PRESS RELEASE: HAYWORTH DOUBLES DOWN ON “FREE MONEY” INFOMERCIAL SCAM, COLDLY TELLS VICTIMS: “BUYER BEWARE”

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Contact: Brian Rogers

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

(602) 604-2010

HAYWORTH DOUBLES DOWN ON “FREE MONEY” INFOMERCIAL SCAM, COLDLY TELLS VICTIMS: “BUYER BEWARE”

“I always say about any product or service, one of the staples I learned growing up is ‘caveat emptor,’ ‘buyer beware.’ I think that is a given in any commercial endeavor – I would certainly hope in this one. But yeah, I’m a broadcaster, and yeah I appeared in this, and yes it was a job. And that’s that. … It’s nothing I hid from, nothing
I’m ashamed of.” -- J.D. Hayworth, 6/21/10

**Watch video of Hayworth’s comments here**

PHOENIX, AZ -- Congressman J.D. Hayworth made national news yesterday after it was revealed that in 2007, he recorded a late-night infomercial for a company called National Grants Conferences (NGC). The company promises consumers it can teach them how to access “hundreds of billions of dollars” in “free money” from the federal government. In the infomercial, Hayworth uses his name and title as a former Member of Congress to lend credibility to NCG’s claims of “free money” and touts its services as “something you should take advantage of.”

If it sounds too good to be true, that’s because it is. National Grants Conferences has received an “F” from the Better Business
Bureau, and was kicked out of that organization. In 2006, NGC had to pay nearly $400,000 in fines and refunds to its victims to settle a consumer fraud lawsuit with the Attorney General of Vermont, who described the company’s business practices as “unconscionable and illegal.”

A year later, several state Attorneys General condemned the company in a letter to the Federal Trade Commission. And in 2009, an investigative report from KVOA-TV in Tucson exposed how NGC was ripping people off, including Oro Valley resident Denis Johnston, who lost more than $4,000 to the company.

Last night, appearing on a live Ustream broadcast, Congressman Hayworth offered no apology for his appearance in the scam infomercial, and instead coldly stated, “buyer beware.”

Apparently to Congressman Hayworth, if anyone got ripped off by the scam he helped sell, it was their fault, not his; even if the company he partnered with operates – as the Vermont Attorney General
put it – in an “unconscionable and illegal” manner: “I always say about any product or service, one of the staples I learned growing up is ‘caveat emptor,’ ‘buyer beware.’ I think that is a given in any commercial endeavor – I would certainly hope in this one. But yeah, I’m a broadcaster, and yeah I appeared in this, and yes it was a job. And that’s that. … It’s nothing I hid from, nothing
I’m ashamed of.” -- J.D. Hayworth, 6/21/10

**Watch video of Hayworth’s comments here**

**Watch Hayworth’s “free money” scam infomercial

here**

McCain 2010 Communications Director Brian Rogers issued the following statement on Congressman Hayworth’s comments defending his “free government money” infomercial:

“‘Buyer beware’? More like ‘voters beware’ of Congressman Hayworth, who preaches fiscal conservatism but hawked the illusion of billions in ‘free government money’ for a company that ripped people off.” -- McCain 2010 Communications Director Brian Rogers