Gero Vita Promoter Fined $4.5 Million

Made False Health Claims, Feds Charge

January 4, 2006

Gero Vita • Gero Vita Promoter Settles FTC Charges • Gero Vita Promoter Fined $4.5 Million • Gero Vita Settles Federal Charges • Gero Vita Head Got Clinton Pardon • Gero Vita, Theraceuticals Use Deceptive Advertising, FTC Charges • Consumer Complaints

The mastermind behind a scheme to sell dietary supplements using claims the Federal Trade Commission alleged were false and unsubstantiated has been banned from the direct response marketing of foods, unapproved drugs, and dietary supplements.

A. Glenn Braswell, who was already under another consent decree stemming from alleged violations of the FTC Act, also will pay $1 million and turn over assets worth $3.5 million to settle the FTC's charges.

The FTC also settled charges against one of the "expert" endorsers for Braswell's dietary supplement products.

"We charged Braswell with peddling empty promises to consumers battling serious illnesses," said Lydia Parnes, Director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection. "This settlement will prevent him from profiting from these sorts of deceptive claims in the future, and deter others who may think they can get away with similar practices."

Braswell sold dietary supplements, mostly through direct mail advertising, including the Journal of Longevity, a direct mail ad that purported to be a health-information magazine.

The FTC says these ads, aimed at elderly consumers, used false and misleading claims of medical or scientific "breakthroughs," expert endorsements, and misrepresented the results and applicability of scientific studies.

According to the FTC, Braswell's operation was one of the largest U.S. direct mail marketers of health-related products during the time he was running the companies.

The products the FTC targeted, Lung Support Formula, AntiBetic Pancreas Tonic, Gero Vita G.H.3, ChitoPlex, and Testerex, were supposed to cure, prevent, or treat a number of illnesses, such as Alzheimer's disease, diabetes, and emphysema.

Braswell is the former owner of the California-based corporate defendants and controlled the misleading advertising and marketing materials.

In settling the FTC's charges, Braswell not only is banned from direct response marketing (with a few exemptions, such as FDA approved product claims), he also is prohibited from making false, misleading, or unsubstantiated health claims, misrepresenting endorsements, making unsubstantiated endorsements, or misrepresenting scientific evidence for all foods, drugs, dietary supplements, and health-related products and services.

Braswell already was under a 1983 consent order to resolve the FTC's charges related to his marketing of baldness and anti-cellulite products.

The FTC also is announcing a settlement with defendant Hans Kugler. The FTC alleged that Kugler was an expert endorser for two of the products, Lung Support Formula and Gero Vita G.H.3.

The FTC's complaint charged that Kugler did not have the required expertise or a reasonable basis for his endorsements.

The settlement prohibits him from making future endorsements, unless they are based on competent and reliable scientific information and an actual exercise of his represented expertise, as well as misrepresentations about scientific tests or studies. Kugler will pay $15,000 in settlement of the allegations.

With the latest announced settlements, all of the seven corporate defendants and four of the five individual defendants have settled the FTC's charges in this case. Litigation continues against Chase Revel.

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