Metabolife International has submitted to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) an additional 1,400 customer complaints made about the company's ephedra-based dietary supplements. Last August, the FDA asked the Justice Department to open a criminal investigation into allegations that the company lied about the safety of ephedra.

Before the investigation began, however, Metabolife, in a move investigators called "disingenuous," turned over 14,700 health complaints involving its ephedra-based weight loss pills. Dozens of grievances reportedly mentioned death or serious illness. The newest reports were reportedly received during a five-month period in 2000 but were not turned over to the FDA this summer because of a computer error. The latest complaints involve two heart attacks, two strokes and 10 seizures.

Metabolife received more distressing news this week when an Alabama jury ordered the company, which is facing dozens of lawsuits over its ephedra products, to pay $4.07 million to four plaintiffs who allegedly suffered heart attacks after taking the supplement Metabolife 356.