Galaxy Wave = blatant swindle, but criminal too?

[UnTrickaBLe]

http://www.galaxywave.com/

Randi pointed out this shameful, ridiculous and potenitally criminal enterprise in his commentary this week. I have rarely seen a more blatant ripoff in my life, and usually, those are for more innocent swindles, like breast growth or fitness. Can't these Galaxy Wave people be prosecuted for fraud?

If legitimate MDs can be sued for malpractice, what about these outright quacks?

Also, I have to laugh at the picture they are so proud to show off of their "new 3,400 Sq. ft facility in Kingman, AZ"

http://www.galaxywave.com/_borders/Building_Front.gif

In a strip mall. :rolleyes:

I'm sure some cutting-edge, ground-breaking science is being done there.

[Quasi]

Unfortunately, most law enforcment agencies are not interested in busting quacks. These people are merely pushing the same ideas as homeopaths, naturopaths and many chiros. If the law actually cracked down on them, they would also have to stop a lot of other more entrenched forms of fraud such as traditional chiropractic, naturopathy, hoemopathy and related scams. It is a huge industry, with a lot of political power. Sadly, many politicians have no problem assigning a dollar value to human life, and many law enforcement agencies are of the mind to blindly obey the law regardless of morality (enforcing justice would get them fired.) It really is amazing to me how so many people will go along with fraud even though they know better.

[UnTrickaBLe]

It seems to me that such an egregious case of fraud as this Galaxy Wave could be the straw that broke the camel's back, if skeptics and consumer advocates really went after them.

I think it would be great to concentrate on one of these totally outrageous quack swindles, focus like a laser on them, and get law enforcement involved.

Galaxy Wave is such a blatant and dangerous medical scam, I think it would collapse like a house of cards under the correct pressure.

I would like to see these people behind bars.

I would also like to see these quacks' credentials. Why do I get the feeling that the "Dr" titles are fraudulent?

http://www.randi.org/images/050704-staff.jpg

[The Don]

what's the point in going after a small group of quacks ? How many people will it ultimately protect ? What deterrent effect will it have on other so called quacks ?

If the powers that be go after a group like this they will either; go off somewhere else and perpatrate the same things all over again; re-invent the process to evade detection; change the claims from what happens to how people feel (this was done by Seven Seas with Cod Liver Oil - they now say something like "people report a reduction in joint pain......."

The way to *get* these guys would be to organise some kind of action for those of their clients for whom the "treatment" didn't work.

[Marian]

Note the disclaimer at the end of the website, this is to keep them out of trouble with the medical board (or whatever Arizona has policing bogus medical practices, as it varies state to state)

The scientists at Galaxy Wave Group are not medical doctors. The operators of the ADAM technology do not diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any medical, psychological or emotional condition. These statements and the ADAM Technology have not been reviewed or approved by the FDA or any other government agencies or authorities.

However, such a disclaimer WILL NOT PROTECT THEM if their people are making such claims to their clients (that they can treat and/or cure autism, which seems likely). Unfortunately I can probably predict exactly what they tell families who show interest, that such a disclaimer is necessary because they haven't completed all the federally mandatated testing yet (riiiiight) then they'll offer ancedotal evidence that it has improved various people, and parents desperate to do anything they can for their autistic child will sign up.

And then the business will rely on the disclaimers when and if the treatment fails. They're also an LLC, which helps to shield them (or more accurately the money) from lawsuits.

This section makes me want to vomit: http://www.galaxywave.com/the_math.htm

Anyway I did some googling, and the director is a man named Dr. Joe Champion. I wonder if this is him (seems likely):

http://www.carrboroweb.com/champ.shtml
http://www.handpen.com/Bio/student.htm

And actually it IS the same person, because his website (http://www.transmutation.com) has ADAM information. Sounds like Dr. Joe Champion found another way to 'make gold'. /puke

And per the Arizona medical board's doctor search (http://www.bomex.org/), Dr. Joe Champion is not a medical doctor (which one may have guessed already from the site. He also never claims to be a medical doctor).

Dr. Nataliya Dobrova (listed as Director of Parapsychology) is also not found in the medical board database. They also have the website www.adamtechnology.net.

I was able to find a brief biography for her here: http://www.btcusa.net/docsmain.htm

Dr. Nataliya Dobrova presently holds the position of Director of Parapsychology for the Galaxy Wave Group LLC, headquartered in Las Vegas, Nevada. Today you will find her assigned to the Bio Therapy Clinics Fort Worth, Texas Office. Within Bio Therapy Clinics Dr. Dobrova is the primary clinical operator of the ADAM (Aphysical Dimensional Access Manager) Technology. Prior to her current assignment for the Galaxy Wave Group LLC, she spent one year assisting in the commercial development of the ADAM Technology.

Dr. Dobrova arrived in the United States from Sevastopol, Ukraine. Her background includes a Doctorate from the Czech Academy of Informatiology. Continuing, she maintains degrees in Clinical Hypnotics, a First Category Degree in Parapsychology and a Master of Science Degree in Electrical Engineering. In addition to these studies she maintained a staff position of Parapsychologist in an Advanced Clinic for healing for eight years in the Ukraine.

None of her credentials would qualify her for any medical licensing in the US (or Arizona) AFAIK. (And I only say 'as far as I know' because I don't know what regulations (if any) Arizona has for 'hypnosis' or 'hypnotherapy'.) She also doesn't claim to be a licensed medical professional either, merely director of parapsychology, of which there is no board in the US. /shrug

I'm going to poke around more later today or tomorrow as I have time and find out what agencies would regulate this, IE who it would be proper to report it to, and then find out if they're currently under any sort of investigation or if complaints have been filed.

[UnTrickaBLe]

Thanks, Marian. :)

[Marian]

Originally posted by Quasi
Unfortunately, most law enforcment agencies are not interested in busting quacks. These people are merely pushing the same ideas as homeopaths, naturopaths and many chiros. If the law actually cracked down on them, they would also have to stop a lot of other more entrenched forms of fraud such as traditional chiropractic, naturopathy, hoemopathy and related scams. It is a huge industry, with a lot of political power. Sadly, many politicians have no problem assigning a dollar value to human life, and many law enforcement agencies are of the mind to blindly obey the law regardless of morality (enforcing justice would get them fired.) It really is amazing to me how so many people will go along with fraud even though they know better.

I can assure you that that is not the case in California. The problem IMO seems to be that people do not know the appropriate agencies to report problems to. Let's say for example that Bob has a problem with a Chiropractor. Let's say Dr. X claims he can cure manic depression by cracking Bob's bones. It doesn't help, and after 6 months Bob has spent about $2500.00. And fortunately Bob didn't go off your medication in this instance.

Bob is pissed. So Bob goes down to the local police department to file a report. The local police will explain that this matter isn't something that they investigate (which is true). And unfortunately the local police may not know which agency to refer it to. They may suggest that Bob see an attorney or pursue the matter in small claims court to regain his money.

If Bob visits with an attorney, that attorney may know the appropriate agencies to report it to. If not, they may look into it. Let's pretend in this instance that Bob finds an attorney who knows the appropriate board (in California it's Board of Chiropractic Examiners http://www.chiro.ca.gov/).

Now Bob reports his doctor to the board, and files suit to regain his money. What may happen in the investigation is merely a guess, but they will open an investigation on an complaint. So let's assume that in the course of such, the doctor admits to the violation, in exchange for a slap on the wrist. He'll attend continuing education courses, and doesn't even pay a fine.

That wouldn't be unreasonable for a first complaint. Let's assume that the doctor refutes the claims, or has multiple complaints. The Board may (I am not familiar with this board personally so I'm not certain of the scope of power they have for investigation, or if they're peace officers) but for the sake of argument lets assume they engage in an undercover operation, where an officer is told the same claims. If the doctor still wishes to fight it, then they'll have the disciplinary hearing in front of an administrative law judge, who will render a decision.

You can look on the board website to see a list of actions taken against a variety of practioners. Unfortunately it doesn't list what they were investigating, but as you can see, it's a busy business. Also they may have been hit by the CA budget issues, which have also limited the number of investigators in a variety of departments.

The agencies responsible for overseeing their areas are very interested in busting the quacks. It really isn't an issue of law enforcement not caring. The problems are much more realistic than that, which is case loads, number of people investigating, penalties they can assess, etc. It may be extremely difficult to revoke someone (it generally is). And with ALL law enforcement the problem often tends to be case load. If you have a heavy case load, then you have to make the best possible deals with the 'best' cases (in which no one was seriously harmed) and spend the time (and money) going after the worst offenders, getting them revoked. (Or in the case of unlicensed practioners getting them put in jail).

The 'political' power only comes into play with how difficult it is to get a license revoked. Often various boards are overseen by licensees themselves. They DO want to get rid of the quacks, but they don't want to see people strung up for mistakes that can occur in the course of practicing medicine. So that's why it may be difficult because the protections in place to legitimately protect practioners, may also offer a shield for the 'quacks'.

Other than that, it really comes down to the realities of ANY government agency. Budget cuts, politics of redundancy (the dental board was under attack a few years ago by a representitive who claimed that it was a redundent institution because local police could investigate many of the criminal complaints, and they should have their investigators and staff heavily cut...despite the fact that that board is funded through licensing fees, and not any 'general' budget. /sigh).

Anyway, I think the biggest problem would probably be people who don't report, or don't know to whom to make the report. Many people who've been conned (outside of medical issues) don't like to report it for a variety of reasons. Couple that with the fact that many people treat all medical practioners as 'godlike' or supreme authorities, and there's additional pressure not to report it. Add into that people who report minor or non-offenses (such as 'poor bedside manner') which have to be investigated anyway...and you see the tip of the iceburg.

Oh another problem is overlapping agency control. For example someone on medi-cal (California's medicaid program) who had such a problem may be told that the medi-cal fraud unit are the people to investigate, and they would take action on their end, but they don't do what the chiropractic board does, etc. Just as the local police can (and do) investigate various criminal complaints, but they don't deal with licensing issues, so if no conviction takes place (any conviction must be reported) the board wouldn't be aware. Sometimes the firstcomplaint comes in from the reporting of a judgement on a malpractice suit. In those instances the complaining party never contacted a board, often because they were unaware they could do so (or how to do so). :(

Anyhoo sorry so long, but I just wanted to address the 'law enforcement doesn't care' issue, because I don't believe that's accurate.

[Quasi]

In this case, the Massacusetts Chiro licensing board claimed they could not do anything, and the Mass. Attny General pointed the finger at the licensing board. To date, not only is this quack still practicing, but has even setup a school and "CAM" health center right down the street from Harvard Law School. So IMHO, this is a problem in that state. I no longer live there, or even near there anymore, so I suppose I am culpable for not pursuing it further, which is probably another problem with CAM. In hindsight I should have gone right to a lawyer, however the person who was "quacked" was not willing to come forward, so it complicates things. The whole chiro board should be imprisoned for directly violating state law by refusing to enforce the law. To my knowledge, no action has been taken despite complaints to the AG, the Chiro lic. board, or the Mass. licensure directors in charge of all medical licensing. I suspect there is a great deal of political pressure to keep the CAM movement going despite all the damage and fraud it causes.

[jj]

What I'd like to know is what the statues are in Arizona. This one does seem, well, egregious to me.

[Marian]

Regarding the comments about Mass. and the question about Arizona...therein lies one of the problems. The laws vary state to state. So do the agencies. So what is true in California may not even apply elsewhere. Or a doctor that loses his or her license to practice in California may set up shop in another state (since not all states have reciprocal revocation).

As far as what the regulations are in Arizona and which boards would govern this specific issue, I'm not sure, but I'm going to spend some time poking around to find out.

[Marian]

Good grief. Okay well I'm going to leave out some of my beaucratic adventures today, because they both suck and are little to no help. I was bounced around various agencies as I tried to find out WHO would deal with this. (At one point one person told me only the FTC, which is incorrect. :P)

Anyway, I finally spoke with an investigator at the Arizona Medical Board (Robin King). She said basically that the AZ med board wouldn't cover this issue, because they're not claiming to be medical doctors. They do investigate non-licensed people, but only if they are claiming or presenting themselves as medical doctors. These people are not. Even though they have "Dr." in front of their name, the disclaimer that they are NOT medical doctors on their website protects them from the AZ medical board.

So Galaxy Wave LLC isn't stupid.

I bounced around the AZ AG's office a bit, and basically they have a very different protocol than what I know. They don't do anything over the phone (nor will they comment at all about anything you submit, nor will they tell you if they're aware of it, or if its currently under investigation).

Anyway, there's a consumer complaint form located at:

http://www.ag.state.az.us/consumer/complaintformintro.html

Now, that form is designed for someone who is THEMSELVES a consumer (which I am not). I informed them of that and was told that that is their 'generalized' form. In other words, they have only one form that they tell everyone to use for...everything. That didn't and doesn't make sense to me, but whatever.

They also stated that anyone filing a complaint (or making them aware of the issue as a potential problem/violation) could use the physical address of the AG's office to send the information in writing. I wasn't directly told to do that, but was given the impression that that method was what they prefered.

Unfortunately as far as regulatory boards, it seems that the CIC division of the AG's office is the only regulatory agency that would cover this problem (in Arizona). At least that's all I was able to determine. As far as federal regulatory issues...I wouldn't even know where to begin with that, and frankly any federal agency that this would come under it would probably be only peripheral and they'd probably have a gazillion similar complaints.

So it looks like CIC division of the Attorney General's office in Arizona is the best bet.

If anyone wants to call them and try for better luck than I had, the direct number is: 1-602-542-5025

I also had tried the AG's consumer protection agency division, but they don't handle it, consumer investigation commission (CIC) does. /shrug

Anyway I wouldn't be surprised if Galaxy Wave, LLC understood that it was a difficult area to 'police', and covered their respective heineys so as to only fall under the generalized consumer complaint division of the AG's office.

[UnTrickaBLe]

Marian, you're a pitbull. :D