arizona key people ray faltinsky kevin fournier products himalayan goji juice number of employees 220 website www.freelife.com freelife international is a multi level marketing company established in 1995 by ray faltinsky and kevin fournier that supplies nutritional supplements . contents 1 history 2 products and marketing 3 burge et al vs freelife 4 see also 5 external links 6 references history edit the cofounders ray faltinsky and kevin fournier originally founded freelife in 1995 . the two were backed by a group of investors that included family friends and anson beard previously of morgan stanley and dean witter . bfreelife international was originally launched as a direct sales company based on ray faltinsky s prior research on that business model . 1 in 2000 the company was featured in inc. magazine when they were listed in inc. 500 s list of fastest growing businesses . 2 freelife includes operations in australia bermuda canada hong kong macau mexico new zealand philippines 3 puerto rico singapore 4 trinidad & tobago and the united states . citation needed over several years the company s former spokesperson earl mindell made claims of unfounded health benefits from consuming the company s goji juice product called himalayan goji juice implicating anti cancer and anti aging properties . 5 specifically in 2007 mindell s statements were made during a hidden camera investigation by the cbc whose reporter wendy mesley questioned the supposed anti cancer properties of himalayan goji juice . 6 during the same investigation it was found that mindell s ph.d. qualification was in fact invalid 6 as had been questioned a decade before . 7 mindell s ph.d. was supposedly conferred in 1985 by pacific western university an unaccredited distance learning institution with no campus . authoritative databases of accredited us institutions exist at the council for higher education accreditation chea database and united states department of education usde accreditation database ; neither lists pacific western university as of february 2007 . it was proven by subsequent studies that mindell s claims were unfounded and based only on preliminary laboratory research on cancer cell inhibition 8 9 a finding that was never confirmed in other laboratory or human studies . as a result freelife severed its relationship with mindell in 2008 but was further associated with him as a codefendant in a 2009 legal case below . in 2008 a freelife funded study conducted on its own employees found that the use of their goji products increased subjective feelings of well being . 10 questions on these findings were later raised due to poor study design and potential conflict of interest between freelife the employed subjects used and the investigators who did the study . 11 products and marketing edit freelife s product line initially consisted of nutritional supplements shampoo and personal care products . in 2003 freelife changed its product line to focus on a juice made from goji lycium barbarum and sold under the product name himalayan goji juice and a newer product named gochi . 12 the company and its goji juice were featured in the media frequently around 2007 and 2008 when the link between anticancer and goji berries were questioned . 6 freelife international is a member of the direct selling association dsa . 13 freelife products are sold using a multi level marketing to customers by independent salespeople who are paid commissions on their sales and the sales of their downline . burge et al vs freelife edit on may 29 2009 a class action lawsuit was filed against freelife international inc. in the united states district court of arizona . this lawsuit alleged false claims misrepresentations false and deceptive advertising and other issues regarding freelife s himalayan goji juice gochi and taislim products . this lawsuit sought remedies for consumers who have purchased these products in recent years . 14 15 a settlement agreement was reached on april 28 2010 where freelife will take steps to ensure that its goji products are not marketed as unheated or raw . as well as made a contribution to an educational organization . 16 17 see also edit herbal supplements external links edit freelife official website references edit thesis on direct sales business model ray faltinsky 1992 the fastest growing private companies in america . inc.com . dead link asia pulse . october 11 2004 us juice firm takes a foothold in the philippines . rungfapaisarn kwanchai . september 16 2006 the nation health drink in direct marketing debut . oat brittany july 14 2006 . goji health elixir or pricey juice . abc news . retrieved 2007 09 24 . a b c wendy mesley january 27 2007 . getting juiced . cbc marketplace . retrieved 2016 05 31 . lowell james a. june 1986 . an irreverent look at the vitamin bible and its author earl mindell . quackwatch nutrition forum . li g sepkovic dw bradlow hl telang nt wong gy 2009 . lycium barbarum inhibits growth of estrogen receptor positive human breast cancer cells by favorably altering estradiol metabolism . . nutr canc . 61 3 408 414 . doi 10.1080 01635580802585952 . pmid 19373615 . mao f ; xiao b ; jiang z ; zhao j ; huang x ; guo j 2010 . anticancer effect of lycium barbarum polysaccharides on colon cancer cells involves g0 g1 phase arrest . medical oncology . 28 1 121 126 . doi 10.1007 s12032 009 9415 5 . pmid 20066520 . amagase h nance dm may 2008 . a randomized double blind placebo controlled clinical study of the general effects of a standardized lycium barbarum goji juice gochi . journal of alternative and complementary medicine . 14 4 403 12 . doi 10.1089 acm .2008.0004 . pmid 18447631 . daniells s october 8 2008 . questions raised over goji science . nutraingredients usa.com . retrieved 2010 03 23 . weaver clair . june 17 2007 . why goji is more fad than fact . . sunday telegraph . dsa member directory company freelife international . direct selling association . retrieved 11 december 2015 . united states district court for the district of arizona may 29 2009 . class action lawsuit against freelife international inc. pdf . retrieved 2009 10 31 . class action suit filed against freelife and earl mindel breathe.org and freelife joint statement freefacts.com page error retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title freelife & oldid 738566220 categories companies based in phoenix arizonacompanies established in 1995multi level marketing companiesprivately held companies based in arizonahidden categories all articles with dead external linksarticles with dead external links from september 2016all articles with unsourced statementsarticles with unsourced statements from october 2014 navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages e tina edit links this page was last modified on 9 september 2016 at 18 57 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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