987 to April 2017, Letizia and senior staff defrauded customers of more than $63 million ($US46m). Four former AMA employees have previously pleaded guilty in connection with the fraud.
Letizia will be sentenced in September.
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US attorney Audrey Strauss said Letizia had schemed for decades to defraud customers of his laboratory, and caused sunscreens and other consumer products to be sold and marketed to consumers on the basis of false laboratory testing reports.
The owner of United States-based AMA Laboratories has admitted to falsifying testing reports on global sunscreen brands, including a number sold in New Zealand.
AMA Laboratories fraud has an impact on New Zealand consumers.
Consumer NZ chief executive Jon Duffy said a number of New Zealand-based manufacturers had used AMA Laboratories to justify SPF claims.
For many years, manufacturers sent us test reports from AMA Laboratories when our tests found their sunscreens werent up to standard. Manufacturers continued to rely on AMA Laboratories results despite our tests showing products failed to meet their label claims, Duffy said.
“With all the attention on this issue, it isnt reasonable for a manufacturer to maintain that an AMA Laboratories report is good evidence its product provides the protection claimed on the label. Consumers have been deceived.
In a country with melanoma rates as high as New Zealand, Kiwis are entitled to expect better, Duffy said.
Duffy said any manufacturer that relied on reports from AMA Laboratories should urgently retest its products.
Consumer NZ chief executive Jon Duffy says companies that have used AMA Laboratories should get their products retested.
In Consumer NZs latest test, Ecosol Water Shield Sunscreen SPF50+, Natural Instinct Invisible Natural Sunscreen SPF30 and Sukin Suncare Sheer Touch Facial Sunscreen Untinted SPF30 relied on results from AMA Laboratories to support their SPF claims.
In April, Consumer NZ lodged a complaint with the Commerce Commission asking it to investigate sunscreens that failed to meet SPF claims.
Consumer NZ is calling for a mandatory standard that requires companies to regularly test their sunscreens at accredited labs.