A Marysville company will pay more than $18,000 to settle charges brought by the state Attorney General’s Office accusing its owner of making unsubstantiated claims that products he sold could help women enlarge their breasts without surgery.
More than half of the amount will go to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.
The stipulated judgment was filed Friday in King County Superior Court. In it, Vaughn Wolfe of Seattle agreed to make an $11,048 payment to the cancer foundation, along with $7,000 to cover the state’s court costs. The judge also imposed a $6,000 civil penalty, which will be waived if Wolfe makes the other payments within 30 days.
The judge ruled that Wolfe, doing business in Marysville as Nature’s Advantage LLC, had made misleading statements about a line of products he called Herbal Breast Advantage.
The products were sold over the Internet, and promised users that they would “enhance, enlarge, shape, firm, tone and uplift” breasts, adding up to 4 inches to women’s busts “naturally and safely” as an “alternative to surgery,” the ruling says.
Some products were to be used on the skin, while others were taken internally. A three-month supply of the “complete value system” sold for $259.99. The firm’s Web site said results from “clinical studies” proved the claims, but in fact the company had no scientific evidence to support any of the claims, the judge ruled.
“Defendant Wolfe is neither a scientist nor a licensed medical professional,” the judge said. “No clinical studies or tests have been performed on the … products, and no doctors have reviewed the products. They are neither an ‘advanced therapeutic line’ nor ‘scientifically formulated.’ “
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