OMAHA, Neb. (AP) - An Omaha health clinic that offered unproven stem cell treatments for joint pain, erectile dysfunction and even Alzheimer’s disease bilked consumers in Iowa and Nebraska out of at least $2.8 million, state officials said Thursday.
The attorneys general of Iowa and Nebraska each filed lawsuits against Regenerative Medicine and Anti-Aging Institutes of Omaha, alleging that company officials made misleading statements about the effectiveness of their treatments.
Company officials targeted mostly elderly customers with local television advertisements and in-person seminars with high-pressure sales tactics, the attorneys general said.
According to the lawsuits, company officials held more than 90 seminars in Iowa and 84 in Nebraska where they claimed they could reverse the aging process and treat conditions such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, arthritis and erectile dysfunction.
Those claims have little scientific backing, the lawsuits say, but customers in Iowa were still persuaded to spend between $1,400 and $27,000 for treatments. Overall, state officials said, the company defrauded consumers out of at least $2 million in Nebraska and $800,000 in Iowa.
“Whenever a claim like this is made, it gets our attention,” said Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller. “It’s fraud, it’s audacious and it’s very unlikely they’re going to be able to document claims like this.”
Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson said customers were essentially victimized twice because they lost money and were given an ineffective treatment that hasn’t received federal approval. The treatments aren’t covered by private insurance or Medicare, so customers usually end up paying out of pocket.
Peterson and Miller said they haven’t found evidence that anyone was physically harmed by the treatments, but they’re still investigating.
“Consumers are entitled to accurate and truthful information about any product or service, but especially those products that affect their health and well-being,” Peterson said.
The lawsuits also name co-owners Travis and Emily Autor, who are married, and two other companies they own: Omaha Stem Cells, LLC, and Stem Cell Centers LLC. The Iowa lawsuit also names Michael Pavey, a partial owner of the company who lives in Spokane, Washington.
Peterson’s office said the Autors have also been affiliated with clinics in Arizona, Florida, Idaho, Montana, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington.
Phone calls to several listed numbers for the company’s Omaha office were either disconnected or met with busy signals. The office appeared to be empty on Thursday, with a sign out front saying the space was available. Another window sign identified the company as Stem Cell Centers LLC.
A man who answered the phone at the company’s national corporate office said he had not seen the lawsuit but promised to relay a request for comment to the Autors.
Travis Autor defended his company against similar allegations last year in a story by the Spokesman-Review newspaper in Spokane, Washington. He claimed at the time to have treated between 8,000 and 10,000 patients in the seven clinics that he and his wife own.
The newspaper also reported that he used to be known as Travis Broughton before he agreed in 2009 to allow the state of Washington to suspend his chiropractic credentials for 10 years to settle allegations of double-billing, having sex with a patient and smoking marijuana during lunch breaks at his business in Spokane Valley. He claimed he was falsely accused by an ex-girlfriend.
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Associated Press photographer Nati Harnik in Omaha contributed to this report.
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