Ben Carson Accused Of Shilling For Company Offering Quack Medical Cures
[su_right_ad]The accusation comes via the conservative National Review.
Carson’s interactions with Mannatech, a nutritional-supplement company based in suburban Dallas, date back to 2004, when he was a speaker at the company’s annual conferences, MannaFest and MannaQuest. He also spoke at Mannatech conferences in 2011 and 2013, and spoke about “glyconutrients” in a PBS special as recently as last year…
In November 2004, the mother of a child with Tay-Sachs disease who died after [su_thin_right_skyscraper_ad]being treated with Mannatech products filed suit against the company in Los Angeles Superior Court, seeking damages for intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligent misrepresentation, and conspiracy to commit fraud. The suit alleged that the Mannatech sales associate who “treated” the three-year-old had shared naked photos of the boy — provided by his mother as evidence of weight gain, with an understanding that they’d be kept confidential — with hundreds of people at a Mannatech demonstration seminar. The sales associate was further accused of authoring an article, in the Journal of the American Nutraceutical Association in August 1997, explicitly claiming that Mannatech’s supplements had improved the boy’s condition, even though the boy had, by that time, died…
In 2007, three years after Carson’s first dealings with Mannatech, Texas attorney general Greg Abbott sued the company and Caster, charging them with orchestrating an unlawful marketing scheme that exaggerated their products’ health benefits…
Separately, the suit alleges that the company sold a CD entitled “Back from the Brink” that “provided example after example of how ‘glyconutrients’ (i.e., Mannatech’s products) cured, treated, or mitigated diseases including but not limited to toxic shock syndrome, heart failure, asthma, arthritis, Lou Gehrig’s Disease, Attention Deficit Disorder, and lung inflammation.”
The complaint from Abbott’s office further suggested that the company had used careful wording in a scheme to avoid liability, instructing their sales force “not to refer to Mannatech’s products by name when making certain claims, but instead [to] refer to them generically as ‘glyconutrients,’” before “direct[ing] the customer to the ‘only company that makes these patented glyconutrients’ — Mannatech.”
raypc800 January 12th, 2015 at 5:24 pm
Ben Carson is just demonstrating the latest in TP/GOP behavior. No ethic, no morals but he has got his religion! Yes indeed like all TP/GOPers it is the worship of the almighty dollar.
arc99 January 12th, 2015 at 6:21 pm
Mannatech was a multi level marketing company similar to Amway where profits came as much from signing up other people as from selling merchandise.
My wife and were involved with it briefly in the 1990’s. The sales pitch was extremely persuasive. But eventually we were able to determine that any benefits from their magic elixir could also be achieved by simply eating a balanced diet. That realization along with the high price of around $35 per quart caused us to end our involvement.
But to the matter at hand, I can’t wait to see how the die-hard Carson supporters are going to blame the President for this one.
Dwendt44 January 12th, 2015 at 11:54 pm
If you don’t eat a varied well balanced diet, like millions of people don’t, the cheapest vitamins at Wal-mart will help as much and the snake oil Carson or other ‘super duper’ remedy products sold through multi-level marketing schemes. One product I’ve seen does give you diarrhea, and call it a ‘colon cleanse’. Like that’s ‘healthy’.
Guy Lauten January 12th, 2015 at 6:38 pm
Just another of Ol’ Ben’s grifts. He’s got a roomfull of ’em.
Suzanne McFly January 12th, 2015 at 6:45 pm
He also sells used cars at the “No credit, bad credit doesn’t matter at crazy Harry’s auto mall”. In his past life, he sold magic elixir’s at the carnival in the tent next to the bearded lady.
Obewon January 12th, 2015 at 7:38 pm
Birther Ben’s sales training course sells for $1,969 but here’s a sneak peek! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3pmwrtlDaY
Suzanne McFly January 12th, 2015 at 7:42 pm
Lol, is that Cheech? Hilarious. He happens to be selling one product ben knows absolutely nothing about.
burqa January 12th, 2015 at 8:24 pm
Female buyers get a 15% off coupon on their next purchase of Thalidomide….
Obewon January 12th, 2015 at 7:32 pm
(R)Birther Ben for president until Hell freezes over! Count-1 et al, In November 2004, the mother of a child with Tay-Sachs disease who died after being treated with Mannatech products filed suit against the company in Los Angeles Superior Court, seeking damages for intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligent misrepresentation, and conspiracy to commit fraud. The suit alleged that the Mannatech sales associate who “treated” the three-year-old had shared naked photos of the boy. Send cash now for naked photos of the dead boy with Ben Carson in 2016~
burqa January 12th, 2015 at 8:23 pm
Carson: “Ladies, step right up and get yourself one of these hyere Dalkon Shields!…”
jstsmlbrlcnsrvtvguy January 12th, 2015 at 8:50 pm
Too bad this revelation came out now, and not after Dr. Carson got the nomination. /s
Candide Thirtythree January 12th, 2015 at 11:07 pm
You think fundies care? One of theirs got caught abandoning his office and leaving his wife and children to go solicit whores in South America and he even came back to the states and waved one of his whores in everyone’s face, on the platform where he was campaigning! and still got elected.
They do not care if the person is a child molester, a thief, has mafia ties or even a murderer as long as they pretend to be a christian and throw out a few ‘forgive me lords”
Dwendt44 January 12th, 2015 at 11:56 pm
that’s just one item in the long list of religious and/or conservative politicians that do not practice what they preach.
Candide Thirtythree January 18th, 2015 at 4:03 am
Exactly! Disqus does not have the bandwidth for anyone to post ALL of them.
ExPFCWintergreen January 12th, 2015 at 10:25 pm
In 3, 2, 1… Typical how the liberal lamestream media and lapdog RINOs will dig up unproven allegations from the past to attack the rock-ribbed conservatives they fear.
Dwendt44 January 12th, 2015 at 11:49 pm
“rock-ribbed”? The latest scam artist that plays on the gullibility or Republicans isn’t even as good as the shysters that show up on FakeNews on a daily basis.
How anyone can support this fools bilge is simply amazing.
Candide Thirtythree January 12th, 2015 at 11:02 pm
He gotta make a living some way now that he lost his medical license. His insanity is progressing and the hospital could not risk the liability, so he had to go. What better way to make a living than scamming people out of their money and using religion as a cloak of invisibility to hide the nefarious dealings?
jstsmlbrlcnsrvtvguy January 13th, 2015 at 12:43 am
“The first thing we need to do is get rid of for-profit insurance companies. We have a lack of policies and we need to make the government responsible for catastrophic health care.” – Dr. Ben Carson
Dwendt44 January 13th, 2015 at 12:10 pm
Sounds like he’s calling for single payer without calling for single payer.
ShelleysLeg January 14th, 2015 at 12:24 pm
Is Mannatech like that ‘new’ pyramid scheme currently on Career Builder and Monster? They are claiming you work ‘with’ doctors to obtain patient’s DNA (Hello…..HIPPA anyone) profiles which will THEN tell you which of their vitamins will prevent disease your DNA says you are sure to get?
Having worked with kidney/liver transplant doctors, I’ve NEVER known one you could see if you didn’t have a scheduled appointment with them first.
This company that is advertising claims you can make $17K a month but not sure it’s the same…..Platform Axiom…..they are on FB and have a website, but BEWARE….the guy running it in Texas is a felon who has 11 counts against him in MO and IL for fraud on roofing ‘repairs’.