#561: Greg Caton

A.k.a. John Carr

Gregory James Caton is a peddler of a range of herbal products, some of which allegedly (but don’t) cure cancer, and the founder of Alpha Omega Labs, a manufacturer of natural health care products that at least used to distribute internationally from Ecuador. Caton used to be heavily involved with Kevin Trudeau. That should tell you something about the landscape in which Caton operates, though Caton and Trudeau have been engaged in various legal battles since the 90s.

Caton himself had his operations shut down by the FDA in 2003 (though Caton claimed it was because someone had shipped “fake” products under his trade name, which in one sense is probably true). In order to avoid the nefarious FDA and such fascist measures as consumer welfare considerations he opened Alpha Omega Labs as a front company, and – to be sure – relocated it to Ecuador in 2008 after a stint in prison and various lawsuits (apparently he violated the terms of his release from prison in the process). His Labs were the topic of a good expose by Business Week concerning people who have had their lives ruined by some of the herbal products Caton promoted (also here), in particular Cansema, which is listed by the FDA as one of 187 fake cancer cures, also described here, but is still peddled by Caton (for a warning letter from FDA to another peddler, Burt Hampton, see this).

Caton was reported as a fugitive from Justice in 2006 and was featured in Parade Magazine's “On the Run In America” article in 2009. He is reportedly under arrest again, after extradition from Ecuador in 2009 – his equally, uh, enthusiastic wife Cathryn wrote an appeal on his behalf riddled with conspiracy theories and persecution complexes (well, it is true, I suppose, that Greg Caton is persecuted, just as any ordinary regular criminal). The letter is available at (where else?) whale.to, and the conspiracy theorists on the web are still going batshit over the incident (Caton’s whale.to page is here).

Diagnosis: Dangerous, and should be avoided at all costs. He’s got some support among the more unhinged conspiracy theorists, of course, but even woo-sympathizers in general seem reluctant to endorse Caton.