'Diet Queen to the Stars' fined for drug tied to NFL suspensions

By Nate Raymond NEW YORK (Reuters) - A socialite who billed herself as "Diet Queen to the Stars" was fined $60,000 on Friday by a U.S. magistrate judge for drug misbranding of a weight-loss supplement that was linked to suspensions of several NFL players in 2008. Nikki Haskell and her defunct company, Balanced Health Products Inc, were sentenced by a federal magistrate judge in Manhattan after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor charge related to the sale of a pill called StarCaps. Billing herself the "Diet Queen to the Stars," she was the chief executive of Balanced Health, which marketed StarCaps as an "all natural diet supplement" containing papaya and garlic. Bumetanide is also banned by several sports organizations including the National Football League as a potential steroid-masking agent.

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