CHICAGO--A federal court in Chicago issued a court order against Creaghan Harry of Boca Raton, Fla., who is accused of selling "bogus" human growth hormone (HGH) products through illegal spamming, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced. The court order halted Harry’s spamming and allegedly deceptive product claims and froze his assets. The action was taken ex parte due to concerns that the defendant would try to hide assets if he received advance notice of the action.
The FTC complaint alleged the defendant has sold a variety of products falsely claiming to be dietary supplements that contain HGH or produce effects similar to those of HGH. According to the complaint, the products contained no HGH but contained amino acids that, when taken in the indicated doses, would have no effect whatsoever, much less an effect similar to HGH. The complaint also cited the defendant’s use of false health claims including lowered blood pressure, cellulite reduction, improved vision, new hair growth, improved sleep and weight loss without diet or exercise.
Sales of the product were made through dozens of Web sites, many of which failed to identify any registered business name and were actually registered to individuals in China. Proceeds from the sale of the products, estimated by FTC to be hundreds of thousands of dollars, were wire transferred to a Latvian bank account owned by the defendant. In addition to making false health claims, the defendant is also charged with violating the CAN-SPAM Act (Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act of 2003) by sending millions of e-mail messages with the source disguised, with no valid physical postal address in the message, and without a clear and conspicuous notice inviting consumers to opt out of further e-mails. FTC reported consumers had forwarded about 40,000 complaints to the agency concerning spam messages linked to Harry.
An FTC spokesperson said the agency intervened because of the number of consumers who had been affected by Harry’s business, and hopes the court order will send a message to those running similar operations.
Industry attorney Marc Ullman commented on the actions taken by FTC. "This is a clear statement that FTC intends to take serious action in two areas that it has made enforcement priorities: SPAM and bogus 'dietary supplements'," he said. "The likelihood that FTC will seek immediate relief in the form of Federal Court Orders enjoining illegal marketing activities and freezing assets is exponentially increased when individuals or companies take the kind of steps to hide themselves that FTC encountered here. Actually, if Mr. Harry was really selling products containing HGH, he is fortunate FDA [Food and Drug Administration] did not participate in this enforcement action, as he could be facing felony charges for the illegal distribution and/or possession of human growth hormone."
Email this article
Add a comment
Printer version
Order reprints
RSS Feed
Bookmark article