A federal grand jury has indicted the inventor of chilly treatment Zicam on fraud fees. He’s accused of bilking buyers in a sham TV manufacturing firm which he claimed had hyperlinks to the late Lucille Ball.
Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, above, fashioned Desilu Productions, which was vastly profitable in its day. It was not affiliated with Desilu Studios, a shell firm managed by Zicam inventor Charles Henlsey. (Picture: The Checklist)
Charles Hensley, of Redondo Seaside, Calif., used at the very least $331,000 of just about $600,000 extracted from 21 buyers for private bills. These included lavish journeys to unnamed Las Vegas casinos and funds to pawn outlets, in keeping with the indictment.
Hensley claimed he had made thousands and thousands from Zicam. He did coinvent the product within the mid-Nineties. However he was broke when he started canvassing for funding in his shell manufacturing firm, Desilu Studios Inc (DSI), in August 2017.
He borrowed the identify from Desilu Productions Inc., the corporate fashioned by Ball and her husband, Desi Arnaz, as a portmanteau of their first names. Desilu Productions was as soon as the second-biggest manufacturing firm within the US, creating basic tv exhibits like I Love Lucy, Star Trek, and Mission Unimaginable earlier than its demise in 1968.
Borrowed Identify
At the moment, Hensley had been “repeatedly bouncing checks and overdrawing financial institution accounts to get money and pay bills,” in keeping with the indictment.
Hensley “falsely and misleadingly represented that he was affiliated with the true Desilu and making new content material utilizing the Desilu identify,” reads the indictment.
He additional informed buyers he was backing the corporate along with his non-existent fortune from Zicam. DSI firm was price $11 billion, he claimed.
Hensley additionally pushed a phony pharmaceutical firm, “Migranade,” which he mentioned was valued at $50 million.
Phony IPO
In the meantime, Hensley informed buyers that Desilu Productions was about to go public and that its inventory was price greater than its face worth, which might improve considerably after the approaching IPO.
DSI had few to no belongings, no CFO, accountant, or auditor, no monetary statements or any of the opposite necessities for an IPO, and the inventory was not price what was represented,” the indictment learn.
Hensley obtained a trademark on the Desilu identify from the US Patent Workplace in 2018. That yr, he sued CBS Studios for the unique use of the mark. He subsequently withdrew the case and was countersued by CBS, which had used it regularly for many years in its tv programming.
Hensley has been charged with 11 counts of wire fraud and one rely of aggravated id theft, in keeping with the US legal professional’s workplace for the Central District of California. He faces as much as 20 years in jail if convicted.
