Investigations

• Hims & Hers sells knockoff GLP-1 weight loss drugs through a loophole that could end at any time. 
• Hims relies on a sole GLP-1 supplier with previously unreported ties to fraud and bankruptcy.
• An obesity doctor called GLP-1 knockoffs “the largest uncontrolled, unconsented human experiment of our lifetime.” 
• A Hunterbrook Media reporter qualified for GLP-1 knockoffs from Hims after a 4-minute survey — then got a prescription without speaking to a doctor or submitting medical records.
• Hims could suffer legal liability if GLP-1 knockoffs prove unsafe, ineffective, or violate a Big Pharma patent — according to an FDA legal expert.
• GLP-1 drugmakers are litigating against unapproved knockoffs like those sold by Hims. Experts say Hims could be subjected to a patent suit regardless of the loophole it’s using.
• Hims executives, including the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Legal Officer, have sold more than 1.7 million shares, realizing $26.4 million of net proceeds since their announcement on May 20 that Hims will sell GLP-1 knockoffs.
• Belcher, Hims’ supplier, told Hunterbrook Media it is “manufacturing the compounded GLP-1 as a drug shortage product to service a community need” and “complying with all necessary parameters as they pertain to safety.” Hims did not respond to repeated requests for comment. 

American food giant Archer-Daniels-Midland owns a major stake in two factories in Xinjiang — a Chinese region notorious for state-imposed forced labor — through 22.5% ownership of Wilmar International. Since forced labor campaigns intensified in 2017, the two facilities have quietly expanded their footprint, while other companies left Xinjiang. Gregory Morris, president of ADM’s largest division, serves on Wilmar’s board. His seat was previously held by ADM’s current CEO, including during Wilmar’s expansion of both facilities. ADM says it has “significant influence” on Wilmar. Both companies have pledged to eliminate forced labor from their supply chain. Yet, ADM has not disclosed these facilities — claiming, instead, that there is “no identifiable direct or indirect connection between ADM and the region” — even though the U.S. government determined state-led forced labor and other human rights violations in Xinjiang amounted to genocide and placed a blanket ban on U.S. import of goods from the region. A partner company of Wilmar’s in Xinjiang has denied forced labor occurs at one of the facilities. Nell Minow, co-founder of Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS), told Hunterbrook Media that Morris should step down from the board. This is the latest in a string of governance problems at ADM, which experts say risk ADM’s access to environmental, social, and governance funding and customer relationships with companies opposed to slave labor.

U.S. AGRIBUSINESS PARTNERED WITH GRAIN GIANT SUSPECTED OF STEALING UKRAINIAN RESOURCES

Locals say the miner’s copper smelter — set to be sold to the Chinese Sinomine Resource Group later this year — has brought significant environmental and health damage to the surrounding community. Their claims are bolstered by satellite imagery and company documents revealing arsenic and sulfur dioxide exposure.

UMortgage “manipulates” rate sheets in UWM’s favor, according to a former employee.

Hardly anyone is buying the company’s electric vehicles — at home or abroad — according to months-long investigation spanning satellite imagery, AIS data, trade records, financial analysis, and on-the-ground reporting.

Sable Offshore (NYSE: $SOC) is racing against the clock to relaunch an idle fossil fuel complex it bought from Exxon (NYSE: $XOM) in February. Three oil and natural gas platforms, called the Santa Ynez Unit, have not produced fossil fuels since one of the pipelines carrying its oil ruptured in 2015. It was the biggest spill in California since 1990. After seven years, Exxon gave up trying to overcome the legal hurdles required to get Santa Ynez and the pipeline back online. Now, despite facing similar obstacles, Sable is telling shareholders it can restart production before October. Since Hunterbrook Media began reporting, Sable withdrew and refiled a key plan, likely increasing the risk of delays.

While other OECD energy companies left Myanmar after the 2021 coup, Posco — one of the 250 largest companies in the world by revenue — not only stayed but invested hundreds of millions of dollars to expand the Shwe gas project, despite claiming to follow OECD and other standards on human rights. Posco says its gas serves the people of Myanmar by fueling power plants to provide electricity. But a growing amount of gas appears set to imminently flow to junta steel mills linked to arms manufacturing — while electricity shortages have worsened since the coup amid widespread shutdown of gas-fired power plants once supplied by Shwe gas. The pipeline that transports Shwe gas to its primary customer in China faces risk of damage from intensifying fighting between the junta and resistance forces in northern Myanmar. Posco also runs a luxury hotel on land leased from the regime, and the company is currently awaiting a trial in South Korea on claims it illegally sold a warship to the military.