> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.fdaweb.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# ‘QLaser’ Device Guilty Pleas
- URL: https://www.fdaweb.com/qlaser-device-guilty-pleas/
- Published: 2018-01-31T12:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-14T23:18:36.000Z
- Author: David McFarland
- Tags: Devices, #legacy-id-D5140647

The Justice Department (DoJ) says the South Dakota federal court accepted 1/31 a guilty plea entered by **Robert Lytle** to one count of conspiracy to introduce misbranded medical devices into interstate commerce with the intent to defraud and mislead, and one count of criminal contempt. The pleas came in connection with a scheme to defraud consumers by selling light-emitting devices known as the QLaser System as a treatment for more than 200 different diseases and disorders, the department says. It says that both the criminal charges and Lytle’s guilty plea were pursuant to a plea agreement. Two co-conspirators previously pleaded guilty for their roles in the fraud and charges against a fourth individual were dismissed.

The department says the conspirators falsely claimed that the devices could safely and effectively treat many conditions at home including cancer, emphysema, diabetes, autism, HIV, and heart disease. Lytle reportedly created misleading product labeling designed to create the false impression that scientific evidence supported claims about use of the QLaser devices to treat the listed or other serious conditions, but FDA never approved the devices for such uses.

According to the DoJ, Lytle and the others continued with their fraud even after a federal court ordered them to stop selling and refund all QLaser purchasers in a series of 2015 injunctions. In violation of the injunctions, it says, Lytle made false statements to the court and FDA investigators, sent dunning letters to QLaser purchasers rather than pay them court-ordered restitution, smuggled hundreds of devices out of South Dakota to upstate New York to prevent their seizure, and received a steady stream of income from continued QLaser sales.