“Past experience tells us that periods of uncertainty or fear are prime time for con artist looking to make a quick score,” said William Beatty, NASAA president and Washington Securities director. “Investors should approach with caution any unsolicited Ebola-related investment opportunities, especially those received through the Internet.”
NASAA’s membership consists of the securities administrators of all 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and the provinces and territories of Canada and Mexico. Working across borders, the association’s membership was instrumental in warning the public last year about the Profitable Sunrise scheme that targeted Christian investors.
Individual NASAA members routinely file actions against scams of all stripes and publish warnings about them.
On the Ebola front, NASAA said “an analysis of Internet domain names by state and Canadian securities regulators found nearly 1,200 domains with ‘Ebola’ in their name have been registered with top-level domains, such as .com, .net, .org since April 2014.
“About 1,000 of those registration have occurred since July, as awareness of the crisis spread,” NASAA continued. Of these sites, 184 were identified by NASAA’s Internet Fraud Investigations project group as suspicious.”
Jake van der Laan, the director of enforcement for the New Brunswick Financial and Consumer Services Commission, is chair of NASAA’s Internet Fraud Investigations project group.
“Our system identified a number of sites that may be suspect,” van der Laan said. “Although we have not investigated any of these sites, a review of domain names indicates that there certainly appear to be those intent on raising Ebola-related funds or otherwise trying to leverage the crisis for financial gain.”
BehindMLM.com reported on Sept. 25 that at least two MLM or direct-sales firms or affiliates had caught the attention of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for Ebola-related treatment claims.
For its part, NASAA said it is concerned that securities scams will follow the public’s general concerns about Ebola.
“Pie in the sky promises of quick wealth generally are red flags signaling fraud ahead,” Beatty said.
Gary Calhoun’s July 30, 2013, booking photo: Source: Escambia County Sheriff’s Office.
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.
Two weeks after an employee of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration was accused of stealing confidential information from a government database to profit from illicit stock trades, another government employee accused in a separate case of taking advantage of his position to commit a crime has pleaded guilty.
Harold Hughes, 58, of Arlington, Va., was a supply clerk for the Federal Trade Commission. In April 2009, just two months after he began his stint as an FTC clerk, Hughes “began using FTC money to make unauthorized purchases,” federal prosecutors said.
By the time the scheme was discovered, Hughes had used FTC money to acquire computers, TVs and DVD players illicitly, eventually draining $218,636 from the agency’s coffers, prosecutors said.
Part of his gambit, prosecutors said, was to order the items and then sell them for cash at a discount.
Some of the items were delivered to FTC headquarters, and Hughes “used his proximity to the mailroom and his familiarity with its employees to avoid detection,” prosecutors said.
In some cases, he removed the illicitly purchased items from the FTC building and shipped “other items via Federal Express using FTC funds,” prosecutors said.
“As the scheme continued, Hughes arranged for items to be shipped directly to his residence in Virginia and to the residences of people to whom he had arranged to sell the items,” prosecutors said.
Prosecutors did not say who his customers were.
The FTC discovered the thefts in December 2010, about 22 months after Hughes became an agency shipping clerk, prosecutors said. Hughes was “removed” from his job, and an investigation was launched.
“Before the FTC discovered the theft and removed Hughes from his position as supply
clerk in December 2010, Hughes made unauthorized purchases from vendors totaling $217,372.11, and he accrued $1,264.10 in unauthorized shipping charges, causing a total loss to the FTC of $218,636.21,” prosecutors said.
Hughes faces a maximum prison term of 10 years. He has agreed to make restitution and to an order of forfeiture, prosecutors said. He is scheduled to be sentenced July 13.
On March 29, federal agents arrested Cheng Yi Liang, 56, of Gaithersburg, Md. Liang worked at the FDA as a chemist, and prosecutors said he mined information from the agency to make illicit stock trades and rack up $3.6 million in illegal profits and avoided losses.
Liang, 56, also was sued by the SEC.
Officials have cautioned the public against painting with too wide a brush when a government employee gets in trouble.
Multiple agencies became part of the probes into both the conduct of Liang and Hughes, according to records.
A chemist who works for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has been charged criminally by federal prosecutors, arrested by federal agents in Maryland, sued by the SEC — and will go to bed tonight knowing his son has been arrested in the same case.
Cheng Yi Liang, 56, of Gaithersburg, was accused of abusing his position of trust at the FDA by mining the agency’s database for information on drug approvals or denials — and then trading on the information he gleaned to “generate more than $3.6 million in illicit profits and avoided losses,” the SEC said.
Liang’s son, Andrew Liang, 25, also of Gaithersburg, was arrested, too.
And high-ranking public officials minced no words when announcing the charges against the men, which included a stunning allegation that the senior Liang sought to conceal the scheme in part by trading in the account of his elderly mother in China.
“Cheng Yi Liang was entrusted with privileged information to perform his job of ensuring the health and safety of his fellow citizens,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney General Lanny Breuer. “According to the [criminal] complaint, he and his son repeatedly violated that trust to line their own pockets.”
Breuer is the head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.
“Liang victimized both the investors who were disadvantaged by his theft of inside information and the American citizens whose trust he violated by placing private gain above public good,” said Robert Khuzami.
Khuzami is director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement.
Another high-ranking official summarized today’s events by saying Liang’s actions made government workers look bad.
“Profiting based on sensitive, insider information — as Liang is charged with today — is not only illegal, but taints the image of thousands of hard-working government employees,” sighed Elton Malone, special agent in charge of the office of special investigations for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Inspector General.
Liang, an FDA employee since 1996, began snatching information as early as July 2006, the SEC charged.
He “illegally traded in advance of at least 27 public announcements about FDA drug approval decisions involving 19 publicly traded companies,” the agency charged.
In a bid to cover his tracks, Liang “traded in seven brokerage accounts, none of which were in his name. One belonged to his 84-year-old mother who lives in China,” the SEC charged.
“The insider trading laws apply to employees of the federal government just as they do to Wall Street traders, corporate insiders, or hedge fund executives,” said Daniel M. Hawke, chief of the SEC’s Market Abuse Unit.
Father and son were charged with conspiracy to commit securities fraud and wire fraud, securities fraud and wire fraud. Federal prosecutors said investigators caught Liang after special software was installed on the work computer he was using.
Fraudsters are following the headlines about radiation fears in Japan and designing sales pitches to scare U.S. consumers into buying potassium-iodide treatments, the FTC warned today.
Last week, the agency warned against charity scams that may emerge to mine illicit profits from the devastating earthquake and tsunami.
“Potassium iodide, or KI, can help prevent thyroid cancer, which is one of the biggest risks from contamination with radioactive iodine,” the FTC said. “However, public health experts agree that U.S. residents should not buy or take potassium iodide unless specifically notified or instructed by public health officials.”
And, the FTC added, “If you decide to buy potassium iodide, buy it only from a reputable source. Iosat, ThyroSafe, and ThyroShield are the only potassium iodide products that are FDA-approved and can be legally marketed and sold in the United States.”
This pitch for MPB Today positions it as the Walmart Freedom Club. The pitch misspells the word "prosper" as "prospour." The website registration is hidden behind a proxy, and uses Walmart's name in the domain name. It is unclear if Walmart authorized the domain name or the use of its intellectual property in the MPB Today promo.
Yet-another domain linked to the purported MPB Today “grocery” program is using Walmart’s name in its domain name. The domain name is registered behind a proxy and uses images of Warren Buffet, Donald Trump and Sam Walton to position the opportunity as a “Freedom Club.”
Sam Walton is the late founder of Walmart. It is unclear if the owners of the website have Walmart’s permission to use its name and the likeness of Sam Walton in a pitch for the MPB Today program. Also unclear is whether the website owners have the permission of Trump and Buffet to use their images in promos for MPB Today.
Separately, yet another pitch for MPB Today features a narrator who notes that food is necessary to stay “alive” and laments, “I wish we could sell air too.” The “air” video is on a restricted YouTube site maked as “unlisted.” An unlisted video “means that only people who know the link to the video can view it (such as friends or family to whom you send the link,” according to YouTube.
MPB Today is a multilevel-marketing (MLM) program based in Pensacola, Fla. The “opportunity” is tied to a grocery business in Pensacola known as Southeastern Delivery. Both companies are linked to Gary Calhoun, who has a poor track record with the Better Business Bureau and was the recipient of a warning letter from the Food and Drug Administration for his marketing of a product that purported to be a treatment for Lou Gehrig’s disease, Herpes and Alzheimer’s, among others.
The new domain that uses Walmart’s name is at least the third linked to the MPB Today program — and the second to position MPB Today as a “club” tied to Walmart. The domain was registered Sept. 9, after MPB Today itself removed images of Walmart, Buffet and Trump from the homepage of its website.
Other MPB Today-linked websites branded with Walmart’s name imply the retail giant offers free groceries or that Walmart is partnered with MPB Today.
Meanwhile, still-other websites linked to the MPB Today program position it as a “Grocery Assistance” program and a program linked to the Food Stamp program administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. MPB Today also is being pitched from known Ponzi and criminals’ forums such as ASA Monitor, TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup.
On Wednesday, the SEC filed an emergency action in federal court in Utah to stop a program known as Imperia Invest IBC dead in its tracks, amid allegations it had fleeced millions of dollars from thousands of Americans with hearing impairments. Like MPB Today, Imperia was promoted on the Ponzi forums.
Among the allegations in the Imperia case were that the operators were using trademarks and the intellectual property of a major company — Visa Inc. — without the company’s authorization. All in all, more than 14,000 Imperia investors were fleeced, the SEC said.
In this separate promo for MPB Today, a narrator notes that food is necessary to stay "alive" and laments that he wishes members also could sell "air" through the MPB Today MLM program.
“They helped form a series of sham business entities and then promoted fraudulent debt elimination tactics intended for the sole purpose of concealing income from the IRS.” — Victor S. O. Song, chief, IRS Criminal Investigation
As the U.S. Department of Agriculture was conducting a “review” of claims made by affiliates of a purported “grocery” business in Pensacola, Fla., that dispenses “gift cards” to winners in a 2×2 matrix cycler, a federal judge in Pensacola was handing out prison sentences to defendants convicted in a tax-fraud and debt-elimination scheme.
All in all, nine promoters were implicated in the Pinnacle Quest International (PQI) case. Four were sentenced to prison in July. Two others will be sentenced in October, and three were sentenced yesterday for their roles in an elaborate fraud in which PQI served as an “umbrella organization for numerous vendors of tax and credit card debt elimination scams,” federal prosecutors said.
Eugene Casternovia received 7 years in prison. Arthur Merino, meanwhile, was sentenced to 40 months. Mark Lyon, the third defendant sentenced yesterday, cooperated with prosecutors and received a sentence of 18 months.
Among the PQI vendors was the Southern Oregon Resource Center for Education (SORCE), which “sold bogus theories and strategies for tax evasion,” prosecutors said.
“For fees starting at $10,000, SORCE assisted its customers in the creation of a series of sham business entities in the United States and Panama,” prosecutors said. “Other tax-related PQI vendors denied the legitimacy of the income tax system on various theories and provided customers with a ‘reliance defense’ that consisted of a paper trail of frivolous correspondence which a client could allegedly use as evidence of good faith if the client were prosecuted.”
Financial Solutions, another PQI vendor, sold “fraudulent schemes for eliminating credit card debt,” prosecutors said.
“Financial Solutions charged its customers thousands of dollars for a series of letters to send to credit card companies disputing the lawfulness of the underlying debt,” prosecutors said. “The product was wholly ineffective, and customers typically were sued by their creditors and often forced into bankruptcy.”
At the same time, yet-another PQI vendor known as MYICIS “operated as a sophisticated, computerized ‘warehouse bank,’” prosecutors said.
“MYICIS was a single bank account in which customers pooled their money,” prosecutors said. “MYICIS was promoted to PQI’s clients as a method to hide their assets from the IRS as a result of the pooled nature of the account. MYICIS had 3,000 clients and approximately $100 million in deposits over a three year period.”
A veteran IRS agent declared the business entities tied to the PQI case a “sham.”
“These defendants are now being held accountable for their criminal behavior,†said Victor S. O. Song, chief, IRS Criminal Investigation. “They helped form a series of sham business entities and then promoted fraudulent debt elimination tactics intended for the sole purpose of concealing income from the IRS. Their tactics were fraudulent. There is no secret formula that can eliminate an individual’s tax obligation.â€
In July, Arnold Ray Manansala was sentenced to 12 years in prison; Dover Eugene Perry, meanwhile, was sentenced to 10 years. Michael Guy Leonard was sentenced to nine years and one month, and Mark Daniel Leitner was sentenced to five years.
The trial in Pensacola took up a full month. Wayne Hicks, the operator of My Icis Inc., already was serving a five-year prison sentence.
FBI Director Robert Mueller has warned Congress at least twice this year about a “shadow” banking system that is a threat to U.S. national security.
In November, President Obama formed the Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force to attack the problem with white-collar and other forms of fraud. It is billed the “broadest coalition of law enforcement, investigatory and regulatory agencies ever assembled to combat fraud.”
MYICIS was a topic of discussion on known Ponzi scheme and fraud forums such as TalkGold. In May, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service referenced the forums in filings in a criminal case against an alleged Ponzi scheme known as Pathway To Prosperity.
In recent months, a Pensacola business known as MPB Today (My Premier Business Today) has been operating an MLM program that purports to sell “groceries.” The program has been advertised on TalkGold, and other known Ponzi forums.
One MPB Today affiliate attempted to sell the program by creating a video animation and depicting President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as Nazis. Clinton was called “Hitlary” in the promo.
Others have attempted to sell the MPB Today business “opportunity” by linking it to the federal Food Stamp program administered by the Department of Agriculture. The USDA announced earlier this month that it was conducting a “review” of affiliate claims.
This video promo for Pensacola-based MPB Today is targeted at Food Stamp recipients.
Still other MPB Today affiliates have focused on recruiting prospects by telling them they’d receive “gift cards” from Walmart. At least one promo on YouTube shows an envelope inside an envelope that had been mailed through the U.S. Postal Service.
Such an approach is consistent with the practices of “cash-gifters” — people who use the mails to promote chain-letter pyramid and tax schemes. The inside envelope in the YouTube video showed that at least one MPB Today affiliate had been paid with a prepaid Visa card purchased at Walmart. The envelope also contained a Walmart gift card.
In the YouTube video, the MPB Today affiliate appeared to be surprised about what he’d just received in the mail.
One promo after another for MPB Today has emphasized the gift cards. Still other affiliates have produced videos that show checks drawn on an FDIC-insured bank in Pensacola that has been operating since January under a consent agreement with the FDIC.
Florida has been plagued by mortgage foreclosures. MPB Today is targeting foreclosure subjects in a video pitch, as are many affiliates. Affiliates also have targeted the unemployed, senior citizens, people of faith and members of the alleged AdSurfDaily (ASD) Ponzi scheme.
ASD also was based in Florida. The company is known to have attracted affiliates who participated in tax, debt-elimination and cash-gifting schemes. At least one ASD affiliate has been linked to a group that sought to imprison federal judges and litigation opponents in debt cases. Another affiliate filed papers in federal court that purported to show that a bank could be defeated in a foreclosure case by filing a bond consisting of $21 in “silver coinage.”
At least one MPB Today promoter positioned the grocery company as an opportunity for religious members of ASD to make up losses in the failed autosurf. The U.S. Secret Service has seized tens of millions of dollars from bank accounts linked to ASD.
Florida records show that MPB and its associated grocery company — Southeastern Delivery — have operated by at least five names since 2006. MPB Today operator Gary Calhoun was ordered by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to stop violating federal law in promotions for a product marketed as a treatment for Lou Gehrig’s disease, among others.
ASD President Andy Bowdoin also operated numerous companies in Florida. according to records.
This promo for MPB Today claims affiliates become "partners" with Walmart and that business owners are "Granted FREE Groceries" for referring business to the MLM program. The promo appeared last night on a site that is heavily advertising the program — even after Walmart's name had gone missing from the landing page on MPB Today's website.
UPDATED 10:42 A.M. EDT (U.S.A.) Using the soundtrack from the legendary rock band Heart’s 1985 hit single “What about love,” an affiliate of MPB Today is claiming on YouTube that the company’s members become “partners” with Walmart and that MPB’s multilevel-marketing (MLM) program is “Guaranteed” not to be a scam.
Heart could not be contacted immediately to determine if the MPB affiliate was authorized to use the song, which features the voice of Ann Wilson, in a sales promotion for an MLM program tied to a Florida-based grocery company known as Southeastern Delivery.
Walmart has not responded to a request last week from the PP Blog that asked the company to comment on legal and regulatory issues surrounding the use of its name in promotions for MPB Today. The Blog specifically asked Walmart if it knew that MPB Today was using the company name in sales pitches and that at least one affiliate had claimed that Walmart gift cards distributed by MPB to its purported customers could be converted to Walmart prepaid Visa cards, which can be used the same as cash.
The Blog also asked Walmart if it was affiliated with MPB Today and whether it approved of the use of its brand in the MPB Today MLM program.
On Tuesday, the MPB Today website removed images of a Walmart store and business titans Donald Trump and Warren Buffet. It was unclear if Walmart, Trump and Buffet had forced the removal.
Even after MPB Today removed the images, an affiliate promo appeared online last night that claimed MPB Today members were “partners” with Walmart. Ads for MPB Today have targeted Food Stamp recipients, senior citizens, Ponzi scheme victims, foreclosure subjects, people of faith and members of the public who are unhappy with the administration of President Barack Obama.
One animated ad for MPB Today depicted First Lady Michelle Obama as having experienced a gas attack after sampling “beans” at Sam’s Club. Sam’s Club operates under the Walmart flag.
This animated pitch for MPB Today depicts First Lady Michelle Obama as having an embarrassing gas attack in the Oval Office after sampling "beans" at a Sam's Club. In the promo, Michelle Obama later gets knocked out by a drunken Hillary Clinton, who is portrayed as a Nazi. President Obama gives Clinton a left-handed Nazi salute in the promo.
The ad, which portrayed President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as Nazis, potentially could alienate customers regardless of their political views. Why an affiliate would imply in an ad that MPB Today prefers Obama opponents as customers is unclear. Such a caustic ad potentially could injure multiple brands because MPB affiliates have claimed Walmart is affiliated with the firm and the name of Sam’s Club appears in the anti-Obama promo.
MPB Today operator Gary Calhoun has a poor record with the Better Business Bureau for his operation of a previous company, United Pro Media. The company’s predecessor firm, Trim International, was ordered by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to stop violating federal law in its marketing of a product positioned as a treatment for Lou Gehrig’s Disease, cancer and other severe medical conditions.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture said last week that it was conducting a review into claims made about MPB Today. The agency said yesterday that its review was ongoing.
MPB Today is being marketed on social-media sites. It also is being marketed on at least three forums that are infamous for promoting Ponzi schemes.
This MPB Today pitch claims a $200, "ONE-TIME" grocery purchase from Southeastern Delivery can "TOTALLY ELIMINATE" future grocery bills.
Gary Calhoun, the operator of a multilevel-marketing (MLM) program that is targeting Food Stamp recipients, Ponzi scheme victims, foreclosure subjects and people of faith, received a warning letter in 2006 from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for his marketing of a product that claimed to treat multiple diseases, according to federal records.
Calhoun, who now operates an MLM program known as MPB Today and a grocery business tied to the program, was ordered by the FDA to stop violating provisions of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. The grocery business is known as Southeastern Delivery LLC.
On Friday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) said it was opening a “review” of claims made in the MPB Today program and the associated grocery business.
The FDA’s letter pertained to a Calhoun-operated business known as Trim International and a now-defunct website known as MyTrim.com. Calhoun also operated a business known as United Pro Media LLC, which became a subject of complaints to the Better Business Bureau and was given an “F” rating, the BBB’s lowest rating on a 14-step scale.
In 2006, according to the FDA, Calhoun was marketing a product known as “TCR Cell Rejuvenator.” The agency said the product was positioned as a treatment for “Neurodegenerative diseases: Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, axonal and other neuropathies, Down’s and other syndromes.”
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) commonly is referred to as Lou Gehrig’s Disease, in recognition of the famed New York Yankees’ first baseman, the subject of the tear-jerking 1942 movie “The Pride of the Yankees,” which starred Gary Cooper. Gehrig died in 1941.
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.
Calhoun was ordered by the FDA to notify it “in writing within 15 working days of receipt of this letter about the steps that you have taken to correct” violations. The company eventually went out of business.
“[T] he introduction or delivery of a new drug into interstate commerce without an FDA-approved application is a prohibited act,” the FDA advised Calhoun. “No such applications exist for this product.
“Furthermore, many of the diseases or conditions for which this product is offered are not amenable to self-diagnosis and treatment by individuals who are not medical practitioners,” the FDA said. “Therefore, adequate directions for use for these conditions cannot be written so that a layman can use this drug safely for its intended purposes.”
The agency said Calhoun had misbranded the product because the “product’s labeling fails to bear adequate directions for its intended uses for those diseases or conditions which are not amenable to self-diagnosis and treatment.”
MPB affiliates claim a single grocery purchase of $200 through Southeastern Delivery can result in free groceries for life.
“Serious harm,” including “life-threatening low blood pressure,” may come to consumers who drink “Miracle Mineral Solution” (MMS), an “an oral liquid also known as “Miracle Mineral Supplement,†the U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned.
The FDA warned consumers to “stop using it immediately and throw it away.” The product is being marketed online.
When used as directed, the product “produces an industrial bleach that can cause serious harm to health,” the agency said.
“Multiple independent distributors” are selling the product online, the agency said, noting that the packaging may vary.
“The FDA has received several reports of health injuries from consumers using this product, including severe nausea, vomiting, and life-threatening low blood pressure from dehydration,” the agency said.
Consumers are instructed “to mix the 28 percent sodium chlorite solution with an acid such as citrus juice,” the agency said. “This mixture produces chlorine dioxide, a potent bleach used for stripping textiles and industrial water treatment. High oral doses of this bleach, such as those recommended in the labeling, can cause nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and symptoms of severe dehydration.”
“MMS claims to treat multiple unrelated diseases, including HIV, hepatitis, the H1N1 flu virus, common colds, acne, cancer, and other conditions,” the agency said. “The FDA is not aware of any research that MMS is effective in treating any of these conditions. MMS also poses a significant health risk to consumers who may choose to use this product for self-treatment instead of seeking FDA-approved treatments for these conditions.”
The FDA said it is continuing “to investigate and may pursue civil or criminal enforcement actions as appropriate to protect the public from this potentially dangerous product.”
The North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA) today warned the investing public to watch out for Ebola-related scams.
