The LifeMirage & Unique Nutrition files

Started by , Mar 13 2006 12:16 AM

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#1

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Posted 13 March 2006 - 12:16 AM

Welcome. This topic will become a growing archive of online material related to the fraud perpetrated by the individuals known as:

- LIFEMIRAGE

- EDWARD YOUNAN

- STEVE SLIWA

and the company,

- UNIQUE NUTRITION INC.

As it is an archive and not a discussion area only contributions will be permitted relating to the above entities. If you wish to discuss matters relating to the above please intiate a new topic.

Screen captures with links are preferable.

#2

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Posted 13 March 2006 - 01:09 AM

Here is a screen capture of a corporate search for "Unique Nutrition" at cyberdriveillinois.com" taken at the timestamp of this post

Note who is listed as President: Edward Younan

This contradicts Steve Sliwa's claim that he is the President of Unique Nutrition Inc.

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un.gif 46.8KB 0 downloads

#3

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Posted 13 March 2006 - 01:17 AM

Note the typical signature that user "uniquenutrition" at www.mindandmuscle.net forums uses:

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#4

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Posted 13 March 2006 - 01:30 AM

Steve Silwa denied that "his" Unique Nutrition was the same as that one incorporated in Illinois. When asked to clarify the state of incorporation of his company he repeatedly sidestepped.

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unss.gif 28.12KB 16 downloads

#5

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Posted 13 March 2006 - 01:45 AM

The moderators at mindandmuscle.net did not take too kindly at my inquiries about their forum sponsor:

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#6 jaydfox

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Posted 13 March 2006 - 02:04 AM

uniquenutrition Posted: Mar 9 2006-21:43 | link

While our offices are in Chicago our business license was not obtained in IL and our GMP approved lab is not in IL either. We have been around for over 6 years and continue to grow, no matter some people choose to think about us. I have no comment however if the company licensed in IL owned by Heather is a separate division of our company, but it only started 3 years ago.

#7

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Posted 13 March 2006 - 02:05 AM

Here is an exchange between David Lui and LifeMirage who in 2003 used to call himself Edward Younan. It is typical of the strife LifeMirage would get himself in when encountering the scientifically informed:

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dl1.gif 47.53KB 50 downloads

#8

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Posted 13 March 2006 - 02:13 AM

Note the inevitable queries on LifeMirage's ID and his characteristic evasiveness. This example of his pathological lying is typical:

"I have not had time to publish most of my articles (many are on glycation inhibitors) yet. I have other more important things to focus on in my life right now."

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dl2.gif 35.15KB 0 downloads

#9

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Posted 13 March 2006 - 02:19 AM

David Lui concludes on LifeMirage's self-proclaimed expertise:

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#10

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Posted 13 March 2006 - 02:34 AM

In 2002 LifeMirage used to also post as under the ID "sherwyns@aol.com" and made similarly exaggerated claims...

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#11

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Posted 13 March 2006 - 02:35 AM

Which made some people not too happy...

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#12

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Posted 13 March 2006 - 02:42 AM

Which brought into question the credentials - or lack of - of those behind the company associated with LifeMirage (Sherwyn's)..

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#13 jaydfox

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Posted 13 March 2006 - 05:17 PM

LifeMirage once again claims on his BrainMeta profile to be Lee Crost M.D. He had removed the name for a while when ImmInst users were posting at BrainMeta.

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LifeMirage_Lee_Crost.gif 146KB 0 downloads

#14 jaydfox

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Posted 13 March 2006 - 05:30 PM

LifeMirage pinned a topic attacking his market competitor, Adam Kamil, which is a flagrant abuse of his moderator privileges, due to commercial conflict of interest.

I don't have a screenshot, but the original text was:
Pinned: Adam Kamil Warning
nootropikreations / le-creations

In the attached screenshot, you can see that "Adam Kamil Warning" has been changed to "Nootropikreations Warning". Ethically, I cannot disclose the contents of private communications received from BrainMeta's members, but suffice it to say, LifeMirage was not the moderator that made the change to the topic title. The topic is still pinned, however. (Since the forum is otherwise empty, the pinning of the topic is effectively irrelevant, but it still shows an abuse of LifeMirage's moderation powers to attack market competitors.)

I have the original wording documented in a PM I sent to Shawn, BrainMeta's admin, as well as in a message thread that was deleted from brainmeta.com by Shawn:

PM sent: Mar 11, 08:55 AM
From: Jay Fox
To: Shawn

Shawn,

[excerpted private communications] ...As a moderator, he [LifeMirage] has a serious commercial conflict of interest, issues of identity fraud and misrepresentation of "medical" credentials notwithstanding.

By "Lee Crost"'s own admission--assuming that's who you think LifeMirage is--he works for Sherwyn's Health Food Shops, and yet he is/was an advisor for Unique Nutrition, a direct market competitor, under both the names Lee Crost and LifeMirage. He has slandered Adam Kamil--yet another direct market competitor--on other sites, but here as well, and has used his moderator privileges to pin the topic (I assume it was he who pinned the topic).

[excerpted private communications]

Jay Daniel Fox
Director and Chair, Immortality Institute

[excerpted reposts of deleted BrainMeta.com forum posts]

Jay Fox Today, 08:30 AM

One way or the other, the leadership of this forum needs to be alerted to the serious mistake they made in granting him a moderator position on their site.
Despite the fact that LM has been involved in fraud, he is still a knowledgeable source on Nootropics, his posts, so long as they are taken as posts by someone who does not have medical qualifications, might still hold some value.
I see that LifeMirage has posted and pinned a topic:
Pinned: Adam Kamil Warning
nootropikreations / le-creations

Given that LifeMirage is an "Advisor" for Unique Nutrition, and that there is evidence that "LifeMirage" and Steve Sliwa ("president" of Unique Nutrition, a direct competitor of Adam Kamil's) share accounts, it is an unacceptable abuse of moderation powers for that topic to be pinned and given the prominence it has. Truth is right, "granting him a moderator position" was a "serious mistake".

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LifeMirages_Pinned_Topic.gif 56.29KB 0 downloads

#15 jaydfox

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Posted 13 March 2006 - 07:37 PM

BTW, here's the text of LifeMirage's warning against Adam Kamil.

Remember, the title of this post used to be "Adam Kamil Warning, nootropikreations / le-creations", not "Nootropikreations Warning, nootropikreations / le-creations". The title was changed by another moderator at BrainMeta, after complaints about LifeMirage's conflict of interest.

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LifeMirage_attacking_Adam.gif 72.57KB 18 downloads

#16 jaydfox

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Posted 13 March 2006 - 09:07 PM

Unique Nutrition--which is incorporated in the state of Illinois, with Edward Younan as the declared President--is registered with the Better Businiess Bureau in Chicago, IL, to Steve Sliwa. Note that Steve is the "Principal", meaning not necessarily the legal president of the company. Here's a link to google maps showing the distance between the two locations:
http://maps.google.c...A CHICAGO 60613

Note the date Steve registered with the BBB: Feburary 2006. This is at most 26 days before LifeMirage attacked Adam Kamil's business for not being registered with the BBB. How convenient.

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BBB_Report.gif 41.06KB 5 downloads

#17 jaydfox

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Posted 13 March 2006 - 09:27 PM

BTW, searching the BBB website for "Unique Nutrition" only turns up the one entry, the one in Chicago, IL, with Steve Sliwa as the "Principal". This was a nationwide search.

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BBB_registration.gif 37.01KB 3 downloads

#18

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Posted 14 March 2006 - 12:26 AM

This BBB file against Unique Nutrition was created due to a customer complaint on February 2006 associated with billing errors, unauthorised charges or questionable collection practices. The bureau determined that they could not be satisfactorily settled by voluntary dispute resolution.

#19 jaydfox

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Posted 14 March 2006 - 04:40 PM

uniquenutrition wished to add this clarification:

It was closed as:

1 Administratively Closed
BBB Definition:

Administratively Closed - The Bureau determined that the complaint could not be satisfactorily settled using standard methods of voluntary dispute resolution.

(click on Administratively Closed to see more details)

1 BBB determined the company made a reasonable offer to resolve the issues, but the consumer did not accept the offer.

#20 jaydfox

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Posted 15 March 2006 - 05:23 PM

An old Google Groups post:
http://groups.google...236c284c362adac

Note that Steve signed as VP of UNI, and the date is Jan 20 2004, which is not quite six months after Edward Younan was registered as the President of UNI, July 23 2003 (see the second post in this thread).

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Steve_Sliwa_VP_UNI.gif 12.93KB 6 downloads

#21 jaydfox

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Posted 15 March 2006 - 05:30 PM

Hmm, found another one, signed VP Steve Sliwa, dated Dec 1 2003.
http://groups.google...ef6bfbcb3ef8380

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Steve_Sliwa_VP_UNI2.gif 9.28KB 0 downloads

#22 jaydfox

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Posted 15 March 2006 - 05:33 PM

And another gem in the same thread, someone else who is confused about who runs UNI:

Is this "Steve" or is it Edmond again indeed. Wait, I get it: you're both
geniuses sporting aol accounts! Have you been forgetting to take your
nutropecs again?! LOL How the "heck" I'm supposed to know where it's you
and where you're quoting other retards?

Edmond, Edward...

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Who_is_UNI.gif 7.32KB 0 downloads

#23 jaydfox

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Posted 15 March 2006 - 05:40 PM

Another one mentioning VP Steve Sliwa. Actually, just google "VP Steve Sliwa" in google groups to find these.
http://groups.google...1bb5a9307825d44

Update: Apparently there is a cross-posting at Mind and Muscle:
http://www.mindandmu...=ST&f=41&t=9042

This one is from a disgruntled customer, so I'll refrain from posting a full screenshot. Here's an excerpt:

I recently placed an order with UNI (Unique Nutrition Incorporated)
and decided before payment went through that I wanted to cancel the
order because of some unexpected payments I had to make to my
university. When I e-mailed UNI to inform them that I wanted to cancel
my order, they replied asking me why. ... The next
e-mail I get today, with UNI saying "All orders are final." Nowhere on
their website, that I know of, does it inform you of this. ...

...

The VP Steve Sliwa is the one who sent me the e-mail asking why I
wanted to cancel, and there was no name given on the e-mail that
informed me "All sales are final."

(bold added for emphasis)

Edited by jaydfox, 16 March 2006 - 02:26 AM.

#24 jaydfox

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Posted 15 March 2006 - 05:46 PM

One more from VP Steve Sliwa, for good measure.
http://groups.google...ce7ab53d78cb6fa

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Steve_Sliwa_VP_UNI3.gif 10.85KB 4 downloads

#25 jaydfox

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Posted 16 March 2006 - 02:23 AM

http://www.imminst.o...t=0

Heh, right here at home. In fairness, I didn't try searching for this on our forum because our search engine requires 4-character words or longer, and VP is unfortunately less than 4 characters long. However, googling "VP Steve Sliwa" did find it.

I emailed Unique Nutrition to see if they were still in business and if they were planning on adding anything to their product line. I thought I'd share what they had to say. The more competition the better for us...

"Hello Josh

Yes we are still in business and plan to be for a long time. Being the first US supplier for Piracetam and Aniracetam we will and plan to expand our line as our company grows. Just a matter of time and money really. Our oxiracetam introduction was expensive and it see if it would sell, which it did, when we reorder we will come out with a powder form and a larger less pricey capsule bottle. Also we expect to have Piracetam in a pleasant liquid form in 2-4 months FYI.

Sincerely VP Steve Sliwa
Chicago, IL
UNI"

#26 jaydfox

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Posted 22 March 2006 - 03:23 PM

Cross post:
http://www.imminst.o...t=0

The Sherwyn's product description for Piracetam used to direct users to look for "Brain expert LifeMirage at www.imminst.org in the nootropic forums". This screenshot was Posted: Mar 1 2006-20:14 by ImmInst member ajnast4r:

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#27 jaydfox

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Posted 22 March 2006 - 03:26 PM

Cross post:
http://www.imminst.o...t=0

After LifeMirage was kicked off of ImmInst, the product description was for Piracetam was changed to direct users to look for "Brain expert LifeMirage at www.brainmeta.com in the nootropic forums."

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#28

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Posted 22 March 2006 - 11:56 PM

There are no references to Steve Sliwa on the Unique Nutrition site as of the timestamp of this post.

#29 jaydfox

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Posted 23 March 2006 - 12:39 AM

I took screenshots last week of the site with Steve Sliwa's name all over it. Prometheus, would you like me to post, or is it common knowledge that doesn't need evidence?

#30

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Posted 23 March 2006 - 12:50 AM

Please be my guest. My methodology involves capturing a a portion of the screen, saving as a .tiff file then opening that file in photoshop and saving it as a .gif file.