2015 is turning out to be a bust for Daniel Lubetzky.
Lubetzky is the billionaire busybody whose OneVoice movement funded a nutty non-profit known as V15 which specifically targeted and attempted to unseat Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. That effort failed spectacularly.
And just last week Lubetzky received news that not only was his “Victory” in 2015 a loss, his “healthy” snack bars are, certifiably, not healthy.
Given he’s currently batting zero, perhaps Lubetzky should rename his holdings Z15.
V15 received a lot of attention during the Israeli campaign largely because it was a foreign-funded Obama-esque-style campaign.
The entity also appears to have violated American tax laws, which prohibit tax-exempt entities from engaging in political campaigns, either in favor of, or opposing, a particular candidate. What’s more, Lubetzky’s OneVoice, the parent entity of V15, is and always has been focused on changing Israeli law to create a Palestinian State. That activity is also barred for tax-exempt organizations by American tax law.
Some American legislators expressed a lot of interest in determining whether V15 and OneVoice violated various American tax and campaign laws. The end of the campaign season with Netanyahu’s resounding victory, however, may have led those politicians to lose interest in pursuing V15.
But just this week Lubetzky received another blow.This one revealed a serious legal problem with a different branch of the American government – the Department of Health and Human Services Federal Food and Drug Administration.
The FDA is tasked with protecting and promoting public health, by regulating food and safety products.
But on March 17, the FDA sent a warning letter to Lubetzky about his company, KIND, LLC, informing him that the labeling of several of his products violate various regulations for falsely claiming to be healthy.
Specifically, certain of Lubetzky’s KIND bars are “misbranded” as healthy and others which claim to be antioxidants fail to meet the standards to make such a claim. The FDA warning letter mentions at least four different KIND bars as being falsely labeled, and gave the company 15 days in which to respond.
In order for a food to meet the FDA standard to claim it is healthy, it can have no more than one gram of saturated fat per 40-gram serving, and no more than 15 percent of total calories from saturated fat.
But the following four KIND bars contain far in excess of the required level:
KIND Fruit & Nut Almond & Apricot (3.5 grams saturated fat)
KIND Fruit & Nut Almond & Coconut (5 grams)
KIND Plus Peanut Butter Dark Chocolate + Protein (3.5 grams)
KIND Fruit & Nut Dark Chocolate Cherry Cashew + Antioxidants (2.5 grams) Lubetzky’s KIND company claimed that it “will review all of its products to ensure that they’re compliant,” and stated it is “fully committed to working alongside the FDA, and we’re moving quickly to respond to the request.”
However, more than 30 days after the date of the FDA’s warning letter, Lubetzky’s KIND website continues to claim its products are “healthy.”
Z15 – that’s the new V15.