From the Performance Marketing Insider archive. Originally published August 2020. Revisited October 2026.

Feds Go After Golden Sunrise Nutraceutical for Fake COVID-19 Cure

A $23,000 "Emergency D-Virus" treatment plan, billboards, and a claim of FDA acceptance. The FTC got a court order five years later.

By Pesach Lattin

This post first ran on Performance Marketing Insider (performinsiders.com), the affiliate and lead generation trade site Pesach Lattin published from 2011 to 2020. The original text was lost when that site went dark. This page sits at the same address the old links point to, keeps the original headline and date, rebuilds the subject from the public record, and says what happened next.

On July 31, 2020, the FTC sued Golden Sunrise Nutraceutical, a related company, its owner Huu Tieu and a doctor who worked with them, in federal court in California. It came after the agency had already warned the company.

What was being sold

A $23,000 "Emergency D-Virus Plan of Action" built on supplements called ImunStem, Aktiffvate and AnterFeerons, promoted from March 2020 on billboards, websites and social media. The FTC alleged the company promised symptoms would disappear in two to four days, falsely claimed the FDA had reviewed and accepted the products, and made similar unsupported claims about cancer and Parkinson's, with some plans reportedly running $170,000 or more. The FTC had sent a warning letter in April 2020 and alleged the marketing continued anyway.

How it ended

The doctor settled in June 2021, barred from unsupported health claims and false FDA-approval claims, with a judgment of about $103,000. In September 2025 the court granted the FTC summary decision against the companies and Tieu, barring unsupported health claims. In February 2026 the FTC mailed checks totaling a little over $40,700 to 578 consumers.

How it aged

Do the math the way a marketer would. One plan sold for $23,000. Five and a half years of enforcement returned about $70 to each customer who got a check. Health fraud in a panic is the highest-margin offer in performance marketing, and the billboards, websites and social ads that carried it were all paid media. The ad platforms got paid in 2020. The refunds arrived in 2026.

This page rebuilds an August 2020 Performance Marketing Insider post whose original text is not available. Facts come from the FTC's July 2020 and February 2026 releases and Manatt's summary of the 2021 settlement. Allegations not resolved by the court remain allegations.