# Source: FTC Warning Letter to Tranont (April 2020)

**Type:** source
**Status:** Draft
**Confidence:** High
**Source Type:** government-record
**URL:** https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/warning-letters/covid-19-letter_to_tranont.pdf
**Publisher:** U.S. Federal Trade Commission
**Retrieved:** 2026-08-12
**Raw:** raw/ftc-warning-letter-tranont-2020/2026-08-11-34b9d55b80bc.txt
**Published:** 2020-04-24
**Updated:** 2026-08-11

## Summary

The FTC staff letter of April 24, 2020 to Tranont, addressed to CEO Lorne Berry in Lehi, Utah — one
of [ten sent that day](ftc-mlm-covid-warning-letters-2020.md), and the most explicit of the three
Utah letters in the claims it reproduces. The quoted participant posts do not hedge: they name
products and tell readers the products fight the virus, including "TECHNO BOOST can help you fight
Coronavirus. Order yours today" and a claim that a proteolytic enzyme product works because "the
Coronavirus is a nucleoprotein."

The earnings example is a recorded presentation in which a speaker moves, over about forty minutes,
from job losses and childcare costs to "an extra $600 a month, an extra $10,000 a month, or you want
to make over $1 million a year" — the pattern the FTC's letter identifies as unlawful when
participants generally do not achieve such results.

The legal paragraphs are the same template as the [doTERRA](ftc-warning-letter-doterra-2020.md) and
[Modere](ftc-warning-letter-modere-2020.md) letters; the value here is the addressee and the
specificity of the quoted claims.

## Useful Claims

- The FTC addressed the letter to Tranont c/o CEO Lorne Berry at 3451 N. Triumph Blvd., Garden Level,
  Lehi, Utah 84043 — a federal record of the company's Utah headquarters and its chief executive as
  of April 2020.
- Quoted participant health claims name products directly as coronavirus treatments — a "TECHNO
  BOOST" product, a nitric-oxide supplement, and "Restore," which the post calls "a proteolytic enzyme
  which breaks down proteins", offered on the stated premise that "the Coronavirus is a nucleoprotein".
  The post's own instruction is to take Restore "to help you break down the proteins in your body", not
  the virus's — the implication is left to the reader, which is part of why the FTC treats it as a
  disease claim.
- The quoted earnings claim spans a presentation pitching income from "an extra $600 a month" to
  "over $1 million a year" while invoking lost jobs and an unstable economy.
- The FTC placed Tranont in the group warned about both health and earnings claims.
- As with its sibling letters, the FTC demanded a description of remedial action within 48 hours and
  made no finding of violation.

## Verbatim

> "Tranont c/o Lorne Berry, CEO 3451 N. Triumph Blvd. Garden Level Lehi, Utah 84043"
> — Addressee block

> "NEW PRODUCT. TECHNO BOOST can help you fight Coronavirus. Order yours today."
> — Quoted participant post, health-claim examples

> "Did you know the Coronavirus is a nucleoprotein and other viruses are made up of viral proteins?
> Well I have Restore, Restore is a proteolytic enzyme which breaks down proteins."
> — Quoted participant post, health-claim examples

> "Whether you want to make an extra $600 a month, an extra $10,000 a month, or you want to make over
> $1 million a year, you can do that…"
> — Quoted participant presentation, earnings-claim examples

## Reliability Notes

**Primary record of an allegation, not of a finding.** The FTC created this letter in the course of
its enforcement work, which makes it primary tier, but a warning letter adjudicates nothing. Tranont
neither admitted nor was found to have violated the FTC Act.

**The claims are participants', and the letter says so.** Every quoted health and earnings claim is
attributed to "business opportunity participants or representatives." The FTC's argument is that the
company is answerable for them anyway — that is the point of the letter, and it is different from
saying the company published them.

**Shared template.** The three paragraphs of law and the closing instructions are identical across
the April 24 letters; only the addressee and examples change. The boilerplate is quoted on the
[doTERRA page](ftc-warning-letter-doterra-2020.md) rather than repeated here.

**Tranont has no wiki fact page yet, and this source does not establish one.** A federal warning
letter fixes an address and a CEO name for one date in 2020; it says nothing about the company's
current scale, operations, or standing.

**Capture detail.** Text extracted from the FTC's PDF. The bracketed stage directions in the earnings
quote ("[38 minutes later]") are the FTC's own annotations of the recording, not the speaker's words.

## Related Pages

- [Utah's Direct-Selling Industry](utah-direct-selling-industry.md)
- [FTC Announcement of Warning Letters to Ten Multi-Level Marketers (2020)](ftc-mlm-covid-warning-letters-2020.md)
- [FTC Warning Letter to dōTERRA (2020)](ftc-warning-letter-doterra-2020.md)