Former Myrtle Beach doctor target of federal lawsuit over deceptive practices, claims
A former Myrtle Beach-based doctor is being sued by the Federal Trade Commission over what the agency says are unsubstantiated claims of success in treating life-threatening diseases including cancer and the coronavirus.
Dalal Akoury and her AWAREmed clinic are named plaintiffs in a March 16 filing made in the U.S. District Court’s Eastern Tennessee District. Akoury moved her offices to Johnson City, Tenn. in 2020 after running a medical practice along Oleander Drive in Myrtle Beach for several years.
The Justice Department filed the complaint on the FTC’s behalf.
“Since at least early 2018, Defendants have used several advertising platforms to recruit prospective patients, misleadingly claiming, among other things, that virtually every patient treated for any condition improves under AWAREmed’s care,” the complaint says. “In reality, Defendants lacked any reasonable basis for making these advertising claims to the public.”
Federal authorities are asking a judge to permanently bar Akoury from touting treatment options not scientifically proven and also want her to pay a $100,000 civil penalty for violating the Opioid Addiction Recovery Fraud Prevention Act.
Akoury makes a similar claim on her LinkedIn page.
“My ultimate goal is to see that every single person here in the USA and Globally consciously choose Health and Wellness, I would accomplish this mission by empowering the public with knowledge and awareness pertinent to Health and Wellness that if they Embrace they will be able to prevent 95% of chronic diseases including Cancer, and also Conquer many of these destructive dis-eases by changing their lifestyle,” the page says.
A call to Akoury’s attorney, listed in court filings, was not immediately returned.
The clinic’s website says it treats nearly two dozen conditions, including anti-aging programs, cancer, depression and anxiety, erectile dysfunction, Lyme disease and pain management.
At the of a 10-minute video, Akoury says AWAREmed visits are “cash for service,” with a $499 initial consultation fee that doesn’t include lab work, follow-up visits or support treatments.
“We’ll do everything we can for you. We love you so much and we’ll do everything we can to make sure your experience is memorable and amazing, because we care,” Akoury says.
Other embedded videos on her site include what’s depicted as an exchange between Akoury and a patient with Stage IV cancer who said she could return to work after six weeks of being treated by AWAREmed.
During her time on the Grand Strand, Akoury was a regular media personality, appearing on on the region’s Fox affiliate more than 100 times between 2017 and 2018 to boost AWAREmed, according to the FTC.
“It was never disclosed, however, that some of those appearances were actually paid ads placed by Dr. Akoury,” the agency said in a press release.
