SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH, USA -- One year to the day
following a ruling by the Texas Attorney General (AG) that temporarily
shut them down, BioPerformance Inc. resumed operations, promoting its
pill/powder fuel additive that is said to increase mileage and
horsepower while decreasing emissions.
On Thursday, May 17, BioPerformance sent an email to its former
distributors (independent business owners -- IBOs), announcing that the
company was back in operation, following a preliminary test run with a
few selected IBOs in which they earned nearly $270,000 in commissions in
the first week.
Last year, May 17, 2006, when they were earning nine million dollars in
sales with 50,000 distributors, the company was ordered by the Texas AG
to temporarily halt operations, being charged with being a pyramid and
for the product being toxic and not working as claimed. (Ref.)
These charges were upheld in a hearing on May 30, 2006. (Ref.)
A jury trial was set for Sept. 18, 2006, then postponed to Jan/Feb 2007.
An agreement was struck on Jan. 23, 2007 forcing BioPerformance to pay
several million dollars compensation and banning them from making
unjustified marketing claims, although with no admittance of any
wrongdoing on the part of BioPerformance. (Ref.)
The Texas AG did not allow the company to issue refunds and other
payouts owed, but required such claims to be submitted to the AG office,
which, ironically, were very difficult to file, and which have not yet
been paid out, at least in some cases.
On April 19, 2007, founding associate, Earnie Land (Doc Fog), acquired
the company from Lowell Mims, who founded the company in late 2005.
In his parting message to BP associates, Mims said: "When the State of
Texas obtained a temporary injunction, we promised the distributors that
we would fight for the company and its product. From that day to this,
and against seemingly insurmountable odds, we have worked tirelessly to
help restore the good names of all who were involved. We also submitted
BioPerformance Fuel to rigorous, scientific testing and it passed the
tests, as we knew it would."
BioPerformance compared to Naphthalene
by University of Central Florida
|
Prior to the injunction, Mims and other BioPerformance executives had
repeatedly and adamantly denied that the BioPerformance pill/powder
contained any Naphthalene -- a toxic chemical that has been shown to
improve mileage, but to the detriment of the engine. (Ref.)
The old website had touted the product as "non-toxic". Now the new
website states that the product does contain a small portion of
Naphthalene "as a dispersant", but it attributes the primary function of
the product to three enzymes, which are non-patented trade secrets.
The Texas AG requires BP to state: "This product contains naphthalene as
an active ingredient. Short term exposure, inhalation, ingestion or
dermal contact with naphthalene is associated with hemolytic anemia,
damage to the liver, and neurological damage." In their re-launch,
BioPerformance has chosen not to do business in Texas.
The new BP website pledges: "We will provide to the very best of our
ability the best company of integrity with the best products and
services our world needs..." Yet in the second-to-last page of the "Business
Presentation" linked from the top of the header that appears on
every page of the site, is a bullet statement that alleges that no
competing products exist.
This is a false statement in the extreme. There are many products on
the market that increase fuel efficiency. (Ref.)
This is a fact about which the company leadership is certainly apprized
to at least a small extent, inasmuch as BP dealers were solicited
extensively by competing companies when the Texas AG injunction halted
BP last year. Furthermore, BP defended itself against one of
competitor, Enviromax, who claimed BP was in violation of its patent. (Ref.)
As of the writing of this article, an inquiry to Doc Fog about this
misrepresentation has not been answered.
Originally published at:
http://pesn.com/2007/05/18/9500472_BioPerformance_resumes/
|