On August 3, 2007, I, Darrell Stoddard,
was served an “ORDER AND JUDGMENT FOR PERMANENT
INJUNCTION AND OTHER EQUITABLE RELIEF” by the United States
District Court, Central District of California in a
suit by the Federal Trade Commission for making false and
misleading medical claims for the product called
Biotape.
I was ordered to pay $87,982.19 (now 4-15-08 $113,049.67)
in damages to the United States Treasury even though
not one person has ever claimed to be harmed. (Some
people report skin irritation from Biotape
but that always clears within a few days after removing
the tape.)
As citizens
of the United States, I thought we were guaranteed
by the Constitution the right to a trial by a jury.
My right even to be heard by a judge in this case
was not possible because it would have been necessary
to go to California and hire a California attorney. This
would have cost an estimated $60,000 that could not be
recovered and that I did not have.
The case was tried in California and only one
side, the side of the FTC, was heard. Judge Stephen G.
Larsen appears to have granted every restriction against
me the FTC asked for. I have been convicted of the above charges
without being heard by a judge or jury.
Even
if I had put dozens of medical doctors and hundreds of patients
on the witness stand, all testifying that
Biotape relieved thir pain and did no harm, I
would have still lost the case, because I was never charged
with harming anyone.
Whether or not Biotape relieved
pain or whether I had told the truth was never a question
either. My only crime was the words I used and if those words
were substantiated by what the FTC would accept as reliable medical
evidence.
In
an arbitration hearing in Los Angeles two
years before receiving the above judgment, we were verbally
told by an FTC attorney (Laura Sullivan?) that there would
be no financial penalty against us. To be in compliance
at that time, we put disclaimers on all of our web pages
and literature stating that the evidence for
Biotape was only anecdotal and unproven
by double-blind placebo controlled studies.
Copies
of the web pages and our literature with the disclaimers
were sent to the FTC for them to tell us what we must do
to comply. We waited two years for the FTC to do this. In July,
2007 we were informed by FTC attorney Edward Glennon that no matter
how many disclaimers were made, we would not be in compliance.
If pharmaceutical companies are allowed to
advertise and sell drugs that have harmful side effects
providing they disclose the side effects, then should
I not be allowed to advertise and sell
Biotape which has no side effects, providing
I include a disclaimer stating that the evidence is only
anecdotal and not supported by double-blind
placebo controlled studies?
On August 3, 2007 I was served papers notifying
me of the $87,000 fine which represents gross sales from an
infomercial. (The truth is I only received one third of the $87,000
because I had to share it with two others. Half of the gross sales
were for the book Pain Free for Life. The $87,000
fine is therefore six times what I received in gross sales of Biotape
from the infomercial.)
A medical doctor and former astronaut sent us
the following email on the day the papers were served:
Darrell,
I was just thinking of
you since I had another awakening as to just how much
I need your bioelectric tape to convey chi around. The
other night, my tape came off my back in the night and
I forgot the event. The next day was spent wondering what
had happened to me with returning low back pain, fatigue, disinclination
to do anything, weakness, sour attitude, etc., and finally
after two days of worsening I stumbled onto my lack of tape
during my shower. The strange thing is that I did not pick up
on this earlier as it is my fourth or fifth test of going without,
but I honestly forgot about it, so subtle was the return of the
problem. Within an hour I was back to normal and more committed
than ever to this bioelectric tape and what it does to my back pain.
You cannot believe what a difference Biotape makes
in me.
Doc (Duane Graveline, MD, MPH)
We
received the following Email the day after the papers
were served:
Dear Mr. Stoddard,
I have been in excruciating pain for over 15 years.
I have even contemplated suicide as an option for
pain relief. I have used a lifetime maximum of insurance
benefits and more in an effort to find relief. I was so
tired of having the constant excruciating pain suck the
life out of me. I put the Biotape on immediately
and started reading your book. I was so impressed with your
book that I didn't put it down until I had finished it. I've
only had the tape on for 13 hours and I can already feel a significant
(40%) improvement. Your book was the best book I've ever read.
It has given me knowledge and insight to gain control of
my health when I thought my only option was to "suck it up
and learn to live with the pain forever." Every time I expressed
a desire to find a remedy for my pain I was told that I was "in
denial" and I need to face reality. Thanks for my new reality! May
God bless you and put a hedge of protection around you.
Forever grateful, Jeanine Fowler
Maybe
the FTC or Judge Larsen should inform Dr. Graveline
and Jeanine Fowler that they are “victims of fraud.”
Go to "www.healpain.net" on the internet and click on number
2 to read about 21 more “deluded people” that should have
been “protected” from Biotape claims. (Hundreds
more are on file. We included only the most “delusional.”)
You can go
to "www.healpain.net"and click on number
4 to read about 18 doctors that have been “deceived”
by the results they witnessed first hand using
Biotape for chronic pain.
Did
I make false and misleading medical claims? Definitely
not! Every word I said was true. The evidence I presented
was based on thousands of clinical treatments. The outcome
of suich treatments (case studies) is legitimate medical research and
published in every medical journal.
FTC definition
of the words: “False, Misleading, Unproven, and Unsubstantiated”
More than 18,000 documented
treatments for pain, most of them successful, is significant “evidence”
for the effectiveness of Biotape. Dennis Remington M.D.
presided over more than 12,000 treatments. He concluded that overall
the treatments were successful 80% of the time. This evidence according
to the FTC is still false and misleading, because it is unproven and
unsubstantiated by double-blind placebo controlled studies.
That
is what the words unproven and unsubstantiated
mean. To anyone who does not understand the medical
meaning of those words, the words imply that there is no
evidence for Biotape and
that selling Biotape is nothing but a scam
based on lies.
If you
asked a thousand people what the words unsubstantiated
and unproven mean, none of them would answer correctly.
Unless they were scientists, attorneys, or doctors,
no one would say that the words mean unsubstantiated and
unproven by double-blind placebo
controlled studies.
By leaving out the above last six words in their complaint, the FTC
misled everyone that saw it.
The headline of an internet page (posted by
a law firm) telling about the FTC complaint reads: “FTC
Claims Biotape is the Latest in Medical Quackery.”
A news release by the FTC dated 9-18-07 refers to the $86,000
as my “ill gotten gains.” A Senior Citizen Alert 9-20-07 states “Senior
Citizens Scammed by “Fake Pain Relief Tape.” Would
anyone reading the above headlines not think that Biotape
is a total fraud, and a scam sold only to make money?
More than 57,000 people, including all medical doctors, have
been misled by the FTC complaint. We have received that many
visitors to our website since the FTC complaint was posted. The search
words Biotape and/or Darrell Stoddard
bring up both the FTC complaint and our website.
Doctors have refused to even consider Biotape
because of the FTC complaint. One prominent pain
specialist (that never even saw or tried Biotape)
stated on a national TV news program that “pain was
far too complex to be helped by anything as simple as
Biotape.” Later the doctor refused
to answer questions and said his reason for doing so was
“the FTC complaint.”
Double-Blind
Placebo Controlled Studies
After receiving the complaint by the FTC, I
went to New Zealand at considerable expense to do a double-blind
placebo controlled study with Sir Thomas Davis, MD,
former Harvard Medical School professor, NASA Space Surgeon,
knighted by the queen of England for his work in medicine,
and known as the “Father of Double-Blind Studies.”
The
New Zealand Trade Commission read the FTC complaint against
me on the internet and went on national television and in newspapers
warning people not to take part in the study. We were served papers
stating that if we sold Biotape in New Zealand, we could be fined
as much as $250,000. The New Zealand Trade Commission was
obviously mislead by the words “False and Misleading” in the FTC complaint.
The complaint made it impossible to do the study
which the FTC claims I must do. Had the complaint, which has
been on the internet for three years, stated that,
“The evidence for Biotape is unproven
and unsubstantiated by double-blind placebo controlled
studies,” it would have been
true and not misleading.
The FTC Complaint is
still on the internet 10-22-07. Because of the complaint, I
was prevented from doing a double-blind study and threatened with a
$250,000 fine; Biotape was called the Latest in Medical Quackery;
the sale of Biotape brought ill-gotten
gains; and senior citizens were reported Scammed
by Fake Pain Relief Tape. The FTC Complaint is not only false and misleading
but defamatory.
Should I not be compensated
for the amount required to do a double-blind study and also damages
for the false and misleading complaint against me?
The FTC judgment against me states it is
“FOR EQUITABLE RELIEF.” I must ask “RELIEF” for whom? Nothing
in the judgment says anything about reimbursing those who were
supposedly defrauded. Because the $86,000 fine was to be paid
to the United States Treasury, the fine must be for the “RELIEF”
of the Treasury.
Absolute Power
Corrupts
The laws and courts of our land have granted
the FTC unbridled dictatorial power to freeze assets,
seize property, dictate penalties, and silence whomever
they choose.
In recent cases prosecuted by the FTC the penalties
have been equal to the total income of the goods sold. Financial
statements are required and if the statements are found
to be incomplete the penalties may increase not 100 but 1000%!
Kevin Trudeau paid a two million dollar fine
for infomercials to sell my book Pain Free for Life,
and Biotape. If the FTC ever discovers that the
financial statements Trudeau gave them did not include
every asset (this could be a wrist watch, fishing pole, camera, gun, palm
pilot, or cell phone), the penalty will be twenty
million dollars! Has power gone to their heads or what?
Why
would anyone but pharmaceutical companies not want you to
know about drug free, harmless treatments for pain?
The FTC attorneys and Judge Larsen, think they are doing
good and protecting the public (because people are not
intelligent enough to think for themselves).
Father Forgive
Them
In Victor
Hugo’s great Classic, Les Miserables, the
French police officer Javert thought he was doing good
by pursuing Jean Valjean to bring him to justice. Not until
the end, when Jean Valjean forgave Javert, did Javert realize
what a horrible mistake his life had been.
The FTC lawyers and Judge Larson believe their
actions are just. When they or a loved one are hospitalized
for internal bleeding, or has kidney or liver failure,
or has a heart attack or a stroke from taking pain medications;
or when they hear of a drug addict murdering to get narcotics,
then maybe they will wonder if there could possible be
something better than drugs for pain.
When
they or a loved has spinal surgery and ends up with
more pain after than before the surgery, then maybe
they will wonder about the fact that all of the evidence
for back surgery is also only anecdotal and not supported
by blinded placebo controlled studies. (See part three
of this article.)
Judge Larson and the FTC lawyers know not who it
is or what it is that they have tried to silence.
Biotape, and the right kind of water
and minerals, has the potential of replacing the 50
billion dollars that is spent in the world each year on harmful
pain medications. Is that claim not even worth investigating?
The
minds of the FTC attorneys and Judge Larson are closed.
For this reason, I say, “Father, forgive them for
they know not what they do.” Someday I will thank the FTC
even for the negative publicity.
You
can sleep well at night knowing that the FTC, your government,
courts, and judges are looking out for your health
(and your pocketbook), and protecting you from predators
and visionaries like Darrell Stoddard.
If people let the government
decide
what foods they eat and what medicines they take, their bodies
will soon be in as sorry a state
as the souls who live under tyranny
- Thomas Jefferson