Another Small Business Destroyed by Unfair Government Competition

November 28, 2015

TO:  Senator Chuck Grassley, Chairman, Senate Committee on the Judiciary

Representative Bob Goodlatte, Chairman, House Committee on the Judiciary

SUBJECT:  Another Small Business Destroyed by Unfair Government Competition

Gentlemen:

We are writing to let both of you know that we are officially closing our small business, FoodQuestTQ LLC, after a three year battle with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and their contracted agent Battelle Memorial Institute to force us out of business.

Late in December 2012, we learned that the FDA with the assistance of their contractor Battelle Memorial Institute, misappropriated our intellectual property and reverse engineered our products.   The FDA subsequently claimed copyright ownership of our products and began giving them away to industry free of charge.

Our three year battle to survive was characterized by the failures of the FDA Inspector General to investigate our reports of fraud, waste and abuse; obstruction of justice by Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and FDA attorneys; the failure of the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation to investigate the serious crimes we reported to them; the FDA destruction of hundreds of e-mails requested under the Freedom of Information act proving the FDA’s actions to “blacklist” our company to force us out of business, and; the list goes on and on.

The evidence of U.S. Government wrongdoing was absolutely overwhelming in our case. But when we turned to our elected representatives for help to deal with a totally dysfunctional system we were simply told, “We do not get involved with legal matters.”  By this time, we were destitute and could not afford the legal help we needed to fight the behemoth that is the U.S. Government.

The actions of our own government to destroy us and the lives of other small business entrepreneurs in this way should be very disturbing to every American.  What our story shows is that our entire system of justice is not working.

Although it is too late for us, we implore you to look around you at the fate of other small businesses that are being destroyed with impunity by their own government.

Sincerely yours,

John's Signature

John H. Hnatio

Former small business owner

 

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