Don Lapre
| Don Lapre | |
|---|---|
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| Born |
Donald D. Lapre May 19, 1964 Providence, Rhode Island, U.S. |
| Died | October 2, 2011 (aged 47) Florence, Arizona, U.S. |
| Occupation | Television direct-response pitchman |
| Years active | 1988–2011 |
Donald D. "Don" Lapre (May 19, 1964 – October 2, 2011) was an American multi-level marketing and infomercial salesman. His work involved product packages such as "The Greatest Vitamin in the World" and "Making Money Secrets".
Lapre was criticized as selling questionable business plans that often did not work for his clients. In June 2011, Lapre was charged with 41 counts of conspiracy, mail fraud, wire fraud, and promotional money laundering related to his Internet businesses. He was arrested on June 24, 2011, for failing to appear in court to face these charges.
Born in Providence, Rhode Island, Lapre moved to Phoenix, Arizona with his family when he was a child. He married Sally Redondo in 1988. A high-school dropout, in 1990, Lapre and his wife started a credit repair business called Unknown Concepts. Lapre then began selling a 36-page booklet explaining how to recover a Federal Housing Administration insurance refund after paying off a home mortgage. He also began offering "900" phone lines. On TV infomercials in the early–mid 1990s, he claimed that by placing "tiny classified ads" in newspapers he was "able to make $50,000 a week from [his] tiny one-bedroom apartment".
In 1992, Lapre began broadcasting The Making Money Show with Don Lapre, which suggested that viewers could make money as easily as he had. For several years the show was ranked among the ten most frequently broadcast cable television infomercials. The principal product was Lapre's "Money Making Secrets", a package of booklets, tapes, and common-sense tips for placing ads and operating a 900-number business. The product was sold through "New Strategies", whose parent company was Tropical Beaches.
He later began broadcasting infomercials for "The Greatest Vitamin in the World". In 2005, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warned Lapre about claims his vitamins were intended as a drug for diseases such as diabetes, stroke, heart disease, insomnia, cancer, and arthritis. The FDA stated "Your products are not generally recognized as safe and effective for the above referenced conditions." In 2006 the FDA again warned Lapre about untruthful claims.
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