T Nation

Enzyte Founder Gets 25 Years

Off Topic
#1

Here’s a sentence that’s going to shake up the supplement industry: the guy behind Enzyte just got sentenced to twenty-five years in jail and the company was hit with a $500 million dollar fine. From the Wall Street Journal:

[i]In Cincinnati, the marketing of a male sexual enhancement product called Enzyte, which reportedly used ads featuring “Smiling Bob,” a happy man with an exaggerated smile (pictured), has led to a whopping jail sentence for the founder of Berkeley Premium Nutraceuticals.

Today, U.S. District Judge S. Arthur Spiegel sentenced Steve Warshak to 25 years in prison after he was convicted in February on 93 counts of conspiracy, fraud and money laundering. Here’s the AP story.

Federal prosecutors accused the company of bilking customers out of $100 million through a series of deceptive ads, manipulated credit card transactions and refusal to accept returns or cancel orders. Judge Spiegel ordered the company, along with other defendants, to forfeit more than $500 million – a figure based on how much Warshak and the company took in.[/i]

Obviously most supplement manufacturers aren’t engaging in the some of the direct-sales crimes that Enzyte was, but there are a hell of a lot of supplement ads making false claims about one herbal steroid or another. Is anyone else hoping to see a whole lot more fraud causes filed?

#2

I just hope part of the sentence includes removing those stupid ads.

#3

yeah I am hoping BSN really gets burned on that class action suit involving the creatine matrix that doesn’t exist. CEM I think they were calling it.

#4

You mean big dick pills don’t work? I can’t believe it…

Honestly though, this the last thing any of us need. The less Uncle Sam has his nose in our business, the better. This could very well trigger all kinds of laws and regulations because a bunch of retards thought a pill would give them a bigger package. I can already see the fat housewives raising their eyebrows at creatine and protein powder. “Oh, that stuff can’t be good. They should outlaw it. Pass the Oreos.”

We, the educated minority, will be the ones who suffer if anything comes of this.

#5

[quote]analog_kid wrote:
You mean big dick pills don’t work? I can’t believe it…

Honestly though, this the last thing any of us need. The less Uncle Sam has his nose in our business, the better. This could very well trigger all kinds of laws and regulations because a bunch of retards thought a pill would give them a bigger package. I can already see the fat housewives raising their eyebrows at creatine and protein powder. “Oh, that stuff can’t be good. They should outlaw it. Pass the Oreos.”

We, the educated minority, will be the ones who suffer if anything comes of this. [/quote]

i agree with your point here, people would rather ban things instead of read and learn what they actually do and proper usage etc. They will listen to the scare tactics of the media and government and be sheep.

At the same time, I can’t be sitting at home with a chemistry set trying to figure out if the creatine I just bought is actually creatine at all or some placebo bullshit from BSN.

#6

[quote]rainjack wrote:
I just hope part of the sentence includes removing those stupid ads.
[/quote]

They’ll probably just get replaced with new ads featuring the now “Not So Smilin’ Bob” getting boned up the ass by happy, Enzyte using inmates.

#7

[quote]rainjack wrote:
I just hope part of the sentence includes removing those stupid ads.
[/quote]

x2. I fucking hate those commercials. I’ve had that stupid whistling theme song stuck in my head for years now.

#8

[quote]analog_kid wrote:
You mean big dick pills don’t work? I can’t believe it…

Honestly though, this the last thing any of us need. The less Uncle Sam has his nose in our business, the better. This could very well trigger all kinds of laws and regulations because a bunch of retards thought a pill would give them a bigger package. I can already see the fat housewives raising their eyebrows at creatine and protein powder. “Oh, that stuff can’t be good. They should outlaw it. Pass the Oreos.”

We, the educated minority, will be the ones who suffer if anything comes of this. [/quote]

I don’t really think this is about what he was selling so much as how he treated his customers.

The fact that his product was worthless didn’t help, but had he given refunds when asked to, and not set everyone up on a recurring purchase program with little or no way to opt out - I doubt anything would have happened to him.

#9

[quote]analog_kid wrote:
You mean big dick pills don’t work? I can’t believe it…

Honestly though, this the last thing any of us need. The less Uncle Sam has his nose in our business, the better. This could very well trigger all kinds of laws and regulations because a bunch of retards thought a pill would give them a bigger package. I can already see the fat housewives raising their eyebrows at creatine and protein powder. “Oh, that stuff can’t be good. They should outlaw it. Pass the Oreos.”

We, the educated minority, will be the ones who suffer if anything comes of this. [/quote]

I understand where you are coming from but credit card scams are unacceptable.

I think the most important thing in regulating supplements is making sure they contain what they say they do.

Whether they work as advertised is a whole different matter and should be more buyer beware.

#10

While we are on this topic, I had an interesting experience recently. You might have seen those FRS supplements ads where Lance Armstrong is their spokesperson. It’s basically a quercertin/antioxidant supplements with a kick of caffeine and they sell it in a few different forms.

So they give you the chance to try a free sample, provided you pay the $6.95 for shipping. I figured, “What the heck… I will give it a whirl.” I got a package of their drinks, their chews, their concentrate and some kind of powder mix. I tried some of them, noticed a small energy kick. Not bad, but I thought it was not something I would order again.

I roll onto their Web site to see if I need to cancel anything, log into my “account” and see no details about canceling, future orders, etc. I figure everything is fine.

A few days later, I get hit with a charge from FRS for $65. WTF? I go to their Web site and NOW there are some other options about what are basically automatically recurring orders. Oh and you can ONLY order on an automatically recurring basis - there are no one shot orders. Interesting all of these options are now apparent after they send out my full price order.

Here is the kicker - I cannot change the recurrence to zero. You have to actually call them to do so. Luckily, they did not give me some huge sales pitch to stay, but I probably got someone fairly green.

My takeaway is that this was kind of shady to not have any clear way to cancel after the first order, try to force recurring orders and then you actually have to call to cancel.

#11

He has a chance to earn 2.5 yrs of good behavior credit, and 6 months halfway house. So in all actually, he will be out in the year 2030. Hope he doesn’t start his wall calendar just yet.

#12

[quote]Kuz wrote:
While we are on this topic, I had an interesting experience recently. You might have seen those FRS supplements ads where Lance Armstrong is their spokesperson. It’s basically a quercertin/antioxidant supplements with a kick of caffeine and they sell it in a few different forms.

So they give you the chance to try a free sample, provided you pay the $6.95 for shipping. I figured, “What the heck… I will give it a whirl.” I got a package of their drinks, their chews, their concentrate and some kind of powder mix. I tried some of them, noticed a small energy kick. Not bad, but I thought it was not something I would order again.

I roll onto their Web site to see if I need to cancel anything, log into my “account” and see no details about canceling, future orders, etc. I figure everything is fine.

A few days later, I get hit with a charge from FRS for $65. WTF? I go to their Web site and NOW there are some other options about what are basically automatically recurring orders. Oh and you can ONLY order on an automatically recurring basis - there are no one shot orders. Interesting all of these options are now apparent after they send out my full price order.

Here is the kicker - I cannot change the recurrence to zero. You have to actually call them to do so. Luckily, they did not give me some huge sales pitch to stay, but I probably got someone fairly green.

My takeaway is that this was kind of shady to not have any clear way to cancel after the first order, try to force recurring orders and then you actually have to call to cancel.[/quote]

American Express is great in situations like this. I got the same BS with some site offering Resveratrol. AMEX took care of it. Now I just get it from Biotest.

#13

Those commercials were almost as irritating as, “Do you have too much body fat? People gain more body fat because of stress, having kids, and cortisol…and not the 15th bag of Doritos you are scarfing down as you watch this”.

#14

[quote]Professor X wrote:
Those commercials were almost as irritating as, “Do you have too much body fat? People gain more body fat because of stress, having kids, and cortisol…and not the 15th bag of Doritos you are scarfing down as you watch this”.[/quote]

The part that irritates me the most in that commercial is when they say, “It’s not your fault.” Great, way to enable them. Now they have another excuse to blame their fatness on. It’s not my fault I’m fat, my life is just so stressful. Nevermind that I haven’t exercised in 5 years and eat shit all day long.

#15

People will resort to anything not to exercise and/or eat properly. One of old physiology professors endorsed some ab gadget saying research showed it used more abdominal acitvity than crunches alone. I just looked at him like a sell out after that.

#16

[quote]rainjack wrote:
analog_kid wrote:
You mean big dick pills don’t work? I can’t believe it…

Honestly though, this the last thing any of us need. The less Uncle Sam has his nose in our business, the better. This could very well trigger all kinds of laws and regulations because a bunch of retards thought a pill would give them a bigger package. I can already see the fat housewives raising their eyebrows at creatine and protein powder. “Oh, that stuff can’t be good. They should outlaw it. Pass the Oreos.”

We, the educated minority, will be the ones who suffer if anything comes of this.

I don’t really think this is about what he was selling so much as how he treated his customers.

The fact that his product was worthless didn’t help, but had he given refunds when asked to, and not set everyone up on a recurring purchase program with little or no way to opt out - I doubt anything would have happened to him.

[/quote]

I agree with you and Zap here, I think most of it came about because of the business side of things. If the opposite were true it would have been pulled a lot sooner(this shit has been out for years now hasn’t it? They sponsor and nascar for fuck’s sake!)

#17

“Who is this really protecting? People are dumb enough to believe that big dick pills are a secret that only Ron Jeremy and the coke-whore know about. If big dick pills worked it would change the whole world…”

Joe Rogan

#18

[quote]GhorigTheBeefy wrote:
“Who is this really protecting? People are dumb enough to believe that big dick pills are a secret that only Ron Jeremy and the coke-whore know about. If big dick pills worked it would change the whole world…”

Joe Rogan[/quote]

This guy should definitely go to prison, but the bigger crime IS the gullibility of the morons who actually believed this might this work.

#19

The gumps will have a ball with him when he arrives.

#20

[quote]analog_kid wrote:
I agree with you and Zap here, I think most of it came about because of the business side of things. If the opposite were true it would have been pulled a lot sooner(this shit has been out for years now hasn’t it? They sponsor and nascar for fuck’s sake!)
[/quote]

It’s been out for quite a while, and even if it were an FDA issue, he would have been sent a warning letter to stop selling whatever it was he was selling.

If he did receive such a warning, and ignored it - well then we are talking about a pissed off FDA, and shady business practices to boot.