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Jonathan Nyce, a 73-year-old Collegeville resident who spent five years in prison for his wife's 2004 Hopewell Township murder is convicted of wire fraud and other counts related to his phony veterinary business, said US Attorney Jacqueline C. Romero in a statement Friday, Dec. 23.
According to evidence reviewed in court, created a series of companies under the names "Canine Care," "ACGT," and "CAGT" and claimed to sell cancer-curing drugs for dogs.
The "drugs," which Nyce was selling under legitimate-sounding names like "Tumexal” and “Naturasone," were "nothing more" than "bulk ingredients" that he purchased and blended together at a makeshift "lab" on Arcola Road, prosecutors argued.
Through email threads and phone calls, authorities said Nyce convinced up to 900 victims to fork over as much as $1 million by touting the effectiveness of his fake cures. For even more money, prospective "customers" could have their sick dogs take part in a bogus "clinical trial," attorneys said.
The blatant fraud extended even to the drug's packaging, which claimed that the research that created the drugs was "funded in part by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration."
The FDA had not even approved the drugs for sale, officials noted.
“When beloved pets become sick, caring owners look for treatments that can offer hope to keep their pet alive and comfortable,” said Romero. “Jonathan Nyce took advantage of that bond between pet and owner by defrauding customers and giving them false hope that they might be able to save their dying pet."
Nyce's first trial for his wife Michelle's murder garnered national media attention in 2005, the Trentonian writes.
In 2012, the same year he was getting his fake dog cancer treatment business off the ground, Nyce published a book called "Under Color Of Law: The Deliberate Conviction of an Innocent Man and the Destruction of a Family."
It's not clear when the 73-year-old is due back in court for sentencing.
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