UPDATED 5:52 P.M. EDT (JULY 31, U.S.A.) Gary Calhoun, the operator of the MPB Today MLM program who was charged in December with racketeering under Florida state law, is listed as a prisoner at the Escambia County Jail.
Today was Calhoun’s sentencing date. The length of his sentence was not immediately clear. [July 31 UPDATE: Court docket updated July 31 to reflect three-year sentence in state prison, followed by 10 years’ probation. This note appears on the docket:
“DURING PROBATION THE DEFT. MUST OBTAIN PRIOR APPROVAL FROM HIS PROBATION OFFICER BEFORE ACCEPTING ANY EMPLOYMENT OR STARTING, PURCHASING OR IN ANY OTHER MANNER ASSOCIATING WITH A BUSINESS. THE PURPOSE OF THIS REQUIREMENT IS TO ENSURE THAT DEFT. DOES NOT IN ANY WAY ASSOCIATE HIMSELF WITH A MULTI-LEVEL MARKETING BUSINESS THAT COULD BE CONVERTED INTO A PYRAMID SCHEME OR OTHER ENTITY USED FOR ILLEGITIMATE PURPOSES.”]
Calhoun is 57.
One year ago tomorrow, federal prosecutors in the Northern District of Florida filed a forfeiture complaint against certain property linked to MPB Today and a companion grocery-delivery business known as Southeastern Delivery in Pensacola. The complaint, according to records, was brought to enforce laws against access-device fraud and fraud in connection with identification documents.
MPB Today had a presence on the Ponzi boards and was one of the stranger MLMs in recent years, with promoters claiming a one-time purchase of $200 could result in free groceries and gasoline for life. Some promoters claimed the “program” was backed by the U.S. government. Others claimed MPB Today was backed by Walmart. At least one promoter bizarrely tried to sell the “program” by positioning President Obama and then-Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, a former member of Walmart’s board of directors, as Nazis.
Despite claims that MPB Today was partnered with Walmart, another promotion read as such: If you “hate Walmart and have written a 603 page manifesto on how Walmart is trying to take over the world and steal your soul,” you should “stop making that pipe bomb and read how you can avoid Walmart and still make bank” with MPB Today, according to the pitch.
Some MPB Today affiliates licensed themselves to videotape commercials for MPB Today inside Walmart stores.
In April, a Florida judge ordered Calhoun “TO HAVE NO CONTACT OR RECEIVE ANY INCOME FROM ANY MLM,” according to the docket of the case.
In 2006, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Calhoun was associated with an entity known as Trim International (MyTrim.com) and illegally marketing a product known as “TCR Cell Rejuvenator.” The agency said the product was unlawfully positioned as a treatment for “Neurodegenerative diseases: Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, axonal and other neuropathies, Down’s and other syndromes.”
TCR Cell Rejuvenator also was positioned as a treatment for “recurrent Herpes, common cold and flu,” amid MyTrim claims it could be used “to treat patients with Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, cancer and other infectious diseases and neurological disorders,” according to the FDA.
Meta tags on the site also referenced “prostate cancer,” the FDA said.
