Infomercial Huckster Indicted for "Swindling a Sea of Victims" out of $50 Million

The self-proclaimed "King of Infomercials" and snake oil salesman extraordinaire Donald Lapre was indicted this past Wednesday on more than 40 counts for his nationwide scheme to promote useless vitamins that defrauded nearly a quarter of a million victims out of more than $50 million.

A federal grand jury in Phoenix, Ariz., indicted Lapre, 47, on 41 counts for conspiracy, mail fraud, wire fraud, promotional money laundering and transactional money laundering. The indictment accused Lapre of conning more than 220,000 consumers to invest in worthless online businesses via his company, "The Greatest Vitamin in the World."

"This indictment goes to show that if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is," U.S. Attorney Dennis K. Burke said in a statement. "Mr. Lapre used incessant nationally televised infomercials to hawk his vitamins and worthless websites as a way to get rich quick without working hard. His scams swindled a sea of victims, but thanks to the efforts of the Postal Inspection Service and the IRS, he will face justice."