Crime & Safety

Sentencing Set for '60 Minutes' Target Larry Stowe, Village Merchant

Three years after airing of "21st century snake-oil" segment, Stowe will hear punishment July 25.

Three years ago today, former Village merchant Larry Stowe gained national infamy as a 21st century snake-oil salesman in a 60 Minutes episode. In late July, he will be sentenced along with a partner from Brownsville, TX.

Sentencing was ordered Tuesday by U.S. District Judge Gray Miller in Houston.

In September, Stowe pleaded guilty to various felonies involving an unapproved drug, avoiding a trial on a 24-count federal indictment.

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He admitted that beginning in January 2006, he used several businesses, including Stowe BioTherapy Inc. in La Mesa’s downtown Village and The Stowe Foundation, to promote a treatment for Lou Gehrig’s disease, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s and other neurological diseases.

Stowe and partner Francisco Morales, who also pleaded guilty, will hear their sentences July 25. 

Find out what's happening in La Mesa-Mount Helixwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Stowe faces a five-year prison sentence and $250,000 fine for one conspiracy conviction and up to three years and additional fines for other convictions.

Under a treatment protocol called Applied Biologics, which included stem cell therapy, “Stowe falsely represented to patients that this treatment protocol had been reviewed by all levels of the FDA and was effective in the treatment of ALS, MS and Parkinson’s. There is currently no cure for these diseases,” the government said last year.

“These pleas are a victory for the American public, in demonstrating the FDA’s commitment to investigating cases of individuals and businesses that prey on the sick and vulnerable with phony medical treatments,” said Patrick Holland, special agent of the Food and Drug Administration’s Office of Criminal Investigations.

“The FDA will continue to aggressively pursue perpetrators of such acts, and ensure that they are punished to the full extent of the law.”

In September 2010, La Mesa Mayor Art Madrid said he had been surprised and shocked that Stowe had an office in La Mesa—at 8341 La Mesa Blvd—and “the city was totally unaware of what this slime ball [was] doing.”

Stowe’s La Mesa office closed within a week of the segment’s first airing April 18, 2010.


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