2026-09-04T15:44:00-0400 / 哥伦比亚广播公司新闻（CBS News）
一家今年5月成立的佛罗里达州公司获得了一项罕见且可能获利丰厚的独家协议，成为唯一获准在美国监狱管理局所辖118所监狱的小卖部销售调味尼古丁袋的企业。
根据美国食品药品监督管理局（FDA）数据的审查结果，这款面向联邦囚犯销售的6毫克装“mindSHFT”品牌烟袋，未获得FDA授权在美国市场推广销售，且并未在商业渠道发售。
在哥伦比亚广播公司新闻开始调查这笔尼古丁袋交易，且一名匿名联邦雇员本周向司法部监察长和司法部长托德·布兰奇发送邮件表达担忧后，一名高级监狱官员于周四暂停了这项安排。据哥伦比亚广播公司新闻获得的9月3日内部备忘录显示，该官员下令所有监狱立即停止采购此类产品，等待进一步通知。
“这一情况值得立即关注，”这名匿名雇员在写给布兰奇和司法部监察长唐·贝蒂亚姆的举报人投诉中写道。
“监狱管理局负责被羁押人员的健康与安全。如果采购并在整个联邦系统内分发的是未经适当授权或受污染的产品，后果可能极其严重，”举报人在投诉副本中警告称，该副本已由哥伦比亚广播公司新闻审核。
“监狱管理局开始通过监狱小卖部销售尼古丁袋，旨在打击联邦监狱内犯罪组织贩运违禁烟草和尼古丁产品的行为，”监狱管理局发言人表示。
“在审查期间，监狱管理局已暂停所有额外采购此类产品，”该发言人补充道。
一名了解采购情况的消息人士告诉哥伦比亚广播公司新闻，暂停采购和销售产品的决定是在监狱管理局本周与FDA磋商后作出的，现有库存的法律审查仍在进行中。该人士补充称，尚未有任何可能使用过该产品的人报告出现疾病或不良反应。
向监狱供应尼古丁袋的SHFT企业控股有限责任公司于5月15日，即监狱管理局发布全国性“信息征集函”，征求能够生产“FDA授权尼古丁袋产品”向联邦囚犯销售的供应商后的一周，在佛罗里达州注册成立。
该公司的域名shftholdings.com注册于5月7日。一份由监狱管理局局长威廉·马歇尔批准的、同样日期为5月7日的监狱管理局信托基金手册显示，其中已修订条款允许在小卖部销售尼古丁袋。
“卖得异常火爆”
监狱管理局从未正式发布过尼古丁袋供应商招标请求——任何招标请求本应在网上公开。一名熟悉该安排的人士透露，监狱管理局与该公司并未签署正式合同。
但据哥伦比亚广播公司新闻获得的备忘录副本显示，该机构信托基金主管亚当·莫罗于7月21日在一份备忘录中通知所有联邦监狱，尼古丁袋销售“已获授权”，唯一获批供应商为SHFT企业控股有限责任公司。
一周后的7月29日，监狱管理局官员宣布花旗银行已能够“全面处理”机构订单，并建议每所监狱考虑订购“每名囚犯三罐”，以确保产品供应充足，另一份内部备忘录显示。
目前联邦羁押在押人员总数略高于15.3万人。
据哥伦比亚广播公司新闻查看的内部定价记录，SHFT企业控股向监狱管理局收取每罐6.99美元，或5包25罐总价174.75美元。囚犯购买单价为9.10美元，一名直接知情人士透露，在已开售的监狱中，产品“卖得异常火爆”。
联邦法律禁止销售和推广未获FDA授权的尼古丁及烟草相关产品。
一名了解此事的人士称，在有关该公司尼古丁袋产品的资质问题引发质疑后，监狱管理局在与FDA磋商后暂停了所有采购和销售。该人士补充称，监狱管理局表示该公司曾告知该局，其产品销售合法且已获得FDA批准。
法律专家告诉哥伦比亚广播公司新闻，根据法律，任何未经FDA授权销售的产品都被视为“掺杂伪劣”。
“FDA尚未认定该产品适合保护公众健康，而这是产品获准销售的必要前提，”齐克曼·斯皮德律师事务所合伙人、前司法部律师安德鲁·戈德法布说道，他专长FDA相关法律事务。
“我们根本无从知晓FDA，更不用说产品使用者，里面含有什么成分、原料来源何处，或是生产设施的卫生条件，”他补充道。
尼古丁袋是美国烟草市场增长最快的品类。部分品牌含有非烟草来源的合成尼古丁，其余则为烟草衍生产品，它们能提供能量冲击，使用者称会带来轻微兴奋感。
SHFT企业控股的官网将该烟袋描述为比香烟更健康的替代品。官网称其实现了“从有害到健康”的转变，用“清洁递送方式”替代“致癌物、焦油和烟雾”，声称比烟草产品“危害低95%”。其官网或包装上均未提及已获得FDA授权。
哥伦比亚广播公司新闻无法确定监狱管理局选择SHFT企业控股提供该产品的原因。
一名熟悉采购流程的消息人士告诉哥伦比亚广播公司新闻，选择该公司的过程历时数月，参与遴选的监狱管理局官员均与该公司无关联，也未在其运营中持有利益。
截至周五，仅有两家公司获得FDA授权销售尼古丁袋：一家是菲利普·莫里斯国际公司的子公司，另一家是奥驰亚集团的子公司。
FDA于5月发布备忘录称，将对尼古丁袋生产商行使执法自由裁量权，前提是该公司已提交已被接受且处于审核中的申请。
哥伦比亚广播公司新闻无法立即确认SHFT企业控股是否已向FDA提交申请，因为该机构不会评论申请的状态。FDA发言人表示，该机构尚未向mindSHFT尼古丁袋签发授权。
专攻FDA法律的律师表示，这类申请极为复杂，一家刚成立的小公司要完成相关文书工作将面临巨大挑战。
“提交这类申请绝非易事，”前FDA最高执法官员霍华德·斯克拉姆伯格说道，他如今是阿诺德·波特律师事务所合伙人。“你需要在咨询顾问上投入大量资金，还必须具备大量科学依据，这绝不是走个流程就能完成的。”
复杂的商业关联
除佛罗里达州的注册记录、6月4日的商标申请、简陋的官网以及在总务管理局运营的政府 contracting 网站SAM.gov上的注册信息外，网络上关于SHFT企业控股的公开信息寥寥无几。
但这些文件及哥伦比亚广播公司新闻审核的监狱管理局内部销售记录提供了一些线索。
注册信息及监狱管理局销售记录上的主要联系人是凯文·马斯特勒，据佛罗里达州商业记录显示，他最晚在6月仍担任健身补充剂公司Redcon1的幕僚长。
哥伦比亚广播公司新闻记者致电马斯特勒时，他表示自己并不清楚尼古丁袋采购已被叫停。他拒绝回答该公司是如何开始向监狱管理局销售尼古丁袋的问题，并表示想先咨询律师再进一步回应媒体。
该公司在SAM政府 contracting 注册信息上列出的第二位联系人是瑞安·莫纳汉，他曾是Redcon1的首席营销官。莫纳汉未回复置评电话。
Redcon1此前由亚伦·辛格曼领导，他是一名商人、健美运动员，也是特朗普总统的直言不讳的支持者，因销售非法合成代谢类固醇及其他标榜为膳食补充剂的非FDA批准产品被判有罪，入狱约10个月。
在辛格曼的Instagram主页上，可以看到他在2024年总统大选获胜当晚，与特朗普、小唐纳德·特朗普等人在特朗普的海湖庄园俱乐部合影。根据哥伦比亚广播公司新闻查看的会员文件，辛格曼自2021年起成为海湖庄园会员，经常出席该俱乐部的活动。
最新的佛罗里达州公司记录和社交媒体帖子显示，辛格曼和马斯特勒仍保持着其他商业往来，使用与SHFT企业控股相同的邮寄地址和律师事务所。现有公开或内部监狱管理局销售记录均未将辛格曼与SHFT企业控股联系起来。
辛格曼未回复置评电话和邮件，无法确认他是否参与SHFT企业控股的运营。
哥伦比亚广播公司新闻多次尝试联系辛格曼均未成功。后续联系马斯特勒的努力也宣告失败。
惩教人员的担忧
向联邦在押人员销售尼古丁袋的决定让现任和前任资深惩教官员感到困惑，他们告诉哥伦比亚广播公司新闻，存在诸多健康和安全方面的担忧。
哥伦比亚广播公司新闻无法确切查明自7月以来各监狱已采购了多少尼古丁袋，但东北部和东南部部分监狱的销售记录显示，采购订单既有3000美元的小额订单，也有8000美元至2.8万多美元的大额订单。
2014年，监狱管理局的一项规定已禁止在联邦监狱小卖部销售吸烟及烟草相关产品。但该规定并未涉及尼古丁袋——这类产品在2014年尚未作为商业产品面世，且不一定含有烟草衍生成分。
一名已在监狱管理局工作18年的惩教官员表示，自进入联邦系统工作以来，他从未见过售卖尼古丁或尼古丁产品给囚犯的指令。
“他们居然在向囚犯销售尼古丁袋，这太离谱了，”这名惩教官员告诉哥伦比亚广播公司新闻，他指出销售尼古丁可能给工作人员带来安全隐患，并提到惩教人员在监狱场地内禁止吸烟。
囚犯使用信托基金账户购买小卖部商品，如通话费、邮件服务费、食品和饮料等，这类账户通常由家属充值。销售所得汇入监狱系统的信托基金，这是一个无需联邦拨款的循环账户。
在5月14日给工作人员的备忘录中，马歇尔表示该局正在征集各类服务的市场数据，即信息征集函，包括食品、小卖部和医疗服务等，以帮助解决信托基金面临的财务困境。他的备忘录未明确提及尼古丁袋。
“信托基金每年亏损2300万美元，”他写道。一名知情人士告诉哥伦比亚广播公司新闻，如今信托基金已重新实现盈利——且并未依靠尼古丁产品销售。
卡莉·泰特尔鲍姆为本报道贡献了内容。
Bureau of Prisons faces scrutiny over startup’s exclusive deal to sell non-FDA-authorized nicotine pouches to prisoners
2026-09-04T15:44:00-0400 / CBS News
A Florida company that was established in May won an unusual and potentially lucrative deal to be the only business permitted to stock the commissaries of the Bureau of Prisons’ 118 institutions with flavored nicotine pouches.
Undated photo of mindSHFT nicotine pouches Sarah N. Lynch / CBS News
The brand of 6-mg pouches being sold to federal prisoners, called “mindSHFT,” is not authorized by the Food and Drug Administration to be marketed and sold in the U.S., according to a review of FDA data. It is also not sold commercially.
After CBS News began investigating the nicotine pouch deal and an anonymous federal employee this week emailed the Justice Department’s inspector general and Attorney General Todd Blanche to raise concerns, a senior prison official on Thursday paused the arrangement. The official ordered all prisons to cease procuring them until further notice, according to a Sept. 3 internal memo reviewed by CBS News.
“This situation deserves immediate attention,” the anonymous employee wrote in a whistleblower complaint to Blanche and DOJ Inspector General Don Berthiaume.
“The Bureau of Prisons is responsible for the health and safety of individuals in its custody. If an improperly authorized or contaminated product is being purchased and distributed throughout the federal system, the consequences could be extremely serious,” the whistleblower warned, according to a copy of the complaint reviewed by CBS News.
“BOP began offering nicotine pouches through institution commissaries to combat the trafficking of contraband tobacco and nicotine products by criminal organizations inside federal prisons,” a BOP spokesperson said.
“BOP has suspended all additional purchasing of these products until further notice while under review,” the spokesperson added.
The decision to suspend purchasing and selling the products came about after BOP consulted with the FDA this week, and a legal review of existing inventory was still ongoing, a source with knowledge of the procurement told CBS News. The person added that no illnesses or adverse effects have been reported by anyone who may have used the products.
The company supplying the prisons with nicotine pouches, SHFT Enterprise Holdings LLC, was incorporated in Florida one week after the BOP published a nationwide “request for information” on May 15 that asked about vendors who could produce “FDA-authorized nicotine pouch products” to sell to federal prisoners.
The company’s domain name — shftholdings.com — was created on May 7. A copy of the BOP’s trust fund manual approved by Bureau of Prisons Director William Marshall, also dated May 7, shows that amendments were made to permit the sale of nicotine pouches in commissaries.
“Selling like hotcakes”
The BOP never formally issued a request for proposals for bids on a provider for nicotine pouches — any RFP would be publicly available online. The BOP does not have a signed contract with the company, according to a person familiar with the arrangement.
But its trust fund chief, Adam Morrow, on July 21 informed all federal prisons in a memo that the sale of nicotine pouches “has been authorized,” and the sole approved vendor would be SHFT Enterprise Holdings LLC, according to a copy reviewed by CBS News.
A week later, on July 29, BOP officials announced that Citibank was able to “fully process” institutional orders, and they recommended that each prison consider ordering “three tins per inmate” to ensure product availability, according to an internal memo reviewed by CBS News.
There are currently just over 153,000 inmates in federal custody.
SHFT Enterprise Holdings charged BOP $6.99 per tin, or $174.75 for five packs of 25 tins, according to internal pricing records seen by CBS News. Inmates are charged $9.10 each, and in prisons where they have been available, they have been “selling like hotcakes,” one source with direct knowledge said.
Federal law prohibits the sale and marketing of nicotine and tobacco-related products that are not authorized by the FDA.
After questions arose about the company’s claims about its nicotine pouches, BOP halted all purchasing and sales of the products after consulting with the FDA, a person close to the matter said. The BOP said the company told the bureau it was selling the products legally and had obtained FDA approval, the person added.
By law, anything that is sold without FDA authorization is deemed “adulterated,” legal experts told CBS News.
“There has been no determination by FDA that this product is appropriate for the protection of the public health, which is required before the product can be sold,” said Andrew Goldfarb, a partner at Zuckerman Spaeder and former Justice Department attorney who specializes in FDA laws.
“There is no basis to think that FDA, let alone anyone who might use the product, knows what is in it, where any of the ingredients are sourced from, or the conditions in the facility where it was made,” he added.
Nicotine pouches are the fastest-growing segment of the U.S. tobacco market. Some of the brands contain synthetic nicotine that is not derived from tobacco, while others are tobacco-derived, and they deliver a jolt of energy that users describe as a mild buzz.
The website for SHFT Enterprise Holdings describes the pouches as being a healthier alternative to cigarettes. “From toxic” to “healthy,” it says. “Replacing carcinogens, tar, and smoke” with a “clean delivery format” that causes “95% less harm” than tobacco. Nothing on its website or on its packaging references receiving FDA authorization.
CBS News could not determine why the Bureau of Prisons selected SHFT Enterprise Holdings to provide the product.
The process to select the company occurred over many months, and no BOP officials involved in the selection have relations to this company or interest in its operations, a source familiar with the procurement process told CBS News.
As of Friday, there were only two companies authorized by the FDA to sell nicotine pouches: One is a subsidiary of Philip Morris International, and the other is an Altria Group subsidiary.
The FDA in May issued a memo saying it would exercise enforcement discretion on nicotine pouch makers, as long as the company has submitted an accepted and pending application.
CBS News could not immediately determine whether SHFT Enterprise Holdings had filed an application with the FDA because the agency does not comment on the status of applications. An FDA spokesperson said that the agency has not issued an authorization to mindSHFT nicotine pouches.
Lawyers who specialize in FDA law said that these types of applications are very complex, and a small company that had just incorporated would face steep challenges in completing the paperwork.
“It is a very big deal to file one of these applications,” said Howard Sklamberg, the former top enforcement official at the FDA who is now a partner with Arnold & Porter. “You spend a lot of money on consultants. You have to have a lot of science. It’s not a box-checking exercise.”
Complex business connections
Limited information on SHFT Enterprise Holdings exists online, apart from its Florida incorporation records, a June 4 trademark application, a bare-bones website and its registration on SAM.gov, the government contracting website operated by the General Services Administration.
But those documents and internal BOP sales records reviewed by CBS News offer a few clues.
The main point of contact on registration and BOP sales records is Kevin Mastaler, who as recently as June was the chief of staff at the fitness supplement company Redcon1, according to Florida business records.
When reached by telephone by a CBS News reporter, Mastaler said he wasn’t aware that procurements of the nicotine pouches were being stopped. He declined to answer questions about how the company started selling nicotine pouches to the Bureau of Prisons and said he wanted to speak to his lawyer before speaking further to the press.
A second point of contact for the company listed on its SAM government contracting registration is Ryan Monahan, Redcon1’s former chief marketing officer. Monahan did not return a phone call seeking comment.
Redcon1 was previously led by Aaron Singerman, a businessman, bodybuilder and vocal supporter of President Trump who served about 10 months in federal prison after he was convicted of selling unlawful anabolic steroids and other non-FDA-approved products marketed as dietary supplements.
On his Instagram page, Singerman can be seen posing with Mr. Trump, Donald Trump Jr., and others at the president’s Mar-a-Lago club on the night Mr. Trump won the 2024 presidential election. Singerman, a member of Mar-a-Lago since 2021, according to membership documents viewed by CBS News, often attended events at the club.
Recent Florida corporation records and social media posts show that Singerman and Mastaler continue to maintain other business ties that use the same mailing address and law firm used by SHFT Enterprise Holdings. None of the available public or internal BOP sales records connect Singerman to SHFT Enterprise Holdings.
Singerman did not respond to calls or emails seeking comment about whether he is involved with SHFT Enterprise Holdings.
CBS News was unsuccessful in repeated efforts to contact Singerman. Additional attempts to reach Mastaler were unsuccessful.
Concern among correctional staff
The decision to start selling nicotine pouches to federal inmates has flummoxed longtime current and former correction officials, who told CBS News they had numerous health and safety concerns.
CBS News could not determine precisely how many nicotine pouches have been purchased by prisons since July, though sales records from some prisons in the Northeast and Southeast regions show purchases have been made for both smaller orders of $3,000, as well as larger orders ranging from $8,000 to more than $28,000.
The sale of smoking and tobacco-related products in federal prison commissaries has been prohibited since 2014 by a BOP rule. But this regulation does not address the use of nicotine pouches, which did not exist as a commercially available product in 2014 and do not necessarily contain tobacco-derived products.
A corrections official who has worked for the Bureau of Prisons for 18 years said he hasn’t seen a directive to sell nicotine or nicotine products to inmates since he started working within the federal system.
“This is crazy that they are selling nicotine pouches to inmates,” the corrections official told CBS News, citing the sale of nicotine as a possible security issue for staff and noting that correction officers are prohibited from smoking on prison grounds.
Prisoners use trust fund accounts, which are often replenished by their family members, to purchase items for sale in commissaries such as phone calls, emails, food and beverages. Proceeds from those sales go into the prison system’s trust fund, a revolving account that is not federally funded.
In a memo to staff on May 14, Marshall said the bureau was seeking market data, known as requests for information, on a variety of services, including food, commissary and medical services, to help address financial challenges facing the trust fund. His memo did not explicitly mention nicotine pouches.
“The Trust Fund is operating at an annual loss of $23 million,” he wrote. A person familiar with the matter told CBS News that the trust fund is now profitable again — without the nicotine sales.
Callie Teitelbaum contributed to this report.
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