On June 12, 2026, the Federal Trade Commission announced that it has asked a federal court to hold in contempt dietary supplement provider Amare Global Holdings, its former Chief Science Officer Shawn Talbott and two others over allegations they violated an FTC order that banned Talbott and those who work with him from making false, deceptive or unsubstantiated health claims.
Earlier this month, the FTC sued multilevel marketer Amare Global, Talbott, the company’s founding brand partner Patrick Hintze and current CEO and majority shareholder David Chung for allegedly misrepresenting to parents and other consumers that dietary supplements marketed for children and adults could treat, cure or mitigate health conditions such as depression, anxiety and ADHD, and for purportedly misleading its seller recruits, known as brand partners, about their potential earnings.
The contempt motion filed by the FTC alleges that Amare Global, Talbott, Hintze and former Amare CEO Hiep Tran also acted in concert to systematically violate the terms of a 2005 order that Talbott entered into with the FTC in the Window Rock case.
The 2005 order prohibits Talbott and “all persons or entities in active concert or participation with him” from making representations about the health benefits, performance or efficacy of covered products without possessing and relying upon competent and reliable scientific evidence that substantiates the representation, and from misrepresenting the results of scientific studies.
“Amare, Hintze and Tran knew of Talbott’s prior order with the FTC, but rather than attempt to comply with that order they were all too willing to help Talbott launch a new scheme to take advantage of parents looking for products to help improve their children’s health and adults struggling with their own mental health,” said FTC lawyer Christopher Mufarrige, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “Today’s action underscores the FTC’s commitment to enforcing its orders and ensuring that those who deceive consumers are held accountable.”
In Window Rock, the FTC sued Talbott for his alleged role in advertising two supplements, CortiSlim and CortiStress. In that case, the FTC alleged Talbott claimed, falsely or without substantiation, that CortiSlim would help consumers lose weight through controlling their cortisol and that CortiStress would reduce the risk of or prevent diabetes, cancer and other serious illnesses. As part of the settlement, Talbott’s order prohibits him from making false or unsubstantiated health claims and from misrepresenting the results of any tests or studies.
The contempt motion alleges that Talbott, Amare, Tran and Hintze, directly and through Amare brand partners, have made and disseminated a wide variety of unsubstantiated health and efficacy claims concerning Amare’s products, including that they boost neurotransmitters like serotonin and dopamine, lower cortisol and can cure, treat or mitigate the symptoms of conditions like depression, anxiety and ADHD. Talbott, Amare and the company’s brand partners have allegedly claimed that Amare’s products are “science backed” and “clinically proven.”
The FTC alleges, however, that there is no competent and reliable scientific evidence to support these health claims and the studies Talbott and Amare Global point to are deeply flawed. For example, the study that Talbott and Amare Global point to as evidence that the Kids Mood+ product improves focus, mood and overall performance purportedly used no placebo control group and included only 10 participants. The authors of the study also allegedly included Talbott, members of Amare’s “Medical Advisory Board,” and an Amare brand partner, all of whom purportedly had a direct monetary interest in the outcome of the study.
The second study that Talbott and Amare Global cite allegedly suffered from a similar lack of basic scientific standards, including that the authors purportedly compared the end results of the placebo and treatment groups without assessing each group’s baseline measurements.
In filing for contempt, the FTC is seeking compensatory damages for consumers in the full amount consumers paid for the at-issue products.
