The dark underbelly of the TV show shark Tank gets worse the more you look at it A few weeks ago I talked about how one Of its Stars Damon John allegedly Scammed a former contestant out of Millions in profits from their product And today we're going to take a look at A contestant who pulled the Uno reverse Card on the Sharks and was able to scam Every single shark out of millions of Dollars with his horrible invention Known as the Breathometer all five Sharks will give you a million dollars Five hundred thousand for Mark Cuban for 15 percent and 500 000 split amongst the Four of us for the other 15 percent So one million dollars for thirty Percent the entrepreneur In that clip is Named Charles Michael Yim and he Appeared on season five of Shark Tank to Pitch his product Breathometer to the Sharks this device functioned as a Personal breathalyzer that plugged into The headphone jack of your cell phone And could test anyone's breath to see if They were under the legal limit to drive After drinking on the surface it seemed Like a great device and I even know a YouTuber who would have benefited Greatly from using a device like this to Stay out of trouble hello hello officer I'm from California I'm clueless oh are You Well do you know why I stopped you oh
Okay you when you were coming off of the Crosstown there there's a stop sign when You get on to Cleveland you just blew Right through the stop sign Yeah the Sharks were blown away by The Invention and offered Charles more than He was asking for with all five sharks Agreeing to a deal of one million Dollars to be a part of this Revolutionary device however after the Deal was signed the true nature of just How bad this product was came to light The first thing to point out is that the Personal breathalyzers already exist and You can buy a decent one off Amazon for About a hundred bucks the main selling Point of this device was that it Attached to your cell phone so you Didn't have to carry around an extra Device that may sound kind of stupid but Not having to carry around an extra Device every time you drink is a real Convenience for some people so this was A big selling point to the Sharks before Shark Tank the Breathometer device only Had a few thousand sales and the Appearance on the show skyrocketed its Popularity with this newfound Fame and Many people now using the device in the Real world people started to realize the Device wasn't all it was cracked up to Be many people realized the blood Alcohol levels weren't accurate and were Giving people a false sense of security
To drive drunk reviewers were mixed on Sites like Amazon with some giving great Reviews but many leaving negative ones With one stating do not buy mine never Gave a single correct result I tried it Sober as a judge and it told me I was Drunk as a skunk I tried it drunk and it Told me to have fun driving you're doing Fine then it started to air every time After no customer service just a canned Message from leaving it open for a day To dry out please save your money I'm Sending this back as mounting claims Rolled in about the defective nature of This product the FTC finally stepped in And filed a complaint against the Company in 2017 for misrepresenting its Effectiveness the FDC investigation Determined claims the company were Making that the product went through Government lab grade test testing were False they also uncovered that after People began to claim the device Underestimated people's blood alcohol Level the company made changes to the Device to artificially inflate blood Alcohol readings to compensate when this Didn't work the company discontinued the Product without telling customers their Products were defective all of this Eventually led to Charles and the Breathometer company having to settle With the FDC and being forced to issue Refunds to every single person who
Bought one of their devices if they Requested a refund now during all this Time you may be asking where were the Sharks Mark Cuban Damon John Mr horrible Why didn't any of them step in and try And turn this company around it turns Out the Sharks were having a horrible Time of dealing with Charles in the Breathometer as well Mark Cuban went on A podcast and talked about how he felt Charles misused the money he was given What was your biggest loss my biggest Loss was probably a million dollars but You would blow into it and it did Alcohol detection and it was a great Idea yeah actually a decent product but Like the guy Charles Um I look at his Instagram and he'd be In Bora Bora and then look at him Two weeks later and he's being Vegas Partying you know then be on nectar Island with Richard Branson and I I text Him like what the are you doing You're supposed to be working oh no I'm Networking next thing you know all the Money's gone now to this day Charles Still has his Instagram up and proudly Shows his jet setting life visiting Exotic locations around the world after Doing some more digging I found a post Where he talks about Breathometer Winning a competition of 10 000 startups Run by Richard Branson in 2015 on Necker Island keep in mind this competition was
Well after the product was receiving Numerous complaints from consumers and They knew the product was flawed but That didn't stop Charles from milking a Billionaire for even more money to keep This terrible product alive in 2017 After the FTC complaint the barthometer Product was pulled from shelves but Charles facing scrutiny from all the Money he raised that led to nothing Decided to whip up a new device to Placate his investors he launched a Product known as mint which was similar To his Breathometer device but this one Just measured if your breath smells bad Now if you may be thinking that sounds Incredibly stupid I can just hold my Hand over my mouth and blow to see if I Have bad breath you'd be just like Everyone else that heard about this Product Charles tried to partner with The Phillips Company to get the product Package with their Dental products but Mint ultimately failed and was pulled Off of shelves just like the Breathometer interestingly enough the Website for mint still exists but if you Try and click the shop now button it Just takes you to an air page apparently Charles and his team were too Incompetent to take down their webpage After the product was shelved now I have To say looking back at the story I don't Think anyone really should feel bad for
The Shark Tank stars who are all Millionaires who lost money investing in This product as I showed before portable Breathalyzers already existed before This product and the only thing that Made it unique was it plugged directly Into your phone so you don't have to Carry around an extra device as cell Phones started getting rid of the Headphone jack Breathometer had to Pivot To being a Bluetooth device thus Destroying its only unique feature of Being connected to your phone I really Don't understand why all the sharks Decided to jump at this and offer so Much money to be part of this horrible Product on top of all of that I have to Say that I'm truly Disturbed that this Product was ever allowed to hit the Shelves at all creating a breathalyzer Device that doesn't actually work and Gives drunk people the false sense of Security that it's safe for them to get Behind the wheel of vehicle is truly Disturbing after it was proven the Device was inaccurate and Charles and His team tried to change the software to Show higher blood alcohol levels in the Device to cover this up I'm truly amazed No one ever went to jail over this Product Shark Tank more and more just Seems like an advertisement both for the Millionaire sharks to become bigger Celebrities and for the startups
Featured on the show to get free Publicity in the early years of the show Many contestants offered reasonable Values nations of their company for the Sharks to buy in but in later Seasons It's clear a lot of the contestants just Want the fame and don't actually want to Sell a piece of their company to the Sharks to this day aside from the FTC Complaint that forced the company to Issue refunds to its customers it Doesn't appear any legal action has been Taken against Charles or the Breathometer company while all five Sharks gave money to the company I can't Find any lawsuits so it doesn't appear That any of the Sharks sued Charles for Misuse of the funds however it's very Clear most of them are salty about how The deal ended with Mark Cuban bringing It up almost every time he's asked what His worst shark tank deal is with that Being said the more I do research on the Show The more dirt ends up coming out About just how scummy some of these Deals end up I'll leave you with a clip Of four of the sharks who did a video For Vanity Fair in 2019 talking about Some of their worst deals and as soon as Breathometer is brought up you can see On their faces just how disgusted they Feel having to talk about this horrible Product again my name is Charles Michael Young and I'm the founder and CEO of
Breathometer Charles oh my gosh was this The first time all five of us went in on A deal and he goes to show you what That's worth great idea for a great Concept for execution worst execution in The history of Shark Tank