The Federal Trade Commission settled with 12 corporate entities and four individual defendants marketing bogus cognitive supplement brands Geniux, Xcel, EVO and Ion-Z, using “sham” news sites containing false and unsubstantiated efficacy claims. The FTC announced that its complaint, filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, alleges Fred Richard Guerra III, Lanty Paul Gray Jr. Rafat Abbas and Robby Salaheddine owned a web of corporate entities that between August 2012 and January 2017 sold the supplements for between $47 and $57 a bottle. False claims for products included that Geniux could “improve short- and long-term memory,” “increase focus” by as much as 300% and prevent memory loss. Claims were made on sites deceptively formatted as actual news sites. Some employed fake consumer endorsements and attributed the achievements of Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk to Geniux products.
The commission submitted two proposed orders settling the charges, one resolving allegations against Guerra, Gray and Abbas as well...
