Daniel Chapter One Owner Pleads Guilty to Selling Bogus Cancer Treatments, Tax Evasion

The owner of Daniel Chapter One, a Portsmouth company that sold desperate people bogus cancer treatments while promising cures, has pleaded guilty in federal court in Providence to charges of marketing and selling unapproved remedies for cancer mitigation and treatment and tax evasion.

United States Attorney Peter F. Neronha announced the guilty plea entered by James Feijo, 68, on Tuesday.

According to a U.S. Attorney’s Office news release, at the time of his guilty plea, Feijo admitted to the court that he engaged in the marketing, sale and distribution of unapproved health products and supplements, 7 Herb Formula, Bio Shark and GDU, which were not generally recognized as safe and effective for use by the FDA. Additionally, the products, as marketed, were not generally recognized as safe and effective by qualified experts for the cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of cancer. The products were marketed and sold through various websites, in-store advertisements, a call center, on the Feijos’ daily radio program, and through the use of promotional materials and publications.

At the same time, Feijo admitted that he falsely told employees that they were independent contractors when they were actually employees and failed to give them IRS Wage and Tax Statments, W2 forms or deduct taxes. Through 2011, he paid employees with checks written out to cash and failed to collect $218,408.04 in taxes for at least sixteen quarters.

Feijo and his wife, Patricia, were indicted last year by a grand jury.

Feijo describes himself as a “expert on sports training and fitness” and has a bachelor’s degree of science in health, biology and physical education and a master of education in psychological services from Springfield College, according to the company’s Facebook page.

Patricia Feijo describes herself as a “classical homeopath” and cites her graduation from the New England School of Homeopathy in her bio. She also claims to have “worked for several years in cancer research.”

At the time of the indictment, the company was still selling many of the products in question. The company’s Facebook pages and Web site were filled with Christian references and many of the products were labeled as “God’s gift,” among other descriptions. And the company name, Daniel Chapter One, refers to a Bible passage in which Daniel, son of Judah, chooses not to defile himself with the king’s meat and wine and instead, opted to eat “pulse,” or vegetables and water.

The indictment alleged the Web site was also full of false claims and lies, such as the claim that 7 Herb Formula, which sold for about $80 for a 32 ounce bottle, “fights tumor formation.”

The formula contained water, cats claw, burdock root, eleutherococcus senticosus, sheep sorrel, slippery elm, watercress and turkey rhubarb, “is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease,” the Web site now states.

Feijo is scheduled to be sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge John J. McConnell, Jr., on January 12, 2016.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Terrence P. Donnelly.

The matter was investigated by the Rhode Island FDA Task Force and by IRS Criminal Investigation.

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