The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced Thursday that it has asked the Justice Department to open a criminal investigation into allegations that a leading herbal supplement seller lied about the safety of Ephedra. According to FDA Deputy Commissioner Lester Crawford, the administration has been attempting for several years to gain access to thousands of health complaints sent to Metabolife International by Ephedra users. The supplement manufacturer has reportedly denied access to the records since 1997.

In a move yesterday that Crawford called "disingenuous", however, Metabolife offered to turn over to the FDA 13,000 health complaints, dozens of which mention death or serious illness. The Justice Department investigation is centering on a report given by Metabolife President Michael Ellis to the FDA in 1998, which stated that the company had never received an adverse health event report from an Ephedra consumer.

To date, dozens of deaths and hundreds of reports of complications have been linked to Ephedra.