of running a nationwide scheme to sell worthless Internet businesses. Federal prosecutors accused Lapre of bilking more than 220,000 victims out of nearly $52 million. He was charged with 41 counts of conspiracy, mail fraud, wire fraud, promotional money laundering, and transactional money laundering. A federal judge issued a bench warrant for Lapre on June 22, 2011, after he failed to appear at his arraignment. On June 27, 2011, Lapre was arrested in Tempe, Arizona, at a Life Time Fitness center, where he had reportedly lived for two days, with serious self-inflicted knife wounds to his groin. The wounds led authorities to believe Lapre had attempted suicide while at Life Time Fitness by attempting to sever the femoral artery in his legs. Death Lapre died on October 2, 2011, while in jail awaiting his trial, which was scheduled to begin on October 4, 2011. The autopsy report stated that he died of massive blood loss after cutting his throat with a razor blade and had wrapped himself in sheets to conceal the massive blood loss from anyone who might try to save him. In popular culture David Spade appeared in two sketches parodying Don Lapre on Saturday Night Live. John C. McGinley played Dick Dupre, a spoof of Don Lapre and his astrologer Melissa Lipnutz, in the film Puff, Puff, Pass. References 1964 births 2011 suicides American television personalities Consumer fraud Infomercials People who committed suicide in prison custody Businesspeople from Providence, Rhode Island Television personalities from Phoenix, Arizona American salespeople Suicides by sharp instrument in the United States Suicides in Arizona American people who died in prison custody Prisoners who died in United States federal government detention American confidence tricksters 20th-century American businesspeople