Company founder Tei Fu Chen claimed to be the inheritor of this legacy. Chen claimed to be a doctor of Traditional Chinese Medicine, to have a degree in pharmacology, and to be a licensed pharmacist in California. Chen is not a pharmacist in California as had been claimed at Sunrider seminars, and Chen admitted that he is not a doctor by American standards. In a deposition given in connection with a lawsuit against Sunrider Chen's father testified that Chen's fanciful story about having a grandfather who was an herbal master who taught, and bequeathed, him ancient herbal manuscripts, that the family possessed the alleged ancient manuscripts, that Chen was a sickly child, and that chen was a Taiwanese National Judo and Kung Fu Champion were all untrue. In 1984, the FDA obtained an injunction prohibiting Sunrider from marketing an unapproved sweetener extracted from the herb Stevia rebaudiana .
Distributors are prone to even more exaggerations than the company itself.
Many people, the distributor told them, had been cured of cancer after taking Sunrider herbal products. The Tingeys agreed to buy. A few weeks later, the distributor began pushing the Tingeys to sell Sunrider products themselves. The woman brought out pictures of motor homes the Tingeys could win by signing up with Sunrider, and she talked about the easy extra income they could make. Then the phone started ringing.