marino andolina from the exercise of the profession and in june 2015, he was placed under house arrest, facing trial for alleged exploitation of vulnerable patients and administration of unproven therapies in exchange for money. he was released in late 2016. in 2015, vannoni was convicted on criminal charges related to administering an unproven treatment and barred from carrying out medical profession in italy. other controversies vannoni has repeatedly stated that the medical care provided by his method is "no charge", and that the money he received would be "donations". several ex-patients and relatives of former patients have argued that there is a definite price list. in july 2013 vannoni registered the trademark stamina. in the same period, stamina foundation signed a €2 million commercial agreement with medestea biotech, an italian biotechnology company focused on stem cell technologies, which has been accused of working towards getting a deregulation for the use of stem cells. suspicions were raised by the wealthy lifestyle of vannoni: he owned a porsche 911 registered in switzerland and lived in a luxury mansion near turin. vannoni announced his intention to move with the researchers and a cooperative of patients' families to cape verde or another country outside italy, talking about an alleged conspiracy of the pharmaceutical lobbies, bureaucracy and politics against stamina therapy in italy. he also claimed that three us universities were willing to test his method.