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June 15, 2005
Did HGH spammer get off too easy?
Some people seem to believe that lawyers for Florida spam king Creaghan Harry (aka Carl Henderson) outfoxed the Federal Trade Commission.
But I think Mr. Harry's spam days are done, as a result of the FTC's July 2004 lawsuit.
The settlement announced today between the FTC and the Boca Raton spammer requires him to pay $485,000 as redress for the estimated $5.97-million in consumer injury he caused. Operating as Hitech Marketing, Scientific Life Nutrition, and Rejuvenation Health Corp., Harry spammed herbal supplements touted to contain human growth hormone (HGH).
Thanks to a provision in Florida law that spammers and other criminals love, Harry, 37, gets to keep his $2.4-million, 6,000-square-foot mansion at 4430 Tranquility Drive in Boca. (Harry still has a $1,651,000 mortgage on the place.)
There are reports that the former New Jersey resident hid a lot of his money in banks in places like Latvia. All the FTC could scrounge up was about $270,000 in various U.S. banks. Harry has promised to pay the remaining $215,000 within six months.
Here's why I believe Harry's settlement is no cake walk.
Under the deal, he has agreed to several years of "compliance reporting" with the FTC. That means his businesses, which had been operating in the shadows, are now an open book to the government. For the next six years, he has to make all his business records (including employee records, customer lists, sales and profit data, etc.) available to the feds.
It's going to be awful hard to run a fraud under that kind of scrutiny.
Posted by brian at June 15, 2005 11:08 PM
Comments
Spam Kings readers could be interested in my followup at the link.
Posted by: Ethan Preston at June 20, 2005 12:41 PM
creaghan harry is a scammer....with money! its sad that he got over like a fat rat on that law suit...he didnt even lose his home ,purchased with funds scamed by innocent internet victims. i can tell you i used to work for the low life.he just finish beating the system....FTC....ITS SAD!
Posted by: victim #1 at June 30, 2005 8:57 PM
What is sad is that greed is the root of all evil. Most of the HGH $ made was done before the canspam act was around and he should have taken the money and run. Instead he needed more and more and still does!!! After all this HGH mess he joined Chris Smith and George Merwin creating the largest group of Online Pharmacy's, which has been shut down and now the two are hiding in DominRep-facing criminal charges. Karma get's us all! The people I really feel for is their children. And that those knew him before all of this.
Former Friend
Posted by: victim # 2 at July 1, 2005 12:11 AM
It looks like anyone who only has to deal with the FTC and
not the US Attorney gets off lightly.
All you have to do is put some of the stolen money into Florida real estate
and then claim that you are basically broke otherwise.
The people who ran the D-Squared pop-up blocker extortion
racket did much the same thing when they got caught.
That's why pro-spam lobbying groups like the DMA eventually got
behind the Can-Spam Act -- they know that leaving the
enforcement up to the FTC and pre-empting stronger state laws
means there won't really be much enforcement.
Posted by: spam killer at August 6, 2005 9:00 AM
ask maureen morris she has been under the radar for years,her and her accomplaces.someone should look at her banks.
Posted by: at August 19, 2005 4:32 PM
Creaghan Harry has a company called Americas Best Worldwide (Med Services, Americas Best Pharmacy, Mypillsrefills.com, affiliateint, justusameds.com, DRCCA ) and now it?s starting a project under the cover of the DRCCA ?trying to help the people harmed by Hurricane Katrina?.
Everything is a Scam. Try to spread the word.
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/09-06-2005/0004101338&EDATE=
www.drcca.org
As of right now the pharmacy is selling medications like Hydrocodone and Valium with no prescription hiding and changing names of pharmacies. The company?s toll free number is 1-800-443-7802 / 7803 / 7804
Posted by: Anonymous at September 15, 2005 7:30 PM
and now trying to clean himself doing the rigth things but its to late now
Posted by: andres at September 28, 2005 3:51 PM
I am a manager at Americas Best for 2 years now. We have a campaign as an affiliate of an online pharmacy. We are the ONLY company in the country that is an affiliate of a 100% legal and compliant online pharmacy that requires complete medical records, proof of being 21 years of age and then the MD spends 15 minutes on the phone with the patient. (more time than I have ever gotten with my doctor)
The contact center has nearly 300 employees and has three Fortune 1000 companies as loyal customers. We have seen bad press about Mr. Harry, but he does not run the company and we understand only has a small share of the company. Our experiences with him here has been very positive and he has been very fair to everyone. Additionally, the company has been a good employer, offering health benefits and respectful treatment to us.
Plus, the DRCCA has brought over a dozen companies, including telecom, infrastructure, customer service etc. to the DR and helped employ alot of people...so if Mr. Harry helped start that company, then he has done a good thing for alot of people here.
Americas Best has not taken a penny for the thousands of calls that we have taken for Katrina and has helped helped hundreds of families by answering all of the www.shareyourhome.org telephone calls for free.
There are always people out there that are bored or just "haters", but enough is enough.
Posted by: Javier at October 1, 2005 12:22 PM
So much misinformation. The FTC Act is a law that requires a company that makes a claim to have to prove it. The use of the word "fraud" related to this is quite a reach. The exact lawsuit filed against Harry was filed virtually verbatim against General Nutrition Centers (GNC) for HGH several other products, just months before Harry. It has even been used against Wonder Bread and dozens of Americas largest companies. Just go to any search engine and type in "FTC Act" and become informed.
Posted by: Fedlaws at October 1, 2005 12:46 PM
In response to reader "Fedlaws" ...
Not sure why you're splitting hairs over my use of the term "fraud." Harry was charged by the FTC with making "false claims" about his products. According to the Nolo legal glossary, fraud is "intentionally deceiving another person" and includes "lies and half-truths."
In any case, thanks for your input (from an IP address in Harry's home base of the Dominican Republic, no less).
Posted by: Brian at October 1, 2005 4:23 PM
Small share? Operations manager ?? Junior Rodgers ?? Nah. Nevermind
Posted by: Anonymous at October 24, 2005 11:46 AM
I am Talked to that Mr. Creaghan at Americas Best Worldwide do have some people doing what is called e process selling of drugs. Why does he lie and say he not doing it. my friend tell me many things about this company.
They take people credit card number and still the money some people dont get the medicine.
Why hurt people
Posted by: at November 2, 2005 5:21 PM
Now Mr Creaghan Harry and his staff of deported employees that he has starting from the general manager,production manger, and floor supervisors are making up fake pharmacies like BDP,americas best pharmacy, health solutions calling people to offer them med. at cheapper prices and with no med records and after a week of placing hundreds of order a day they sudently close down the pharmacies, and when people call requesting their medication they just give them fake cust service numbers and never get their medication after been taken out of their accounts more than 300 dollars for each med.And besides that in dominican republic by law when an employee is fired o this employee resigns has to be provided with an unployment compensation that is backed up by dominican goverment laws also they have to get paid all their vacation and cristmas bonuses but at americas best worldwide services they are not complying with the dominican republic rules and they are withholding theese benefits to all the employees and steeling the employees benefits thats the real truth of what MR creaghan A harry and his bunch of deported junkie