Thierry Casasnovas, the guru of raw food, placed in police custody
A follower of fasting and raw food, Thierry Casasnovas, a “therapist” without a medical degree, went so far as to advocate a raw diet, based on fruits and vegetables, to cure cancer or autism. He even recommended to his 600,000 subscribers on YouTube, sometimes seriously ill, to stop their treatments prescribed by their doctors. Chemotherapy? “Rat poison!” he said to the vulnerable patients who followed him. An amputated limb? A vegetable juice can make it “regrow”.
According to our information, this 48-year-old pseudo-naturopath has been in police custody since Tuesday March 7 as part of a judicial investigation opened in Perpignan, since the summer of 2020 for “illegal exercise of the profession of doctor”, “abuse of weakness” and “misleading commercial practices”. Police custody confirmed by Jean-David Cavaillé, the public prosecutor of Perpignan. His home, located in Maureillas-las-Illas (Pyrénées-Orientals), was searched in February 2022 by the gendarmes of the research section of Montpellier and the central office for the fight against attacks on the environment and public health (Oclaesp).
Since 2011, the interministerial mission for vigilance and the fight against sectarian aberrations (Miviludes) has identified more than 600 reports against him. “He is the person who is the subject of the greatest number of referrals with in particular more than 50 in 2021”, tells us the Miviludes while, coincidentally, the first national meetings against sectarian aberrations are currently being held in Paris. . Some reports have even turned into complaints. Organizations for the defense of victims of sects (Unadfi and Adfi) and the national order of doctors have also taken legal action.
Suspicious financial arrangements
Twelve years ago, Thierry Casasnovas, long hair and little goatee, became known in videos, where he defended eating raw and abstinence to “regenerate” and “detoxify” his body. His anti-vaccine speech during the pandemic also worried the authorities. He did not hesitate to affirm that he “Minister of Health”, the coronavirus “would be settled quickly: cold bath and fasting for everyone, a little carrot juice and go ahead and I’ll send you”, affirmed- he faces the camera.
Thierry Casasnovas also organized training courses and marketed juice extractors at high prices as well as food supplements. The investigations also revealed significant profits with suspicious financial arrangements: money laundering, deceptive commercial practice, breach of trust and abuse of corporate assets. The amount of the offenses is estimated at more than 2.7 million euros! In mid-June 2021, he announced in a final video that he was stopping his YouTube channel and retiring “from public life”. Before returning to the social media scene almost a year later.
An “army of fanatics”
In 2019, one of his victims had agreed to confide. For the past two years, Dominique, a former drawing teacher aged 62 at the time, had begun to follow the recommendations of Thierry Casasnovas. She only ate nuts, avocados, bananas and Chinese cabbage. Perhaps, she said to herself, this dietary change would allow her to heal her bipolarity.
At first, she loses weight, returns to sports, feels beautiful. But over time, her blonde hair begins to fall out. His teeth, already damaged, hurt him. So she looks for support in Facebook groups. “Each time, I was told, it’s normal, it’s detox. For your teeth, put coconut oil, they will grow back. But her embarrassing questions earned her exclusion from the groups.
“An army of fanatics made me feel guilty, saying: It is your fault ! Why so much proselytism? It’s like a cult. » After losing 17 kg in a year and a half, Dominique, undernourished, stopped everything. With hindsight, she thinks about filing a complaint for abuse of weakness. And regrets having been convinced. “But you know, when you’re bad, you can’t choose anymore. »
