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Law360 (June 3, 2020, 4:41 PM EDT) -- A man in Texas was hit by federal authorities this week with a temporary restraining order demanding that he stop selling what he advertised as cures for COVID-19 through his website.
U.S. District Judge David Counts granted the government's request Monday and ordered that the restraining order against Michael Marc "White Eagle" Travalino, 73, stay in effect until at least June 15.
Travalino's website, WhiteEagleNativeHerbs.net, advertised three types of substances as cures for the novel coronavirus, and he gave an undercover agent investigating the claims a guarantee that his hospitalized grandmother would survive the illness if she took the medicine, the government said.
"White Eagle told the special agent to get [his grandmother] out of the hospital or she would die there," according to the complaint. "White Eagle said that if he could not get her out of the hospital, he should sneak some of the medicine into her water without telling the doctors."
According to the complaint, Travalino, a member of the Shoshone Nation, was selling three different purported cures to the coronavirus — Kolon Kleen, Maska Miakoda and Yahweh — ranging in price from $38 to $150 per bottle.
Someone filed a complaint with federal authorities about Travalino's claims on April 28, according to court documents, which launched the investigation. By May 14, the Federal Trade Commission and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration had sent Travalino a warning letter telling him to remove the products he called coronavirus cures from the website and stop selling them.
Travalino wrote back to federal authorities May 28 that he was "willing to have all COVID-19 references" removed from his website "as soon as possible." But the next day, the government alleges, the claims were still present on the website.
U.S. Attorney John F. Bash called the scheme "illegal and immoral" in a news release announcing the injunction and vowed to continue to target and "shut down these scams." And FBI Special Agent in Charge Luis M. Quesada said his office will be doing the same.
"The FBI is using a variety of tools to identify anyone who exploits the current crisis with fraudulent scams or a variety of cyber schemes — and is proactively warning the public about products claiming to save lives, before losing their money or creating false hope," he said. "Scammers seeking to profit by exploiting fear and uncertainty during this COVID-19 pandemic will be brought to justice."
Travalino is facing charges of wire fraud and mail fraud, according to court documents.
The government is represented by Eduardo R. Castillo of the U.S. Attorney's Office in El Paso, Texas.
Counsel and contact information for Travalino was not available Wednesday.
The case is USA v. Michael Marc Travalino, case number 4:20-cv-00046, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, Pecos Division.
--Editing by Gemma Horowitz.
For a reprint of this article, please contact reprints@law360.com.
