Con man’s chemists confess
Print This Post
At last, Cohen’s chemists cough-up and admit that there are no Indian Curries inside the bottles of Minoxidil. With this admission, the alleged scam is blown out of the water. Sam Cohen of IHRB charges $900 for a bottle that retails at $70. He maintained that his Minoxidil solution was unique because it contained his special Indian herbs and extracts. He said that without his curries, no other hair solution on the market will work. To me, it’s a scam. I believe this is a rip off. His base fee is $4900. For what? Absolutely nothing more than lies, deception, and deceit as far as I can tell. In my view, they begin as a 24 carat con trick.
Not only does Sam Cohen lie through his teeth about the ingredients, he operates illegally by handing out medications with neither prescriptions nor warnings, and he uses dangerous medications that are not approved by the TGA or FDA. And not only that, he promises a 100% money back guarantee that does not exist and which he voids before you leave his office. So we have no curries and no guarantee and illegal malpractice and now we have admissions from his pharmacists. So let’s examine the evidence.
THE FIRST PHARMACIST IN MELBOURNE
The first pharmacist had supplied the Institute of Hair Regrowth & Beauty for approximately nine years. He had also supplied Ashley & Martin for many years. Sam Cohen had worked for the old Ashley & Martin (not the modern company) and that was where he had met the pharmacist.
I had asked the pharmacist to let me know if the topical solution contained Sam’s secret herbs and spices. I outlined the reasons I needed to know, including the fact that, using the Minoxidil solution, I had lost more hair than ever before, and suffered rashes. I received a note from the pharmacist’s lawyers, in which they confirmed that the topical solution contains no such herbs and spices or any extracts or any Indian Curries. This is what the lawyers wrote:
“We have provided you with the composition of the Minoxidil 5% solution as requested and it is clear from the patient information sheet what is contained in the product. Our client has made no representations that there are ‘Indian curries’ in the topical solutions compounded and dispensed from his Pharmacy. [Our clients] has been compounding and developing hair treatment formulas and products since 1985. His products are made in accordance with Australian pharmaceutical standards and medical guidelines. All the ingredients that are contained in the products are clearly labelled or provided on the patient information sheet. If an ingredient is not listed on the information sheet it is not in the product.”
So there we have it in black and white. Ever since IHRB opened its doors, Sam Cohen has been ripping off every client by saying that his sky-high fees are for his secret innovative Indian herbs and extracts. They never existed. [UPDATE: Elias Pharmacy was summonsed to answer basic questions. Finally, Elias Pharmacy responded to the Summons to admit that no extracts were ever used, and nothing (apart from Minoxidil) was ever used that would have been useful for hair growth. See this link about Elias Pharmacy.]
PHARMACIST ELIAS JUANAS OF ELIAS PHARMACY FAIRFIELD
When the first pharmacist stopped supplying IHRB, Sam Cohen convinced Hunter Connect Pharmacy to do the dirties. When the Health Care Complaints Commission raided IHRB and Mr Cohen’s second pharmacist, Mr Cohen went to Elias Pharmacy and somehow convinced them to do certain things that no pharmacist should ever have done.
Recently, a client who had been ripped off by Sam Cohen wrote to Elias Pharmacy asking about the phantom herbs. The email specifically queried the herbs and asked, “Is there anything else other than Minoxidil 5% in the bottle?”
The pharmacy responded via email, saying, ‘The formula also contains Vit B5 5% and Vit A 0.025%’. So we have no curries and no spices and no Indian herbs and no natural extracts. Instead, we have another medical malpractice. The pharmacy has now admitted something that rings major alarm bells. A bottle labelled “Minoxidil 5%” also contains Retin-A (Vitamin A) at 0.025%. This is a major problem for Sam and the pharmacist. The label does not say that the bottle contains Vitamin A. This is a prescription-only product! The client had no knowledge if it. The bottle is not labelled correctly, and I would say that such an omission is made on purpose to deceive everyone concerned. Sam wants the Retin-A (Vitamin A) inside the bottle by hook or by crook so that he can crack open people’s scalp and force the Minoxidil into the body! So why did the pharmacist do this for Sam? Why was the label so badly prepared? One could say that it was a simple mistake. Not so. The label has so many errors that it was all part of the alleged scam. It had no client name. Oh dear! And it had the phrase, ‘INSTITUTE OF HAIR REGROWTH & BEAUTY’. What does that mean? Placing this on the bottle perpetuates the lie that somehow this bottle is IHRB’s unique formula. A pharmacist is not permitted to compound such products for IHRB nor to IHRB’s specifications or instructions. The alarm bells are deafening.
Nonetheless, we have an admission! No curries. So far, all three pharmacists have confirmed that that the curries do not exist.
WHERE TO FROM HERE?
Mr Sam Cohen of IHRB has been exposed. His pharmacists have shamed him. The Health Care Complaints Commission has slapped a Permanent Prohibition Order on him. He can thank his lucky stars he is not in prison. The disgraceful thing is that he has not yet been asked to refund the thousands of dollars he has scammed off innocent people who had paid him for Indian Curries that never existed. We shall work on that. He proved that he was endangering people’s lives, and now we shall work to prove that he has been spinning lies. Meanwhile, given that his pharmacists have admitted that the curries do not exist, what can he do to maintain his con trick? Who knows. I guess he will now say that the Minoxidil bottles are normal, whereas the real secret lies in his organic shampoo. Mr Cohen might have to shift the location of the phantom curried. He might now say that the combination of his organic (which it is not) shampoo (which is the cheapest detergent on the market) contains his secret recipe. As him what it is, and he will say that it is so secret, he cannot tell you what it contains, which is illegal, but that’s Sam for you.
P.S. IHRB is the name of the Institute of Hair Regrowth and Beauty run by Sam Cohen of 105 Pitt Street Sydney. It is also written as Institute of Hair Regrowth & Beauty or Institute of Hair Re-growth & Beauty.
The Health Care Complaints Commission issued this statement on its website on the 23rd of February 2011.
You can learn more here.
