A conservative apparel company and its owner, who make shirts that read "#FJB" and "Let's Go Brandon" among others, was fined by the Federal Trade Commission for $211,335 for falsely claiming that its imported apparel is "Made in USA", according to a news release.

The FTC announced the complaint in May that Lions Not Sheep and its owner Sean Whalen added fake Made in USA labels to its clothing and accessories that were actually imported from China and other countries.

According to the complaint, the Utah-based apparel company "removed tags disclosing that the merchandise was made in a foreign country and printed 'Made in USA' at the neck of the shirts" from May 10, 2021 to Oct. 21, 2021.

The FTC went on to point towards a video that Whalen posted on social media in October 2020, appearing to admit that the shirts his company was selling were made in China and the original tags were ripped out.

"The complaint alleges that on Oct. 8, 2020, Whalen published a video of himself to his social media accounts, with the title MADE IN AMERICA! alongside a Chinese flag," according to the FTC. "In the video, Whalen said he could conceal the fact that his shirts are made in China by ripping out the origin tags and replacing them with tags stating that the merchandise was made in the United States."

Whalen posted to Instagram in May in response to the FTC's complaint, and expressed his pride in the company that he's built.

I’m proud to have built a company from a single tee shirt on blood sweat and tears and who employs dozens of hard working Americans," Lions Not Sheep said. "Lots of folks who haven’t done much always have plenty to say, but we at LNS are head down working hard to continue to grow and support our first responders, military, and all patriots across the globe and build a bad ass company."

The FTC said in a press release that it orders Whalen and the company to "stop making bogus Made in USA claims, and come clean about foreign production."

"Under the order, Whalen and Lions Not Sheep must stop claiming that products are made in the United States unless they can show that the product’s final assembly or processing—and all significant processing—takes place here and that all or virtually all ingredients or components of the product are made and sourced here," the FTC said.

Whalen posted another statement to Instagram in a video on Tuesday morning, explaining the situation with the FTC to his 160,000 followers. In the video, Whalen addressed the "onslaught of absolutely ridiculous barrage of media attacks against me and Lions Not Sheep, and a lot of misinformation here in the last couple of days."

He went on to say that his company would purchase "blanks" or plain t-shirts meant for printing, and they "never sold a shirt from China." Whalen explained the process of "white-labeling blanks" and how Lions Not Sheep at first sold shirts without removing the blank labels because it cost more money to remove them. Since then, the company put its own labels in the shirts and Whalen spoke about the process of labeling products as Made in USA.

According to Whalen, the FTC changed their rules for labeling products Made in USA in August of 2021 and therefore, there was a six week period the company was not compliant with the rules. "I own that 150%," Whalen said. He added that he wanted to fight the FTC fine, but it would have taken five years to fight the case and risked being issued a cease and desist.

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