FTC Sues Medical Clinic and its Owner for False or Unsubstantiated Claims its Treatment Could Cure Addiction and Other Diseases
The Federal Trade Commission took motion less than the Opioid Addiction Restoration Fraud Avoidance Act (OARFPA), suing Dr. Dalal A. Akoury and a set of corporations she controls that run as AWAREmed Health and fitness & Wellness Useful resource Heart, a healthcare clinic, for creating a large assortment of wrong or unsupported claims for addiction therapy expert services, cancer cure companies, and the treatment of other significant ailments. The Section of Justice submitted the circumstance on the FTC’s behalf.
The proposed order settling the Commission’s complaint bars Dr. Akoury and her AWAREmed clinic from making such unsupported promises and calls for her to shell out a $100,000 civil penalty.
“The opioid disaster claims lives and destroys communities all throughout the United States but in particular in rural locations,” stated Samuel Levine, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Buyer Security. “Doctors peddling phony claims really should know that the FTC will use its strengthened authority from Congress to prevent them from exploiting Americans struggling with dependancy.”
Dr. Akoury’s AWAREmed clinic is dependent in Johnson Town, Tennessee, and formerly was situated in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Considering that at least 2018, the complaint states, the AWAREmed defendants have marketed a range of remedies for clients suffering from dependancy together with compound use diseases from opioids to liquor. Other deceptive treatment method adverts for cancer and chronic ailments like Parkinson’s ailment and Alzheimer’s condition.
In their adverts, the defendants explained their clinic as the “Most Helpful Clinical Clinic Anyplace,” and claimed that it “Boasts a 98{35112b74ca1a6bc4decb6697edde3f9edcc1b44915f2ccb9995df8df6b4364bc} Improvement Rate…Treating Just About…Anything,” like addictions to methadone and other medication, liquor, meals, and gambling. Despite being warned by the FTC that earning unsupported dependancy procedure claims is unlawful, the defendants ongoing to declare without the need of proof that their therapy was “rapid, painless, successful, and protected,” and experienced much better effects in much less time than 30-working day remedy programs.
The defendants also utilized their website to advertise their cancer solutions, saying that people would knowledge “exceptional benefits,” and that almost all people at any ailment stage would make improvements to reasonably to substantially soon after treatment at the AWAREmed clinic. In similar adverts, the defendants recurring their promises of in the vicinity of-universal good results for serious diseases this kind of as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.
Lastly, the FTC alleges that in 2017 and 2018, Dr. Akoury appeared in practically 100 brief Television segments hosted by reporters with Fox News’s Myrtle Beach affiliate, selling AWAREmed in what appeared to be news interviews. It was hardly ever disclosed, having said that, that some of those appearances ended up basically paid out advertisements positioned by Dr. Akoury.
In addition to barring the defendants from violating the FTC Act and OARFPA, the proposed court order prohibits them from making the deceptive wellbeing promises alleged in the grievance, needs them to have capable and reputable scientific proof for any health-connected statements they make in advertising and marketing and advertising, and prohibits them from formatting adverts in a way that may possibly be interpreted as news or informational programing. It also demands them to shell out a $100,000 civil penalty.
The Fee vote authorizing the staff members to file the grievance and proposed get was 4-. The DOJ submitted the criticism and order on behalf of the FTC in the U.S. District Court docket for the Eastern District of Tennessee.