Samuel Caster is an American businessman who founded

Mannatech Mannatech Inc. is a publicly traded, multinational multi-level marketing firm that sells dietary supplements and personal care products. It was founded in November 1993 by Samuel Caster, and is headquartered in Flower Mound, Texas. The company's ...

, a

multi-level marketing Multi-level marketing (MLM), also called network marketing or pyramid selling, is a controversial and sometimes illegal marketing strategy for the sale of products or services in which the revenue of the MLM company is derived from a non-salarie ...

firm located in

Coppell, Texas Coppell ( ) is a city in the northwest corner of Dallas County in the U.S. state of Texas. It is a suburb of Dallas and a bedroom community in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. Its population was 42,983 at the 2020 census. A small area in th ...

. Prior to founding Mannatech, Caster had founded and run Eagle Shield and marketed Electracat, a pest control device declared by the

Attorney General of Texas The Texas attorney general is the chief legal officer
of the

as a hoax. He now runs Alovea and Manna-Relief

Early life

Caster attended North Texas State University (now

University of North Texas The University of North Texas (UNT) is a public university, public research university located in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. Its main campus is in Denton, Texas, Denton, with a satellite campus in Frisco, Texas, Frisco. It serves as the ...

) for a four-month period in 1972.

Career

In the late 1980s, Caster founded Eagle Shield, which sold an insulation product that it claimed was based on new technology developed by

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

and that could reduce heating and cooling costs by up to 40%. In May 1988, the Attorney General of Texas concluded that the product's technology long predated NASA and did not reduce consumers' bills in the amounts advertised. Caster agreed to stop making statements about Eagle Shield. Caster's second product, the Electracat, was sold as a pest control device. The Electracat reportedly emitted pulsed vibrations that repelled rats, crickets, snakes, ticks, spiders, mosquitoes, and scorpions. However, in January 1991, the Attorney General of Texas investigated the product and found that the Electracat emitted no vibrations whatsoever. The Attorney General declared, "The device is a hoax, and stands on the same scientific footing as a

perpetual motion machine Perpetual motion is the motion of bodies that continues forever in an unperturbed system. A perpetual motion machine is a hypothetical machine that can do work indefinitely without an external energy source. This kind of machine is impossible ...

." Caster agreed to stop selling the Electracat and "to refrain from making claims about products that were not supported by science". In 1993, Caster founded

. He served as CEO of the company until August 2007, when he resigned. In October 2007, it was reported that the company had fired

Grant Thornton LLP Grant Thornton LLP is the American member firm of Grant Thornton International, the seventh largest accounting network in the world by combined fee income. Grant Thornton LLP is the seventh largest U.S. accounting and advisory organization. The ...

as its auditor after the accounting firm demanded that Mannatech remove Caster from all responsibilities.

Greg Abbott Gregory Wayne Abbott ( ; born November 13, 1957) is an American politician, attorney, and jurist who has served since 2015 as the 48th governor of Texas. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served from 2002 to ...

, the then-Texas Attorney General, charged Caster and Mannatech "with operating an illegal marketing scheme." Caster settled the lawsuit in 2009 and agreed to personally pay $1 million in addition to the penalties exacted from Mannatech.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Caster, Samuel American business executives Businesspeople from Texas American company founders Living people Year of birth missing (living people)