Don Lapre was a famous and infamous internet marketer who committed suicide over the weekend while waiting in jail for his trial. Lapre had been arrested for 41 counts of conspiracy, mail fraud, wire fraud, promotional money laundering, and transactional money laundering.
Lapre started his business in 1990, based around credit repair. Soon after he began selling booklets, helping people receive a FHA insurance refund after their mortgages had been paid. This led to his first big moneymaker, when he started an infomercial stating people could make $50,000 a week using his strategy which was based around “tiny classified ads” in newspapers.
Lapre’s first trouble with the law came in 2005, when the FDA accused Lapre of making false promises about a vitamin he was involved in selling. His business claimed the vitamin would assist against diseases such as diabetes, stroke, heart disease, insomnia, cancer, and arthritis. He would receive two warnings from the FDA before finally taking “The Greatest Vitamin in the World” website down.
Lapre would come to be monitored by consumer watchdog groups, claiming Lapre was selling false get-rich-quick-schemes online. On June 8th, 2011, Lapre was indicted by a grand jury for selling worthless internet businesses. He was accused of scamming 220,000 victims out of $52 million. On October 2, Lapre died from what appears to be suicide, but his death is still under investigation.
On his site DonLapre.com, there are photos of Lapre’s house and family along with a lengthy goodbye message.
I tried to create the best product on earth, paid out millions, made very little trying to make it a success, had attorneys review my entire company, paid out millions in refunds, tried to make the commission and products better every single year, and in spite of all that, I have been accused of something I did not do. I did not have the perfect company but never once did I allow one thing to be done that would violate any law. Nevertheless, because the majority of people did not make money, in spite of everyone of them being able to make as many $1000 checks as they wanted, I am left to fight a battle that will for sure destroy what energy I have left inside… I hope the pictures below motivate you to take a chance in life and try to do the impossible… It did not work out for me with my vitamins but I believe that being willing to fail is part of having a chance at success…. Never stop dreaming and for all those who sent me testimonials of what you did because of some of my help, I am grateful I made a small difference in your life…