FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

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5.) Why should I believe you? Weren't you convicted of fraud?

I have never been convicted of a crime. The Maryland Attorney General, J. Joseph Curran, in an effort to advance his political career, has used his power to slander and smear my name; and the press has been all too willing to grab a sensational headline. But little of what has been published resembles the truth. The facts are as follow:

No case of fraud was ever brought against me. What occurred was a dispute over some of the promotional material distributed in connection with an aloe vera product by a company in which I had invested. Normally such disputes are resolved through consultation between the State and the concerned parties. In this instance, however, rather than following normal procedure, the Attorney General instead immediately initiated an administrative proceeding charging that the literature was deceptive.

As a brief summary will show, the Attorney General’s blatant disregard of normal practice and precedent clearly demonstrates his bias.

First of all, when the Attorney General brought his action there were no – I repeat – no complaints about our product on file with his office. Rather, they were brought in response to a newspaper story concerning another matter in which I had no interest.

Secondly, as soon as we were notified that there was some question about the promotional material it was immediately and voluntarily withdrawn from circulation and has not been distributed since.

Third, because in an administrative proceeding the rules of evidence and constitutional guarantees available in a court of law do not apply, my ability to mount a defense and answer the spurious allegations brought by the Attorney General was essentially nullified. As an attorney who has been a member of the Bar for more than forty years, the lack of due process and denial of basic constitutional rights I experienced was a stunning revelation. For example, the administrative law judge refused to allow the majority of our witnesses to testify, including our experts. At the same time, she allowed the State’s “experts” to hold forth even though they admitted to having no knowledge about the subject about which they were testifying. It is interesting to note that the Attorney General has never lost a case of this kind before this forum.

Fourth, during the course of the hearing no mention was made of cesium. Given that there are more than 770,000 licensed physicians in the United States and hundreds of thousands of Ph.D. scientists, the Attorney General could not find ONE to dispute the efficacy of the High pH Therapy!

Fifth, if cesium is so ineffective and even dangerous, why hasn’t the Attorney General used his broad powers to ban its sale and use in Maryland?

Sixth, the regulation of dietary supplements is the responsibility of the Food and Drug Administration. The regulation of interstate advertising is the responsibility of the Federal Trade Commission. Yet, neither of these agencies brought an action!

Seventh, during the proceeding the Attorney General’s prosecutor admitted that he didn’t care whether or not the treatments worked. He was only concerned with whether we had followed the bureaucratic rules!

A final question is why the Attorney General chose to include me in the action to begin with. I had invested in the company to help it get started because I believed that its products could help people. Once I recouped my initial investment I withdrew from participation. In other words, I never made a nickel from that investment. Moreover, I never had an active role in its management. Including me in the action was the equivalent of including stockholders in Ford Motor Company as liable for suits resulting from the problems their SUVs experienced with Firestone tires!

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