Thaindian News

MIAMI, FLORIDA (BNO NEWS) – A Florida man was sentenced for a nutritional supplement scam, prosecutors said on Monday.

Frank Sarcona, also known as Dave Johnson, 58, of Boca Raton, Florida defrauded more than 130,000 customers out of more than $7 million by marketing Lipoban, which is a purported weigh loss product.

Sarcona was able to sell the drug as he created the false impression that the people who bought the product would participate in a study conducted in conjunction with the Lipoban Clinic. He invited customers to participate in “a restricted nationwide test” through millions of letters he sent across the U.S., marketing through newspapers, national magazines, the internet and direct mail solicitation.

The letters were signed by Dr. Joseph Maya, the supposed medical director of the Lipoban Clinic, falsely stating that the team included weight loss and nutrition professionals, including authorization from a New York cardiologist.

The “clinic” was in reality located at local residence and later at an office in an industrial park while Dr. Jose Maya Behar, not Joseph, never performed and services for the clinic and was not even licensed to practice medicine in the U.S. Furthermore, no weight loss studies were being conducted at the purported clinic, which was not endorsed by the New York cardiologist.

Sarcona had been previously prohibited from engaging in deceptive sales and marketing practices in 1999 because of his sale of another weight loss product, but he began marketing Lipoban almost immediately after the sanction was issued.

Sarcona now faces a term of 20 years’ imprisonment for conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, and criminal contempt of court, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and multiple counts of substantive mail fraud, wire fraud, money laundering, misbranding of a food, and criminal contempt of court.