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Alleged Phoenix scammer Donald Lapre, who skipped his court date on Wednesday, was apprehended last night in Tempe.
United States marshals busted Lapre in the area of Warner Road and Priest Drive in Tempe.
Lapre, the owner of the company The Best
Vitamin in the World, was indicted last week for allegedly swindling
thousands of people out of more than $50 million by having them buy his
essentially “worthless” franchises.
In a 41-count indictment returned earlier this month, the U.S.
Department of Justice alleges that Lapre’s company sold useless,
Internet-based businesses to more than 220,000 victims.
The
charges against him include mail fraud, conspiracy, wire fraud,
promotional money-laundering, and transactional money-laundering.
According
to the indictment, he’d enlisted about 226,794 people to sell his
“worthless” products through individual sites of their own.
Lapre,
the feds allege, offered bogus incentives for his sellers, such as
promises “each time you get 20 new people to try our vitamin, we send
you a check for $1,000!”
According to the indictment, during the
course of the scheme, those scammed were swindled out of a whopping
total of $51,816,308.67.
The judge handling Lapre’s case has
issued a bench warrant for his arrest, and U.S. Marshals reportedly
are “actively looking” for him.
Kholood Eid contributed to this post.
