"Male Enhancement" Drug Guru In Hot Water

(AP)  A federal court jury on Friday found the owner of a company that sells "male enhancement" tablets and other herbal supplements guilty on charges of conspiracy to commit mail fraud, bank fraud and money laundering.

Steve Warshak is founder and president of Berkeley Premium Nutraceuticals, distributor of Enzyte and a number of products alleged to boost energy, manage weight, reduce memory loss and aid restful sleep.

Television ads for Enzyte feature "Smiling Bob," a goofy, grinning man whose life gets much better after he uses the product.

Warshak, 40, could face more than 20 years in prison and his company could have to forfeit tens of millions of dollars.

Prosecutors claimed that customers were bilked out of $100 million through a series of deceptive ads, manipulated credit card transactions and the company's refusal to accept returns or cancel orders. They said unauthorized credit card charges generated thousands of complaints over unordered products.

Warshak's mother, Harriett Warshak, also was convicted of conspiracy, bank fraud and money laundering charges.

The government also alleged that defendants obstructed investigations by two federal agencies.

Some former employees, including relatives of Warshak, pleaded guilty to other charges and cooperated with prosecutors. They testified that the company created fictitious doctors to endorse the pills, fabricated a customer-satisfaction survey and made up numbers to back claims about Enzyte's effectiveness.

Defense lawyers characterized that testimony as tainted because it was forced by the threat of prosecution.

[fishinfool43]

wonder if old Bob will still be smiling after a few nights in the "slammer" ROFL

[mistered9]

Why just Mortgage lenders. why not oil companies to. People put themselves in the morgage situation by over buying to keep up with the neighbors.
I don''t feel a bit sory for them. Live in what your income deserves.

[ioweign]

Or perhaps more importantly, what will Bob''''''''s girls do now?

Posted by rushlimpdrug at 09:38 AM : Feb 23, 2008

You know, Bob''s wife wasn''t all that bad looking. I might look her up and give her a go.

Posted by olebd at 01:17 PM : Feb 23, 2008


Enzyte side effect is failing eyesight...

[shanev137]

No wonder Bob was smiling.

[ov442]

Its not so bad they sold a worthless nonworking, semi dangerous product, its that they committed all those illegal acts using people''s accounts, cards and purposefully refusing to cancel orders or give the refunds.

Isnt this the exact same thing the guy to who did all the girlz gon wild videos did?

its pry going on with just about everything on tv.
theres more ads than this enzyte one going on late night tv.
I hope they investigate all of them.

[denn034]

Water or ***? Sorry, couldn''t help myself.

[olebd]

So what you''re saying is this stuff was really snake oil for your little snake?

[Keypinitreel1]

Way to go... times long overdue to weed the scheisters and frauds out of business. Cheating people by misrepresenting products and giving capitalism a bad name.

[hypnotoad72]

closethippy1 - who be your target audience? Women or disease carriers?

[hypnotoad72]

mariony - the people of the USA don''t even have compassion for their own. Jobs either. Then we don''t spend enough, save enough, et cetera.

LOL, everybody said having media consolidation would result in the same thing being reported everywhere. Weird how the polar opposite has happened instead.