Cohen leaves me speechless
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Of the 100 articles on this site, this one was the most difficult to write because I have been dumbfounded at the brazen audacity of Mr Sam Cohen. He has taken the damning HCCC report that makes him look like a goose, and he has turned it around and used the report to back-up his lies. The report says that Sam was endangering people’s lives, yet he is misquoting sections from the report, twisting their meaning, convoluting their intended purpose, misrepresenting the Commission’s comments, and using the report as a sales-tool to pull the wool over people’s eyes while continuing to break the law, to defraud customers, to con his clients, and to scam thousands of dollars from innocent consumers. The HCCC report had poured acid on Sam Cohen and IHRB. So Mr Cohen takes the acid, and makes lemonade, and says something like, hey look, this lemonade is endorsed by the Health Care Complaints Commission, so it must be good for you.
This level of gall transcends all cliches and all maxims. I doubt if Shakespeare has any words that can adequately describe the cheek of Mr Cohen’s pathetic behaviour. Indeed, I was speechless for days, because my brain could not find any semblance of logic to a man who will not come to grips with the fact that he has been shamed, caught out, exposed, reprimanded, and banned.
THE MISSING CURRIES
Central to Sam Cohen’s scam is the idea that he has special Indian Curries which are supposedly herbs and spices and natural herbal extracts. They never existed. He just lied about them in order to justify ripping people off, to the tune of thousands of dollars. The amazing hair regrowth that some of his customers achieved were gained by taking dangerous, non-approved medications, illegally supplied by Mr Cohen. But he says that the results were due to his secret Curries. After I proved that the Curries do not exist, Mr Cohen concocted some lolly water just so that he can point to something and say, there you go, here it is, I do have Indian Curries. This is called fraud upon fraud, and lies up on lies.
There is no way he can prove that the Curries exist. He says that they do exist, and indeed, now, yes, some silly useless water exists, which he says is his secret ingredient that makes hair grow. Ask him to show you the clinical trials. Ask him to show you the active ingredients or any proof that the rubbish has any therapeutic effect or that he has TGA approval or that it is legal for him to inject anything on top of a prescription without any doctor knowing about it. He can’t, so he now tries to convince people that the Curries exist on the basis that the Health Care Complaints Commission (HCCC) says that they do exist. You see, HCCC investigators interviewed Mr Cohen, and he lied to them every step of the way. They served him with a Permanent Prohibition Order. However, inside the HCCC report are a few paragraphs that the investigators wrote to try to explain what Sam Cohen had told them, and what he claims he does and how he claims to operate. And those paragraphs were merely making statements about what Mr Cohen claimed. Deviously, Mr Cohen now uses those paragraphs as statements of gospel, saying that his Curries exist, because HCCC says they exist.
Let me explain this astounding new tactic. Only Sam Cohen could twist a report like this. By way of example, consider this scenario. If a man were accused of murder, police would interview him. The man might say, ‘I was standing by the door and this woman came at me with a knife and she fell on the knife.’ This would be a statement made by the murderer. The police would write it down in their report, merely trying to quote the man and to document what he had told them. The report would say, ‘The man claims that he was standing by the door and a woman came at him with a knife and she fell on the knife and died.’
The jury reviews video footage and sees that the woman was minding her own business when the man lunged at her with a knife. The jury would see that he killed her, then stole her handbag.
Twenty years later, after the man is released from prison, he would obtain a copy of the original police report and attach it to his resume, and apply for a job and say, ‘I was innocent, and look, the police report says so. The police had acknowledged that I was innocent. The report says that I was wrongly accused and I am innocent. Look, the police even acknowledged this in their report where they said that I ‘was standing by the door and a woman came at him with a knife and she fell on the knife and died.’
Obviously the murderer is quoting from a section of the report that had merely captured his version of events. The police was not saying that was what happened. The police was just quoting him when he lied to them, while the man was not aware that there was video footage to disprove his claim.
The scenario above is exactly what Sam Cohen is now doing with the HCCC report. He had made statements to the Commission, all of which were lies. The Commission’s investigators had noted what he had said to them, and now he draws on that report and says look, my curries exist, because even HCCC says that they exist.
Here is an example of how Mr Cohen has started to abuse the report. Below you will see a paragraph from a letter that Mr Sam Cohen of IHRB had written to me, but in fact, he was really just trying to influence a doctor to whom I had written to alert him that his name was on Sam’s list of doctors that Sam tells clients comprises doctors who will prescribe non-approved medications. The doctor was most upset that his name was on Sam’s list, so he wrote to Sam to request that his name be removed. Unhappy about my bringing this matter to the doctor’s attention, Sam Cohen wrote to me to tell me off, and to take the opportunity to lie to the doctor about me, while trying to defend his inexcusable actions. So the letter to me was really aimed at the doctor.
Anyway, in that letter (extract above), Sam Cohen says that he adds his ‘secret formulae of natural extracts’ to his hair regrowth solution. He then says that his secret formulae exists, and even the HCCC says that they exist. He writes, ‘Even the HCCC has stated this in their final order…’ [I am not sure if Sam realises that ‘formulae’ is the plural of ‘formula’, and if he is really now saying that he has more than one type of invisible Indian Curries and herbs.]
This is sludge and effluence. The HCCC was merely quoting what Mr Cohen had said to them. He told them that he injects his Indian Curries, and they noted what he had told them. Now he uses this quote to say that the Commission says that he does inject his herbal extracts. What a slime. The report says that Sam Cohen showed no respect and no regard to the rules, the law, and his clients. Yet, Sam Cohen has the gall to lie about the lies and con people about the very report that exposed him and his malpractice to such a degree that he was served with a Permanent Prohibition Order which he is still ignoring and breaching.
At a CTTT (Consumer, Trader and Tenancy Tribunal) hearing on Thursday 9 June 2011 for a client who was taking Mr Cohen to task over lies and a treatment that did not grow one follicle of hair, consensual orders were made for Mr Cohen to refund $2800 to the client. During the conciliation meeting, while a Member was in the conciliation room trying to see if both parties could come to some agreement, Mr Cohen again referred to the HCCC report as proof that his phantom Curries do exist. The client had an email from Sam’s former pharmacist which stated that the Curries do not exist, and that for the short period of time that the pharmacist complied with Mr Cohen’s illegal directions to inject the mysterious grape-seed solution, the pharmacist said in the mail that the solution contained no therapeutic effect and no active ingredients, and that it interfered with the Minoxidil formula which caused crystallisation and other problems. The client had proof that his bottles contained no curries or herbs at all, and that the bottles which were illegally sold to him by Sam Cohen were never compounded for that client, and that the prescription that the client had given to Mr Cohen was never presented to that pharmacist. The irregularities are phenomenal. This was the letter of demand from the client, which Mr Cohen had refuted, despite the fact that this client had audio surveillance which would prove that Mr Cohen was, yet again, lying through his wig. Below we see an extract written to CTTT to mislead CTTT. Every sentence in that letter was misleading and disgusting. He used that letter to say that the HCCC order in Paragraph 6.20 states that his hair regrowth ‘solution includes a number of other herb extracts which are added’. HCCC is not confirming this to be a fact. It is merely quoting the grand, gigantic lies that Mr Cohen had spat out in the first place. When the client furnished the email from the pharmacist, Mr Cohen said that the pharmacist is to blame and that the pharmacist had no right to omit the Curries, and that the client ought to go and sue the pharmacist for not complying with Sam’s instructions.
Above we also see Mr Cohen telling CTTT that it does not matter that bottles were mixed. This is gross negligence. YES INDEED it does matter that client A’s bottles were mixed up with client B’s bottles. First of all, that is a lie. They were never mixed up. They were purposely sold to clients who did not have a prescription. There was no mix up. This was part of his malpractice. And yes it does matter because the medications that Mr Cohen was dishing out illegally were non-approved and could cause instant death and heart failure.
He also states that people can buy 5% Minoxidil from a chemist without the purchaser’s name on it. Dear oh dear this is another misleading statement. First, IHRB and Mr Cohen are not licensed to sell medications. The products he was selling were ‘compounded’ so they must have a patient’s name on them. They did have a patient’s name on them, but he removed the labels so that he can enact his fraud. (Incidentally, there are laws in place that require certain products to be sold at pharmacies. 5% Minoxidil can be purchased from a pharmacy. IHRB is not a pharmacy, so that makes it illegal, full stop. What he sold was not only a pharmacy-only product, it was a prescription-only product, which means that not even a pharmacist can sell it without a prescription, and no prescribed product can be sold without a label on it. This is exhausting!)
Then Mr Cohen underlines the section in his letter to CTTT saying that HCCC noted that on occasion, ‘he only ever did this when he knew a prescription for the medication had previously been prescribed for the client by a doctor.’ This is not what HCCC is saying. This is HCCC quoting what Mr Cohen said, which is a 1000000% lie. I know it because he sold me medications without a prescription! I know it because other clients were illegally sold medications without a prescription, and I know it because audio surveillance exists to prove this point. It is a 1000000000% lie, and Mr Cohen puts it in a letter to CTTT to mislead CTTT about his misconduct, his malpractice, and his dastardly lies that conned the client out of his money, settling at $2800 instead of the $3900 owed according to Mr Cohen’s false and misleading contract and laughable guarantee. The client is a casual worker who lives 90 km away, and cannot take any more time off work to come down for yet another hearing. So, with the forceful cajoling of the CTTT Member who was the facilitator, the client acquiesced and settled for $2800 despite the endless shameful lies that, if I were behind the bench, I could have proved every one of them because I would have known the correct questions to ask Mr Cohen to expose him for the fraud that he is.
The letter goes on and on with one miserable lie after another. I shall not bore you with it. I think you get the picture. All this equates to a four-letter word: SCAM.
P.S. The following day, on Friday 10 June 2011, there was another formal hearing for yet another client who says he was conned by Sam Cohen. The client had attended the first hearing but was aghast to learn that Mr Cohen had lied and stamped his photos with a stamp that says that the client does not want his hair to grow. The client just could not make it to the formal hearing. This is one aspect of CTTT that exhausts people. They are so busy and are not sure how to go about writing reports or making submissions. Sadly, the client did not show up to the hearing. The case was dismissed. Mr Cohen walked out richer, having pocketed thousands of dollars from his deceptive conduct. He knows that most of his clients do not complain, so he is always ahead, banking people’s money. I think another word for this is theft.
Just before we both walked out of that hearing, Mr Cohen asked the Member, ‘May I say something about that gentlemen?’ Sam was pointing at me. He and I were the only people sitting before the Member. The Member replied, ‘No, I am not interested in that gentleman, with all due respect to that gentleman.’ Funny that Sam Cohen is always trying to tell people that I am besmirching his supposed 40 years of good reputation. I just got out and left the room. I have no idea if he stayed back to bad-mouth me.
Oh, and I did notice that Mr Cohen has removed his four Liberace-style rings, and he has cut his wig. He is trying to make himself look like a respectable business man. Looks can be deceiving!
A SUMMARY OF HCCC FINDINGS
Just as a quick reminder about the seriousness of what was uncovered during the investigation by the Health Care Complaints Commission. Here is what the Commission said, and I quote:
The findings of the investigation are that Mr Cohen:
Supplied schedule 2 and schedule 4 medications to his clients contrary to the Poisons and Therapeutic Goods Act 1966.
Supplied prescription only medication to clients using medication obtained under the prescriptions for other clients.
Maintained bulk supplies of medications for dispensing to clients.
Recommended loniten tablets as a hair regrowth medication knowing that it has not been approved for that purpose in Australia by the Therapeutic Goods Administration.
Endangered the health and safety of his clients by providing them with medications without adequate safeguards.
Mr Cohen’s conduct is in breach of the code of conduct for unregistered Practitioners (as enacted 1 August 2008), specifically clause 3(1) in that he has failed to provide health services in a safe and ethical manner.
The Commission has decided to take the following action.
Make a prohibition order under s41A(2)(a)(ii) of the Health Care Complaints Act 1993 (“the Act”), placing the following conditions on Mr Cohen’s practice :
Mr Cohen must not be in possession of any client prescriptions.
Mr Cohen must not obtain, supply or sell any medications requiring a prescription by a medical practitioner or required to be sold only by a pharmacist.
Mr Cohen must inform his clients that loniten is not approved in Australia by the Therapeutic Goods Administration when advising clients about hair regrowth prescription medication.
The conditions in the prohibition order will be permanent.
SAM COHEN REFUSES TO ACCEPT THE DANGERS OF LONITEN & PROSCAR
Above we see an extract from a letter that Mr Sam Cohen had sent to the Registrar at CTTT. The letter was completely misleading and deceptive. For example, let’s start with the heading he uses. See he has underlined, in capital letters, ‘PROSCAR OR PROPECIA (FINASTERIDE) AND LONITEN (MINOXIDIL)’. That there is the beginning of his endless deception. He puts Proscar and Propecia under the same category of Finasteride, as if to say, as he goes on to say, that they are the same product, and one is just cheaper than the other, so he is supposedly doing everyone a favour by offering the cheaper alternative. This is irresponsible. Proscar is not approved. He sells it, and we have proof that he even sold it twice to a client whom Mr Cohen had accused of stealing it, yet he had sold it without a prescription and with no warnings to a client who was suffering so badly that he had to go to hospital, and Mr Cohen knew this. The client had pimples on is scalp that were filled with blood! More lies, about which we have audio surveillance to prove that he lied, but that is for another story. Proscar comes with warnings such as, if the powder from a broken tablet is touched by a pregnant woman, the genitals of the male foetus could become deformed. Proscar is not approved. Full stop. Yet he will try to justify it. If Mr Cohen wants to justify it, he should contact the TGA and convince them to change their ruling, otherwise he should shut up and listen to the TGA and stop acting as a rogue dispenser and some learned scientist.
Then note how he places the word Minoxidil after the word Loniten, saying that they are the same thing. They are not. Loniten is Minoxidil, but it is a tablet. The manufacturers and the TGA and the FDA say not to take that tablet for hair. It is D A N G E R O U S. The difference between Minoxidil on the scalp and Loniten in the body is like sticking your finger in a can of petrol, versus drinking the can of petrol. Are they the same thing because they are both petrol, and because petrol does not kill your finger, so it will do you no harm if you drink it? And if petrol can get a smudge of paint off your finger, will drinking the petrol also manage to clean your finger from the inside out? The unethical misconduct of Mr Cohen is beyond belief. He wants clients to use Loniten because Loniten does grow hair, as an unfortunate side effect, while potentially causing heart failure! If a client is so keen to take that risk, then go and obtain Loniten privately, without paying Mr Cohen $4900 so that he can make himself out to be the hero as if he had grown the hair.
He then proceeds to tell the Registrar at CTTT that he has doctors who are clients of his, who do prescribe Loniten and Proscar and Retin-A (all not approved). Pointing to ill informed doctors, who are misled by Mr Cohen, is not a benchmark for sanity. Just because his doctor clients are stupid, why should we all follow their lead? If we point to a judge who takes drugs, does that mean that a drug dealer on trial can say, ‘Well, Your Honour, don’t forget that His Honour Joe Blow was on the Bench for ten years and he was a drug dealer and Mafia man, so why can’t I do the same?’
Mr Cohen is pointing to mis-informed and ill-informed doctors (maybe one or two, mind you) that are doing the wrong thing. Their bad actions ought not to null and void the TGA and FDA and manufacturer’s warnings and guidelines. These products are dangerous and not approved. FULL STOP!
