Autopsy complete on Herbalife Founder, Mark Hughes
Mark Hughes, founder of Herbalife, died in his Malibu, CA home on Sunday, May 21, 2000. Now the coroner's report is in: Hughes died of a combination of alcohol and a prescription antidepressant, Doxepin, he was taking as a sleeping aid. Herbalife produces its own "natural" sleep aid.
According to information publicized by Hughes, he started the company after his mother died of an overdose of diet pills.
An initial autopsy was inconclusive, so the coroners ran "routine" toxicology test to determine whether Hughes had alcohol or drugs in his bloodstream at the time of death. There is no suggestion of foul play.
Herbalife has had some legal problems since its inception in 1980. It paid $850,000 to settle a suit brought by the State of California. The state claimed that Herbalife had made false medical claims for its products, and also that it was running an illegal marketing scheme. The US Food and Drug Administration forced the company to remove two products.
More recently, Hughes attempted to take the company private, but following a shareholder lawsuit those plans were dropped.
Hughes has always been the charismatic leader and motivator for Herbalife distributors. Without his presence, and with the further stigma of having died of an overdose, it remains to be seen whether distributors will stay with the company.
Christopher Pair, who met Hughes when he was a counselor at the reform school that Hughes attended after some teenage brushes with the law, has been appointed as interim CEO.