Firms Charged With Selling Milk as AIDS, Cancer Cure
Two Los Angeles-area companies charged with selling cow’s milk as a remedy for AIDS, cancer and other diseases were named Friday in a Superior Court civil lawsuit brought by a special health-care fraud task force formed last summer.
State Atty. Gen. John K. Van de Kamp accused proprietors of the two firms, Ancient Gold of Van Nuys and Miracles in Motion of Universal City, of bilking an unknown number of desperate people by peddling colostrum, the first milk from cows that have just given birth, as a cure.
Small bottles of diluted colostrum in both liquid and pill form were sold for $30 each, according to Van de Kamp. He said the sellers recommended that a user consume two bottles a week indefinitely.
Not Approved as Medicine
Colostrum never has been approved by a government agency for sale as a medicine, Van de Kamp said. But despite that fact, he said, the defendants have claimed that it not only cures AIDS and cancer, but also leukemia, lupus, multiple sclerosis, bed sores and toothaches.
The action filed Friday is the first brought by the attorney general’s AIDS Fraud Task Force. But Van de Kamp told reporters at his Los Angeles office, “It will not be the last.” He said the task force is investigating about a dozen other California companies.
“I want every con artist in the state to know that we will investigate and prosecute these cases to the fullest extent of the law,” Van de Kamp said. “Anybody hoping to make a quick buck off the misery of AIDS patients in California had better be prepared to pay a hefty price.”
$100,000 Penalties
The initial action named Dolores Diana Herrera and William Franklin Coverdill of Ancient Gold and David Walter Myers of Miracles in Motion. The state is seeking civil penalties of a minimum of $100,000 against each of the defendants.
The complaint charges the three with false and misleading advertising, failure to comply with state and federal laws concerning new drugs, illegally claiming that a drug has an effect on cancer and illegally offering for sale milk taken from cows within five days after birth.
The defendants also were accused of altering a letter received from St. Joseph Hospital in Flint, Mich., to make it appear to potential customers that the hospital was using the product or that it had merit in treating disease.
Possibly Widespread
Herschel Elkins, a senior assistant to Van de Kamp, said that the attorney general’s office does not know how prevalent the sale of colostrum as a remedy has been, but he said three government agencies became aware of it almost simultaneously, indicating to him that it may have been widespread.
The product was manufactured in the Midwest and advertised in small health magazines, flyers and publications oriented to homosexuals, Elkins said. The manufacturer was not charged.
Prosecutors decided to file a civil rather than a criminal action because a civil case offers an effective solution through fines and injunctions while rating a higher priority for action by the civil court than a criminal court would assign to it, Elkins said.
