Remember this guy?





Arizona TV pitchman Don Lapre, the self-styled "King of Infomercials," has been found dead in his jail cell, just days before he was due to stand trial on charges of bilking investors and customers out of almost $52 million.

According to AZCentral.com, U.S. Marshals said Lapre's body was discovered on Sunday morning at a federal-contract facility in Florence, Arizona.

Officials suspect he committed suicide while in federal custody, but the death remains under investigation.

In June, a grand jury indicted Lapre on 41 counts of conspiracy, mail fraud, wire fraud and promotional money laundering. He was arrested in Tempe shortly afterward and his trial on fraud charges linked to his vitamin-selling business was due to start tomorrow.

He reportedly attempted suicide by slashing his femoral artery when federal marshals arrived to arrest him.

'The Greatest Vitamin in the World' pitchman was accused of overseeing and promoting a misleading opportunity. Officials allege that he defrauded investors and customers by selling them worthless vitamins that didn't live up to his extravagant advertising claims.

Lapre is alleged to have used his trademark emphatic TV pitch style to recruit some 220,000 investors and customers, who handed over almost $52 million before his business was shut down in 2007.

He came to fame on TV pitch shows like 'Making Money From A Tiny One Bedroom Apartment,' and his sales technique relied heavily on recounting his hard-luck life story to viewers. He claimed to have made a fortune by running numerous tiny classified ads in thousands of newspapers around the country.

Lapre encouraged viewers to turn their lives around like he said he had and regaled them with tales of how he had made $50,000 a week out of his one-bedroom apartment.

At one stage Lapre was so well-known that his schtick was parodied by David Spade on 'Saturday Night Live.'

A statement on his website challenges the idea that he made millions out of the vitamins business: "I tried to create the best product on earth, paid out millions, made very little trying to make it a success, had attorneys review my entire company, paid out millions in refunds. ... I did not have the perfect company but never once did I allow one thing to be done that would violate any law."

http://www.aoltv.com/2011/10/03/infomercial-star-don-lapre-found-dead-in-jail/?ncid=webmail2

It's always gratifying to see a scumbag become a dead scumbag. Rest In Piss

How do you feel about the company that sold you those those eggies things?

runawayhorses wrote:How do you feel about the company that sold you those those eggies things?

I don't. I think about how we tend to assume that nobody would dare commit such a glaring example of thievery and see them do it anyway. The other example would be "Free credit score DOT com". You will NOT get anything without signing up and paying but they have been advertising for years. I buy a lot of stuff from Heartland America and get good stuff. I should limit my purchases to them.

In other words, I think of my own gullibility.

I think I've bought some things from Heartland America before but it was years ago because I don't remember what they were. I don't remember being disappointed with them or I would most certainly remember it. I don't believe I used the internet they had a little paper magazine they published that you got in your mail, I think I used that.

For music I like Musician's Friend. I order my guitar strings there. I also bought my Fender Amp there. They have always treated me right.

"Musician's Friend" Me too. They have everything.

So let me get this straight, its alright to sell eggies that don't work the way they were advertised on TV but its NOT alright to sell get rich schemes that don't work as advertised on TV? Seems to me they are both doing the same sort of thing. Selling things that don't work as advertised. I think under that line of reasoning you should want the makers of eggies dead too.

? I didn't mean to imply that I didn't give a shit that they ripped me off. But this tv con-man stole about $250 per customer. As far as the "eggies' people are concerned,I don't care if they live or die, but it's pretty easy getting over a $26 loss. I learned a cheap lesson.

So its money related, as to how much you are getting ripped off that constitutes if they should live or die. I wonder how much money eggies has made so far. They are still on TV as we speak.

runawayhorses wrote:So its money related, as to how much you are getting ripped off that constitutes if they should live or die. I wonder how much money eggies has made so far. They are still on TV as we speak.

Well, if you are going to treat my comments seriously, I'll say that the eggies people, The freecreditscore people, and this vitamin asshole are not guilty of a capitol crime. People who commit suicide are quitters. He didn't need to be sentenced to death by me. He was already dead.

meemoon wrote:Well, if you are going to treat my comments seriously, I'll say that the eggies people, The freecreditscore people, and this vitamin asshole are not guilty of a capitol crime. People who commit suicide are quitters. He didn't need to be sentenced to death by me. He was already dead.

He could have survived with a fine and some time in jail, he could have eventually walked. He wasn't already dead.

Why shouldn't I take your comments seriously, there was nothing funny in what you said in your posts? You expressed ugly thoughts towards someone that schemed people out of there money. He didn't murder anyone. You said "It's always gratifying to see a scumbag become a dead scumbag. Rest In Piss".

What is funny about that comment and why shouldn't I take that as a serious reaction by you? When and where do I differentiate between your serious posts and your jokes?

You asked: "When and where do I differentiate between your serious posts and your jokes?" Whenever and wherever you want to.

OK fine, then I won't take you serious at all.

I guess two wrongs make a right.. "I screwed them outta $11,500 when they tried to screw me".

I rest my case.

You wrote: "I won't take you serious at all" That's OK with me.