Samuel Caster is an American businessman who founded
Mannatech
Mannatech 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 stock ...
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 the ...
. Prior to founding Mannatech, Caster had founded and run Eagle Shield and marketed Electracat, a pest control device declared by the
Caster attended North Texas State University (now University of North Texas) 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 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." 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
Mannatech
Mannatech 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 stock ...
. 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 as its auditor after the accounting firm demanded that Mannatech remove Caster from all responsibilities.Greg Abbott, 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.