Local Brazilian Ivan Schiffer under Investigation Following Drug Arrest

US authorities were informed by customers in the US who had bought products from the internet after seeing promotions by Schiffer on a website called   http://lmsasia.blogspot.com/. The customers ordered the products based on the false US certifications as organic products on the website, but became suspicious of the authenticity when the invoices they received for products to be shipped from Thailand were payable to a different company that the company named on Schiffer’s letterhead.

So they inquired with the United States Department of Agriculture to verify the certification and discovered Schiffer had made false claims about certification as organic and were fearful that the products from Thailand may be contaminated.

American authorities are now clamping down hard on Schiffer’s illegal operations. The Compliance & Enforcement Division of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) sent Schiffer a Cease and Desist order on January 10, 2012, accusing him of marketing conventional products as organic and displaying the USDA seal of approval on his products illegally.

Schiffer also claims his factory was inspected and approved by Thai authorities, but the USDA says they contacted the Thai inspectors and found Schiffer’s claims to be blatantly false.

These false claims, per the USDA order, carry a fine of US $11,000 per violation for each time the claim was made that the products are organic and each instance where the USDA seal appears illegally on product packaging.

The US government food safety enforcement agency letter to Schiffer goes on to say, “On June 28, 2011, we notified you [Schiffer] of the violation, and requested information regarding your certification status. You stated that your operation was inspected by both the Organic Crop Improvement Association (OCIA) and BCS OKO-Garantie.  Both OCIA and BCS have denied this.”

June, 2011, was a very bad month for Schiffer.  On June 1, 2011, at 6 p.m. the Narcotics Control Police from Bangkok, acting on an informant’s tip that Ivan Shiffer was selling drugs from AK Apartments 87/41, Moo 9 in Pattaya, searched Schiffer’s apartment and arrested him and jailed him in Bangkok jail after finding drugs in his apartment.

Schiffer signed a police confession to drug possession using an alias Ivan Pedro Julio. Immigration Police inform the Narcotics Control Police and all Thai police departments that Ivan Pedro Julio is the same person as Ivan Schiffer. They are now investigating his visa status after reports that he may have overstayed his visa by many months.

Schiffer claims to be 53-years old, but in fact he will be 64 at the end of January. The arrest for drugs is significant because Schiffer touts to potential clients that the organic, holistic lifestyle without impurities and chemicals are his way of life.

Schiffer also claims to have a Thailand FDA license for making his products. According to police investigators a local Thai business woman named Laddawan Kaensamrong says Schiffer has been illegally using her Thailand FDA license to market and sell his bogus products as organic for the last year.

She says Schiffer asked her for a copy of her FDA license because he said he wanted to buy organic products from her and show his customers her certificate.

Several Thai businesses who are clients of Ivan Schiffer received his invoices and became suspicious when the payment instructions directed payments via Siam Commercial Bank to a company other than Schiffers The Cold Oil Co., Ltd., namely Natural EFE Co., Ltd.

The Banglamung Revenue Office and the Chonburi Labor Department, as well as the Revenue office in Phuket are now also investigating invoices from “Schiffers The Cold Oil Co., Ltd.”

According to the Thailand Department of Business Development official records there is no company named Schiffers The Cold Oil Co., Ltd.

However, investigation shows that there is an active company named Natural EFE Co., Ltd, formed on June 12, 2007, with Ivan Pedro J. Schiffer listed as the Managing Director and with the registered address of 148/85 Moo 13 Nongprue, Banglamung Chonburi.

The self-described biochemist, Schiffer also claims he brings his raw products into Thailand in containers from Mongolia and China, when in fact he sources some of them in Bangkok and Pattaya.

Additional agencies in Thailand and in America are concerned about shipments of products claiming to be organic foods sold to legitimate Thai companies which may be contaminated with pesticides, says a French supplier who no longer provides product to Schiffer.

The sesame seeds, cashew nuts and other raw food products used to make the Omega 3 and Omega 6 fatty acid oils sold in bottles for human consumption may not be organic. This according to a natural foods distributor in Bangkok named Tangingwattana Co., Ltd. who says they sell Schiffer sesame seeds which are not organic.

Schiffer is alleged to buy cashew nuts from another foreigner from Holland located in south Pattaya.

Informed sources say the natural products business is conducted in a shop house behind a temple on Sukhumvit Soi 75.

Schiffer is working illegally in Thailand. Schiffer, a Brazilian, entered the Kingdom of Thailand using a visa on arrival (VOA) and does not hold a valid one-year Business Visa as required. Also, Schiffer has not been granted a Work Permit required when selling products and sending company invoices. The Department of Labor and the Thailand Immigration Bureau are investigating his illegal work activities.

Schiffer has been in Thailand for nearly ten years with no legitimate source of income which further called attention to his ability to survive here by the Narcotics Control Police who suspect him of drug dealing and arrested him with drugs in his possession.