Body Part Enlargement Scam Shuttered

Breast Enhancement • Consumer Complaints • Washington Sues Herbal Breast Advantage • Isis to Pay $22 Million • Bloussant Promoters Pay $3 Million • Investigators Close Longitude Pill Works

May 30, 2002
A Scottsdale, Ariz., company that sold what it claimed were penis- and breast-enlargement pills over the Internet was raided by state and federal agents who said they seized more than $30 million in assets, including cash, jewelry, luxury homes and automobiles including eight Mercedes, a Cadillac, a Rolls-Royce and a Lamborghini.

C.P. Direct, Inc. and three of its officers -- Geraldine Consoli, 76; her son, Michael A. Consoli, 44; and Vincent J. Passafiume, 28 -- were accused of fraud, theft, money laundering and racketeering in court documents filed by the Arizona Attorney General.

Their names are familiar to local authorities. In 1996, the three agreed to a consent judgment in Superior Court that prohibited them from doing business in Arizona through the mail or Internet. The judgment was obtained after the three were named in a consumer fraud suit that involved a discount buying club that sold computers and other devices.

The company bilked consumers hoping to enlarge strategic body parts by signing them up for a multi-month regimen of its "Longitude" pill, investigators said. The initial cost of the pills was $59.99, plus shipping and handling for a month's supply and $39.99 a month thereafter. Records showed the pills cost $2.50 per bottle to manufacture, police said.

Investigators said it appeared the firm was doing "quite a bit of volume."

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