When the government comes down hard on Scientology grifters

[Peyroux, left, and Detelich]

With all of the alarming news here at the Bunker recently about wealthy Scientologists getting chummy with the new White House administration, we thought we’d provide a counterexample.

Recently, the federal government and the state of Georgia announced that it had barred two chiropractors from continuing to market bogus “stem cell” therapies and fined them more than $5 million, one of the biggest actions against a field of flim-flam that’s been growing by leaps and bounds.

We first wrote about Steve Peyroux and Brent Detelich back in 2021, not only because they were being sued by the government for these fraudulent therapies, but also because both of them happen to be Scientologists.

And when we wrote about them in 2021, we had also been looking at the way Grant Cardone had also been spreading around bogus information about stem cells, and recruiting chiropractors to give questionable injections for a high profit. As far as we know, however, Cardone’s involvement in this burgeoning racket hasn’t resulted in a similar investigation.

Peyroux and Detelich, on the other hand, had the hammer come down.

[One of the ads from Detelich and Peyroux, included as evidence in the lawsuit]

Here’s a description of what they were accused of, according to Med Page Today, and notice how much it sounds like a WISE operation straight out of the Scientology playbook.

According to the complaint, Peyroux, a chiropractor, and Detelich, a former chiropractor, co-founded SCIA in 2015. They trained healthcare professionals, including chiropractors, “how to deceptively market their unproven stem cell therapy and hosted free seminars and consultations, which were full of baseless claims. Individuals — most of them seniors and/or people with disabilities — were charged up to $5,000 per injection, and many received more than one.”

The defendants formed companies that advised “chiropractors and other healthcare practitioners on expanding their business model and increasing revenue,” the complaint stated. SCIA “instructed chiropractors and other healthcare practitioners to expand their health offerings but focused exclusively on stem cell therapy ... [and] provided clients with the appearance of being part of a large nationwide healthcare network under the SCIA name and logo,” according to the complaint.

“Defendants charged clients a monthly fee, ranging from $1,500 to $5,500 for an ‘exclusivity radius’ within which SCIA would not train any other provider or allow them to use the SCIA name and logo. Alternatively, SCIA charged a flat fee of $400 for each injection administered by its clients,” the complaint stated.

The Federal Trade Commission and the Georgia Attorney General's Office announced that the two had been banned from making further “bogus claims,” and they were ordered to pay $3.3 million to former customers and an additional $1.845 million in penalties.

And that’s certainly great, isn’t it? To see the government come down hard on Scientologists who were putting people at risk with a lot of bogus health quackery?

Well, yes it is great. But we’ll further point out that the court decision came in December, and the government announcement of the ban happened in early January, before the change at the White House.

Med Page Today, in fact, quoted an expert saying that new Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (who has his own connections to high-level Scientologists) has said he wants to “end the FDA war” against stem cells and open up the field.

It looks like the government came down on these two just in time.

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More claims that an Ideal Org opening is imminent

Following up on that most recent claim from the folks in Puerto Rico, here’s another appeal for help and cash!

Puerto Rico Files — Home Stretch

It's hard to believe it's been 16 months since I went to Puerto Rico for the Files Project. How time flies!

We're now in the home stretch, with Org scheduled to open in two months (or less!)

There's a lot of work left on CF itself, which is the bulk of the work.

PC folders, nearly 100 percent done. Student folders (Div 4 & 6) nearly 100 percent done.

CF — they're on letter A, with less than 1,000 of 30,000 folders completed (less than 3 percent).

A small but enthusiastic team in Puerto Rico has been hard at work on the Files.

There's quite a ways to go.

Help is needed!

We need volunteers to go to Puerto Rico

— Yourself

— Someone you know

We also need funds $$ to support volunteers who have the time but not the resources, who are there or arriving soon.

I could wax eloquent on how Puerto Rico opens the door to the entire Caribbean. 43 million people, 1 Ideal Org. I could speak passionately about people working in pharmaceutical factories, or guinea pigs for the latest "cure." I could reflect on the culture and friendliness of the people, their craving for The Way to Happiness and other strong indicators of a people yearning to be free.

All of that is true.

What's also true is the Grand Opening is fast approaching like a freight train going downhill. We've got to get the org ready to deliver and deliver NOW (OK — in two months, but two months goes by pretty fast!).

Make your donation. Arrange to go for a week or weekend. Shanghai a friend to go. Drop a dead president towards the Files Project (Andrew Jackson = $20, Ulysses S. Grant = $50, Ben Franklin = $100, William McKinley = $500, Grover Cleveland = $1,000).

Your help will lead to opening the doors for millions of people to go free.

Thank you,

Curt Larson "CF Whisperer"

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Source Code: Actual things founder L. Ron Hubbard said on this date in history

Avast, Ye Mateys: Snapshots from Scientology’s years at sea

Overheard in the Freezone: Indie Hubbardism, one thought at a time

Past is Prologue: From this week in history at alt.religion.scientology

Random Howdy: Your daily dose of the Captain

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