The self-described ‘King of Infomercials’ Don Lapre was found dead in his Arizona jail cell on Sunday morning, just days before he was to stand trial on mail fraud and conspiracy charges.
Officials at the jail discovered the bloodied body of Lapre in his cell. U.S. Marshal Matt Hershey indicates that self-inflicted cuts caused him to bleed to death.
Don was to appear in court on Tuesday to face 41 counts of conspiracy and fraud. The infomercial host was accused of bilking 220,000 people out of $52 million in a Internet-based pyramid scheme to sell vitamins and recruit others to do the same.
If convicted, he could have been fined $250,000 to $500,000 per count and been sentenced to serve five to 25 years in prison.
U.S. Marshals arrested Lapre at a Tempe, Arizona gym in June 2011. He attempted to kill himself at that time, by slicing a deep gash in the femoral artery in his groin area.
You can see Don below in his last commercial: