The big question: Why did the FDA refuse for so long to name the importer? Why protect Steve Miller? Why protect a small, strange company that does not even have a company sign on its front door?
In a previous post, I noted one oddity in Steve Miller's background: A few years ago, he ran an IT company called NetExchange, Inc. At the same time, a company called NetExchange -- co-founded by a CalTech professor -- was working for DARPA, one of the most sensitive and secretive agencies of the Defense Department.
Were the two NetExchanges one and the same? And if so, did this government connection explain the FDA's odd reticence to name ChemNutra? (I've written to one of the CalTech founders, but have yet to receive a reply.)
You'll have to scroll down to the post titled "The pet food scandal gets freaky" and check out the comments if you want to follow the elaborate research trail followed by the readers. I'm enormously grateful to them. This investigation proves that the "group mind" can accomplish deeds beyond the reach of a single writer.
I will focus here on one data point: At roughly the same time that the Millers were involved in NetExchange, they lived in an apartment at 545 S Los Robles Avenue, Pasadena, CA. That address happens to be a short walk away from CalTech -- the place where the "DARPA" NetExchange was born.
Is it possible that two companies with the same name operated within the same block? Yes. But such a coincidence seems unlikely.
As the Canada Free Press notes, vis-a-vis ChemNutra:
This is a company supplying pet food makers whose licence seems to be in dispute.And:
“California listed ChemNutra’s incorporation status as “surrender”, which means the company “has voluntarily surrendered its right to transact business in the state of California”. Records called up on line did not reveal ChemNutra’s incorporation status in Delaware.And:
“The wheat gluten ChemNutra recalled was all shipped from China in 25 kg. paper bags, and distributed to customers in the same unopened bags. The bags were all labeled “Wheat Gluten Batch No.---- Net Weight: 25 kg. Gross Weight: 25.1 Made in China,” states the FDA in a press release.Forgive my ignorance in the ways of business, but I'm confused. Just what was the necessary service provided by Mr. Miller? Why did Menu Foods (a subsidiary of Proctor and Gamble) bother with a shadowy Las Vegas firm? Why not just order directly from China?
Meanwhile, how can the consumer trust a billion dollar pet food industry where pet food manufacturers buy supplies from a company with not even a sign on its door?Good question.
A recommendation: Although, like a lot of other people, I'm concocting more home-made chow for my fearsome hound, I must admit that she has done quite well with a kibble named Artemis. I've been buying the Natural 6 mix, which is not terribly expensive; the listed ingredients seem quite healthful. Artemis happens to be a company local to me, based in North Hollywood -- and no, I do not know anyone who works there. But my pooch sends compliments to the chef.
15 comments:
Costco food, Kirkland Signature, has no corn, wheat, soy or byproducts in its cat or dog food. The food is Diamond Professional, and was not involved in the Diamond recall a few years ago (I think that was a corn problem). My guys do very well on it, the dogs and the cats.
You can bet there's a story of rank corruption here. Not only how did Miller get his contracts for supplying to PG and other big companies, but through whose influence did he get his contract for buying in China? We can't expect much investigative help from the NYT and the WaPo, but perhaps a class action lawsuit will uncover some of the truth. And who's behind the conspiracy to pretend only sixteen pets have died, when vets say the number is in the thousands?
I'm glad someone raises the question about the common practice of having all these distribution middlemen. At a time when unions -- the few left -- are being hammered for givebacks from productive workers, it is a wonder why these billion-dollar CEOs don't start extending their profit lines by consolidating the many white-collar middlemen, instead.
Joseph, you keep saying as fact the FDA hid this company's role, but I urge caution on that claim. I don't see evidence to support whether a month was a long time or not, given the circumstances. Brands were still being added to the list last week.
My memory is that the very first AP wire story that moved did, in fact, identify the poison meal coming from a Kansas City warehouse. Then, some second-day reporting had the origin as Canada, and then China was to blame. Now I see ChemNutra's own press release (I think it was) IDs its KC plant as the site from where the poisoned bags were sent. That may be worth considering in your analysis, although I don't know if it would support or refute your claim the FDA helped hide ChemNutra's role.
The elusiveness of NetExchange reminds me of the profile of a firm that got mentioned in press releases claiming it was importing thousands of Verichip implantable microchips from Applied Digital. The company was called "Surge IT Solutions". That was back in 2004.
One possibility that comes to mind is that NetExchange is a front for Proctor and Gamble.
I won't sign off without linking microchips and pets... The technology for implanting a human is the same as for implanting a dog. The biggest manufacturer of implants for dogs isn't Applied. They just get their name in the media most often. It's a company called Trovan (which gobbled up Destron Fearing and another brand or two too, if memory serves). Trovan is registered in the Isle of Man and is very hush-hush. By now we are talking about tens of millions of chips worldwide. Chipping is already compulsory in various countries for various species.
Many people who haven't got pets, or don't go near farms, don't realise just how widespread microchip implantation is already.
In a UK context, another point worth making is the role of the multinational Bayer in managing the data related to chips for dogs. They are the same company that determines how GPs' surgeries are run - a role which for veterinary surgeries, in other areas than chipping anyway, is played by Hill's.
Pip-pip!
b
Re Net Exchange, everything I found on PR Newswires gives me the impression it was just another failed dot.com based in NYC in 1999, the only year it seriously put out press releases about itself. It touted its little new twist on organizing email but didn't really offer any discernible product, like so many of the dot.com opportunists.
Miller's Net Exchange in 1999 employed a key marketing/finance person, Patricia J. Kozu, who landed a job with a philanthropic foundation that seems unrelated.
I'm curious about the transition in which Miller's Net Exchange went out of business and he declared bankruptcy from an East Village condo address in NYC, all around 2000-2001, then created Archematics across the river 5 miles on the Jersey City pier and now keeps the morphed Net Exchange web address registered there.
If you're looking for a connection between Miller's Net Exchange and DARPA, it would seem you shouldn't fail to connect the dots as to what the hell is Miller's Archematics, why it exists and why it stayed behind when he moved out to Pasadena, then Las Vegas.
Archematics, btw, is incorporated both as an LLC for foreign business and a public corporation for domestic profit. I found that very interesting, because if ChemNutra was created similarly, a class action civil suit would be a waste of time, I think.
We're screwed as consumers. We can't tell on any product how the many suppliers and distributors in the chains of each product are incorporated so we can feel safe that we have legal remedy if they acted negligently but not criminally -- provably criminally, which becomes hard to do, too, when the chain of proof is international.
"Is it possible that two companies with the same name operated within the same block? Yes."
Are you POSITIVE about that, Joe? Aren't there some kind of limits on that sort of thing built into the "Fictitious Name Permit" required of any company doing business in California under a name other than that of a real person?
I do not know the answer to that question, but I would be interested to hear from someone who does.
I think it's common to find businesses with the same name, when the name isn't legally trademarked. When there's a legal trademark protecting one, there are limits to where and what products any others by that name can take on.
There also are minor variations, such as how the business is registered. LLCs come and go under lots of same or similar names.
The bigger legal fraud comes into play where the same principal changes the name of the company, not so much when companies may share a name. A good idea when researching companies is to not limit yourself to a search on company name, but also search separately on the principals' and directors' names.
To get a business license in California, there can't be another business with the same name within the county (I have a license, and had to change the name of my business slightly because someone else already had the same name)
I think it's unlikely that the two NetExchanges are related.
But if they are, then we don't just get the question: Is there a DARPA link to the pet food poisoning? We get another question too.
Namely: Was there a Chinese connection to DARPA's insane "terrorism futures exchange" idea?
That one was really nutty!
Let's remember: it didn't just involve DARPA, it also involved the Economist Intelligence Unit. That's the business information department of the Economist newspaper. The global importance of which is indicated not just by the fact that it's required reading in all of the world's serious boardrooms, but also by its role in providing "rapporteurs" at every Bilderberg meeting.
Net Exchange say that they have "brought market mechanisms to commerce traditionally organized through non-market means".
Marxists like me would see that as a textbook definition of the advance of the law of value.
If you're looking for global strategic thinking, you are looking in the right place.
There is a huge, huge amount of locally-owned western currency in China - especially when one includes Taiwan and Singapore as well as Hong Kong and the mainland.
Also there is the observation that gambling is huge in China and in Chinese communities.
If the "terrorism futures" exchange had been set up, Chinese money would have rushed in. It's possible that the idea was to set this up, but not in public. Which may have happened. And anyway, we are only talking about the level of formalisation, because something of the kind already exists to some extent - i.e. one can read expectations of terror attacks, war, etc., from the way the money's moving, if one knows how.
Fact: many of the huge hedge funds in London have moved out of the City and into St James's, the same area where the Economist is based, and also the RIIA, Boris Berezovsky, etc. This doesn't sound very interesting in itself, but for high-powered financial orgs to move out of the Square Mile is remarkable and peculiar...
A decade ago, a trillion dollars a day was moved on the derivatives market... Most of this is inter-bank, rather than going through the CBOE, LIFFE, or other official exchanges.
B
Chem Nutra might be a shady company, but Google turns up a plethora of hits for Nutra Chem.
It gives the impression that Nutra Chem is the name of two or three separate companies, but I think it's simply made to look that way.
One of them is in Shanghai.
JNC NutraChem devoted itself to developping & marketing cutting-edge nutraceutical and pharmaceutical ingredients for the years. As a R & D motivated company, we are exclusively working with clients from the United States and Europe to develop a lot of projects. Recently, we are getting more involved in the pharmaceuticals industry. Several pharmaceutical projects are under development or going to be launched soon. Because of the good reputation in the industry, we are having more and more business opportunities.
Our Team: Our partners & scientists are sophisticated with nutraceutical and pharmaceutical ingredients.
Our Mission: Supplying cutting-edge nutraceutical and pharmaceutical ingredients.
Our Motto: Innovative Technology For Better Health.
Our Commitment: Best Quality, Best Service.
Isn't there a story about Chinese espionage agents subverting a senior Californian FBI official and infiltrating the California Republican party?
There is some kind of supplement sold in the US as Nutra Chem, so, I'd like to ask, how has the supplement industry itself remained so steadfastly unregulated?
I would suggest it starts to add back to the Republican party, Chinese espionage and, probably, the Moonies.
Why on earth do I keep saying "huge"? Do other people have periods when their writing style goes down the tubes too? :)
b
Got a take on the idea of a Chinese-Repug link to the "terrorism futures" stuff, xtabar?
In terms of the way the wind's blowing on world markets, I have thought for several years that Chinese interests are likely to make a BIG move into the western 'health' sector.
As in, buying large holdings in western pharma companies, then slowly braiding together western and Chinese medical products.
I don't know about the US, but every town in the UK has at least one high-street outlet for Chinese medicine.
As well as pushing the Chinese brand, they doubtless also gather low-level intelligence on issues that are causing people to despair with existing "solutions". Which means practically everything to do with "health", given that living standards are continuing to decline for most people. Information on morale / info on business opportunities... Espionage is only about business competition...
b
For some reason I've had the same impression, that the Chinese would move into health care and biology in a huge way. I have also thought this might have a generally stabilizing effect, because what is society about, if not health care? And creating an international health care system may be the only way to integrate the world.
But, it seems to me the futures market couldn't work because to even come close it would have to have a large and representative body of input and all the input for it is likely to be self-selected and, even if it wasn't, could actually lead to self-fulfilling prophecies, as people keep looking for its predictions to come true.
If they tried to segregate the input to just some people you'd be faced with selection bias, and, perhaps, again self-fulfilling prophecies.
If you open it up to real money, the kind of people who might be putting in large sums are the kind of people who might, consciously or not, nudge something in a more profitable direction and, again, you have self-fulfilling prophecies.
That this might actually explain Dick Cheney I don't deny, but I've never read about him actually gambling.
However, I think there might be something in it that a lot of a certain kind of people would really like to funk around in. It sounds, in fact, like a very Neil Bush-like scheme to bilk conceited executives, especially Asian conceited executives.
Which brings me back to JNCPharm, apparently the company that make Nutra Chem. I haven't been able to find what the JNC stands for (though Japan Nuclear Cycle has a certain frisson), but Neil Bush was a partner in JNB Exploration, the oil company that he funneled loans to while a board member of Silverado.
I know you're saying Neil just doesn't have the wit to name a company one letter down the alphabet like that, but, there it is.
FWIW, I think LauraK is correct. Years ago I filed a DBA name in CA, and had to go through the file records to make sure the name wasn't already taken.
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