America’s Frontline Doctors (AFD) is suing one of its founders – headline-grabbing MD Simone Gold – in a battle for control over the controversial group, which gained notoriety for spreading misinformation about COVID-19 treatments and vaccines during the pandemic.
In what parallels similar cases in South Africa, the organisation and its current board chairman are alleging that Gold misused the non-profit organisation’s funds to buy a $3.6m Florida mansion, a Mercedes-Benz and other luxury vehicles, and take trips on private planes.
The lawsuit, filed on 4 November in federal court, comes just months after Gold was released from prison for her role in the 6 January US Capitol insurrection when Trump supporters stormed the institution, reports Medscape.
California physician Gold pleaded guilty to trespassing in the Capitol and was sentenced to 60 days in prison.
Gold helped found AFD, a so-called “medical freedom” group that has ties to right-wing groups, including the Tea Party Patriots.
The group and the board chairman, Joseph Gilbert, claim that after her release from prison, Gold attempted to reassert control of the group, take over its website, and fraudulently represent herself as its director, according to the complaint.
The complaint referred to Gold as a “rogue founder”, alleging she spent almost $50 000 monthly on personal expenses using the organisation's credit cards.
Gold resigned from the group’s board in February – before she pleaded guilty – so that she could pursue her goal of opening health and wellness centres nationwide, according to the complaint.
At that time, the board voted Gilbert to be its chairman and agreed to have him negotiate an agreement for Gold to serve as a consultant.
Gold sought a “signing bonus” of $1.5m, along with $50 000 to be paid monthly as a consulting fee, according to the complaint.
In a press release posted on 8 November on the group’s website, Gold declined further comment but said the legal complaint was “founded on several demonstrably false claims”, “filed by a disgruntled board member”.
On the same day, a judge denied the group’s request for an injunction that would have prevented Gold “from gaining access and use of charitable funds for her own personal benefit and from trying to illegally and fraudulently wrest control away from AFLDS’ rightful Board of Directors”.
The day before the lawsuit was filed, Gold posted a statement on the group’s website that “reaffirmed” her leadership of the organisation after she left prison. She also accused Gilbert of the same misdeeds of which she is now accused.
The lawsuit paints a picture of Gold swiftly moving to seize control of the group’s operations and finances between mid-October and early November. She demanded via letter that each of the group’s board members immediately resign or face litigation and public exposure. She recused Gilbert from his position on the board, the complaint alleges. She also allegedly suspended the group’s in-house attorney and directed employees to lock other employees out of the group’s email, website and financial systems, according to the complaint.
With Gold as its public face, AFD decried pandemic lockdowns, spread misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines, and promoted unproven and dangerous COVID-19 remedies, including hydroxychloroquine and Ivermectin.
Early in the pandemic, the white-coated members stood in front of the US Supreme Court to praise hydroxychloroquine and criticise mask-wearing.
A video of the event went viral, vaulting Gold into conservative media circles. The group solicited donations and took in large sums of money by referring people to a telemedicine site that prescribed the off-label use of hydroxychloroquine and Ivermectin.
The group’s activities were considered so egregious that last October, the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis officially requested that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) investigate the organisation’s practices.
In a letter to the FTC’s chair, the committee wrote that AFD had “profited by facilitating paid consultations and off-label prescriptions for purported coronavirus treatments that the companies promote online.
AFLDS’ website refers patients to (a website) which provides consultations with ‘AFLDS-trained physicians’ willing to prescribe hydroxychloroquine, Ivermectin, and other unproven treatments”.
The unwarranted hype over hydroxychloroquine in particular went beyond potentially causing people to forgo proven treatments or preventive measures, including vaccination and mask-wearing. It caused alarming shortages of the anti-malarial medicine, used to treat lupus and rheumatoid arthritis (RA), according to a 2020 international survey of lupus clinics.
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
Doctors face penalties for ‘COVID lies’ under new California Bill
US anti-vax doctor starts prison sentence for Capital Riots break-in
Unproven Ivermectin resurfaces as treatment for long COVID patients