IHRB defies Prohibition Order
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Despite being issued with a Prohibition Order, Sam Cohen defied the Health Department and placed an ad in the Sing Tao Health & Beauty Magazine, ignoring the laws imposed upon him. The Health Care Complains Commission had emphatically told Mr Sam Cohen, via his lawyers, that IHRB was prohibited from dealing with any medications, and any advertising must carry specific warnings. The first Prohibition Order was made in October 2010 and covered an eight-week period. In February 2011, the Prohibition Order was made Permanent! The Act says that ‘It is a criminal offence to breach a prohibition order.’
Despite the seriousness of this, Mr Cohen ignored the law. He advertised in Sing Tao in the November 2010 edition. This date falls squarely within the prohibition period, which means that Mr Cohen has yet again defied the Order. He also placed ads in ‘Nine to Five Magazine’ on the 1st, and 15th of November 2010, which are also in breach of the Order, as were the weekly ads placed in ‘Central Magazine’ in September, October, and November 2010. The bullet train was unperturbed. (The first Prohibition Order was from 27 September 1020 to 22 November 2010. The Permanent Prohibition Order commenced 22 February 2011.)
The Commission says, ‘If the practitioner advertises their services following the imposition of a prohibition order, they must include the terms of the Prohibition Order in the advertisement. They must also advise patients of the existence of the Order before treating them. Any failure to comply with these requirements is a criminal offence.’ Click here to read this statement on the HCCC’s own website. Did Mr Cohen tell all his clients about the terms of his Prohibition Order? Did he publish the ‘terms’ in his advertisement, as required by law? The ad is featured below, and clearly, it ignored the law because it does not disclose the terms of the Prohibition Order. Maybe Mr Cohen thought that we didn’t know about his foreign-lanugage promotions campaign or maybe he thought we can’t read Chinese.
Samuel Faraj Cohen also features models in this ad that were paid by him to be models, and that in itself voids the supposed independence of the endorsement because they had received free products and treatments as a form of pay-back. Besides, would Sam deny that these models were using non-approved and dangerous products? Also note that one model is listed as ‘Police Officer’. Sam Cohen admonished his competitors for using celebrities, yet he kept telling me and others that he has judges, doctors, and police officers. He said, ‘Can you believe this, a Police Officer is a client’, as if that adds to his credibility.
Click here to view other Chinese Ads. By the way, the Health Care Complaints Commission publishes its material in 20 languages, as below. Click on each of the languages to read the HCCC material, including the Code of Conduct:
