Alfredo Bowman

Alfredo Darrington Bowman (26 November 1933 – 6 August 2016), also known as Dr. Sebi (), was a Honduran herbalist who practiced in the United States in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Bowman professed to cure all disease with herbs and a plant-based alkaline diet based on various pseudoscientific claims, and denied that HIV caused AIDS. He set up a treatment center in Honduras, then moved his practice to New York City and Los Angeles. Numerous entertainment and acting celebrities were among his clients, including Michael Jackson, Lisa 'Left Eye' Lopes, and John Travolta. Although he used the title and name Dr. Sebi, Bowman had not completed any formal medical training. He was considered a quack by licensed doctors, attorneys, and consumer protection agencies in the US. He was arrested and accused by New York state of practicing medicine without a license. After trial, Bowman was acquitted based on the legal definition of "medicine" for his herbs. He was later charged in a civil suit that resulted in him being prohibited from making therapeutic claims for his supplements. In May 2016, Bowman was arrested in Honduras for money laundering, after being found carrying tens of thousands of dollars in cash with insufficient accounting for its origin. During several weeks' detention in jail, he contracted pneumonia. He died in police custody as he was being transported to a hospital.