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Thread: Feds urge jail for pitchman Kevin Trudeau

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    Feds urge jail for pitchman Kevin Trudeau

    "After two decades of tangling with infomercial king Kevin Trudeau, federal attorneys in Chicago on Wednesday asked that the pitchman be put in jail for ignoring court orders."

    Feds urge jail for pitchman Kevin Trudeau | abc7chicago.com

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    Re: Feds urge jail for pitchman Kevin Trudeau

    He is a slippery one, will be interesting to see how it plays out. I am hoping the find some way to disgorge all his hidden wealth to pay for his nonsense too. He has got to be one of the best examples of going big time if you are going to tell tales and take people's money. Other than maybe Wade Cook, I can't think of too many hucksters that made as much loot as Kevin Truedeau. Perhaps, Tony Robbins although I think about him a little differently than the other two.
    "It's virtually impossible to violate rules ... but it's impossible for a violation to go undetected, certainly not for a considerable period of time." Bernie Madoff
    https://www.facebook.com/pages/Scam-...98399986981403

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    Re: Feds urge jail for pitchman Kevin Trudeau

    Pitchman in contempt for not paying $37M fine


    July 27, 2013

    CHICAGO (AP) — A federal judge has found author and infomercial pitchman Kevin Trudeau in contempt of court for failing to pay a more than $37 million fine imposed over misleading ads for one of his wildly popular weight-loss books.

    Friday's ruling was the latest round in more than a decade of legal battles that began with a suit filed by the Federal Trade Commission. The regulatory agency alleged some of Trudeau's informercials included false and misleading statements about his books.

    A federal judge in Chicago agreed and ordered him to stop. Then in 2007, Judge Robert Gettleman fined Trudeau $37.6 million for violating the order.

    On Friday, Gettleman said Trudeau failed to pay and ordered him to transfer ownership of companies and financial accounts to a court-appointed receiver. Gettleman found him in contempt, opting not to give him jail time out of concern that those hurt by his actions would never get compensated.

    He likened Trudeau to a puppet master in control of a vast network being used to keep his assets hidden and suggested that without his cooperation there would be no way to get at that money.

    "Mr. Trudeau is a puppet master who has a lot of strings out there and I'm not sure he can pull those strings from jail," Gettleman said, according to WMAQ-TV.

    Despite no formal medical training and several criminal convictions, Trudeau has sold millions of books offering cures for dozens of ailments, from faltering memory to hair loss. They have titles such as "The Weight Loss Cure 'They' Don't Want You to Know About," the book at the center of his latest legal trouble.

    The FTC first sued Trudeau in 1998, charging that he made false and unsubstantiated claims in infomercials for hair growth, memory and weight-loss products. In 2003, the agency sued Trudeau for deceptively marketing a calcium product as a cancer cure and a product called Biotape as a pain reliever.

    Trudeau paid $2 million in 2004 to settle the FTC's charges and agreed to comply with a court order banning him from infomercials except those that accurately promote books.

    Three years later, the judge held Trudeau in civil contempt for misrepresenting some of the facts in an ad for his best-selling weight-loss book, namely that the diet plan was easy and allowed adherents to eat anything they wanted.

    After purchasing the book, however, the FTC alleged that consumers discover it "requires severe dieting," daily injections of a prescription drug not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for weight loss and "lifelong dietary restrictions."

    Trudeau's attorney, Kimball Anderson, said Friday his client wants to cooperate but does not own the companies and does not have the money.

    It is not the first time Gettleman has declared Trudeau in contempt.

    The judge in 2010 sentenced Trudeau to 30 days in jail and fined him $5,000 for criminal contempt after the pitchman urged his supporters to contact the judge and vouch for the benefits of his books.

    Gettleman was teaching a course at Northwestern University law school in February 2010 when his BlackBerry suddenly started buzzing furiously with one e-mail after another.

    His court e-mail locked up, requiring a technician to fix the problem, and the U.S. Marshal's Service had to produce a threat assessment because a few e-mails sounded threatening.

    Trudeau appealed that sentence to the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals.

    News.Yahoo.com
    The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing

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    Re: Feds urge jail for pitchman Kevin Trudeau

    Quote Originally Posted by ribshaw View Post
    He is a slippery one, will be interesting to see how it plays out. I am hoping the find some way to disgorge all his hidden wealth to pay for his nonsense too. He has got to be one of the best examples of going big time if you are going to tell tales and take people's money. Other than maybe Wade Cook, I can't think of too many hucksters that made as much loot as Kevin Truedeau. Perhaps, Tony Robbins although I think about him a little differently than the other two.
    Wade Crook...Now there's a blast from the past....claimed to be a Real Estate and then stock trading guru...touted "channeling" (rangebound) stocks. Went to a couple of his suck-you-in freebies. Wonder if he was as poor a cab driver as he was guru?
    It seems like in this "industry" common sense is not all that common!

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    Re: Feds urge jail for pitchman Kevin Trudeau

    Well Kevin can keep appealing but I hope he spends some time behind bars for all the people he has scammed money from with his ridiculous books and ads.
    Don't get ripped off!! Stay informed!

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    Re: Feds urge jail for pitchman Kevin Trudeau

    As much as my anger over the Panda Cam has started to subside, this made my blog boil all over again. Thanks to Cosmic Connie for her excellent blog.

    The shutdown of the U.S. government is making many people furious, and rightly so, but for many folks, particularly those of us who have been following serial scammer Kevin Trudeau's courtroom dramas, the governmental glitch offers plenty of entertainment bang for the buck (or for the government's lack of bucks, as the case may be).

    But before we get to the entertainment part, let's recap the recent developments with the civil and criminal court cases. First off, as noted on this Whirled yesterday, the FTC has petitioned the court for an indefinite delay in the next (civil case) hearing for Katie. This is a change from their earlier granted motion to move the October 1 hearing to October 4. As they wrote on Document 761, filed October 1, 2013:

    As the Court is aware, on September 30, 2013, appropriations to the FTC lapsed. The FTC does not know when Congress will restore funding. Without appropriations, FTC attorneys are legally prohibited from working except in limited circumstances. Accordingly, the FTC requests that the Court reset the proceeding scheduled for Friday, October 4 to three days after the Commission resumes operation, or to the earliest available time thereafter.

    So that means that in the matter involving that hefty $37.6 million FTC fine -- the matter which brought all of his assets under receivership -- Kevin is free for now, though not off the hook, unless Judge Gettleman decides otherwise. (And at this point, nothing would surprise me, although Judge Gettleman seems to have been growing sterner with Katie in recent hearings.) The second part of Document 761 is the part where it looks as if the FTC lawyers are throwing their hands up in despair, or at the very least giving themselves an out should the case collapse:

    Over the past year, the FTC has done everything it reasonably could to move this proceeding forward as rapidly as possible, because moving quickly best serves consumers interests. As we have argued before, significant redress becomes less likely as more time elapses. Accordingly, the FTC is disappointed that it must seek this relief, and the FTC respectfully requests that the Court reset the next proceeding to three days after the Commission resumes operation, or to the earliest available time thereafter.

    Translation: "We've done everything we can do to help the consumers, but OTHER people keep these delays going, so what's a girl to do?"

    Now, the entertaining part is that even though I haven't yet seen any official statement from Katie, some of his followers, having heard the news of the indefinite postponement, are high-fiving it on Facebook and saying, "Yessssss! This is it! We won!" Some are dead certain that Katie will even show up for the GIN Family Reunion in Washington D.C. later this month (it's scheduled for October 18-20). If so, there may be that hero's welcome after all -- the Return of the King scenario I envisioned others envisioning on this recent blog post.

    And this comes as no surprise whatsoever, but some are even saying that Katie used the power of his mighty mind to shut down the government, and that he can do it whenever he wants to.

    Whirled Musings
    "It's virtually impossible to violate rules ... but it's impossible for a violation to go undetected, certainly not for a considerable period of time." Bernie Madoff
    https://www.facebook.com/pages/Scam-...98399986981403

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    Re: Feds urge jail for pitchman Kevin Trudeau

    Connie scooped it..

    Kevin Trudeau found guilty of criminal contempt

    After less than 45 minutes of deliberation in a Federal courtroom in Chicago today, a six-man, six-woman jury found serial scammer Kevin Trudeau guilty of criminal contempt for misleading claims he made on infomercials about his book, The Weight Loss Cure "They" Don't Want You To Know About. He was ordered taken into custody immediately, and his bond revoked. There's no word at the moment on the sentence, which Judge Ronald Guzman will decide

    Whirled Musings
    "It's virtually impossible to violate rules ... but it's impossible for a violation to go undetected, certainly not for a considerable period of time." Bernie Madoff
    https://www.facebook.com/pages/Scam-...98399986981403

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    Re: Feds urge jail for pitchman Kevin Trudeau

    Kevin Trudeau: Prosecutors ask 10 years in prison - chicagotribune.com

    Prosecutors want at least 10 years in prison for infomercial king Kevin Trudeau


    Staff report

    4:24 p.m. CDT, March 12, 2014

    Federal prosecutors want jailed TV pitchman Kevin Trudeau sentenced to at least 10 years in prison for repeatedly defying court orders to pay a whopping $37 million fine.

    With Trudeau scheduled to be sentenced on Monday, prosecutors ripped the infomercial king in a court filing for what they called his “brazen defiance” of federal judges in Chicago over the last decade and accused him of preying on the sick, the poor and the insecure over three decades of fraud and deceit.

    Trudeau has been jailed since Nov. 12 when he was convicted by a federal jury of criminal contempt for lying in infomercials about the contents of his weight loss book that called for punishing calorie restrictions and a crippling list of food restrictions.

    Prosecutors said Trudeau has made no payments toward the $37 million fine imposed by the Federal Trade Commission despite continuing to live a lavish lifestyle. One week after U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman ordered him to pay up “forthwith” in June 2010, Trudeau spent more than $4,000 on draperies, prosecutors said. Between mid-2010 and March 2013, Trudeau spent at least $12 million on first-class airfare, gym memberships, trips to the salon, $12,000 cufflinks, a six-figure Bentley automobile and a mansion in suburban Oak Brook and a California residence that cost a combined $15,500 a month, according to the filing Tuesday.

    Prosecutors urged U.S. District Judge Ronald Guzman, who will impose sentence, to view a televised interview of Trudeau from last year in which they said he acknowledged living a lavish lifestyle and boasted about avoiding paying the $37 million fine.

    According to the filing, Trudeau sold more than 850,000 copies of “The Weight Loss Cure ‘They’ Don’t Want You to Know About,” bringing in sales of $49 million. Some 57,000 buyers returned the book for a partial refund despite the difficult mechanism to do that, said prosecutors, who laid out a history of fraud by Trudeau that they said dates to the mid-1980s.

    Trudeau “preys upon the sick who want to be made healthy, the poor who want to become rich, and the insecure who want to feel better about themselves,” prosecutors wrote in the filing. “He exploits consumers’ insecurities and weaknesses, promising them an easy fix for whatever hurts or embarrasses them.”

    Trudeau’s promises can even be dangerous, said prosecutors, who expect testimony at sentencing from the brother of one man who they said died after he relied on Trudeau’s “Natural Cures” book and stopped taking his heart medication.

    Prosecutors said Trudeau faces as much as about 20 to 25 years in prison under federal sentencing guidelines but asked Guzman to impose a minimum 10-year sentence.

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    Re: Feds urge jail for pitchman Kevin Trudeau

    So why do they still have his infomercials running on TV? In scanning through channels, I have seen him on there still running his mouth but I quickly switch away. Next time I will write down what network is still playing this junk. I am sure it is paid programming but still if he is in jail how can they still be running them? Kevin Trudeau just continues to get away with all his lies.
    Don't get ripped off!! Stay informed!

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    Re: Feds urge jail for pitchman Kevin Trudeau

    I don't get it either scratchy. I see them too.

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    Re: Feds urge jail for pitchman Kevin Trudeau

    Quote Originally Posted by Whip View Post
    I don't get it either scratchy. I see them too.
    Thanks, I am glad I am not the only one wondering...
    Don't get ripped off!! Stay informed!

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    Re: Feds urge jail for pitchman Kevin Trudeau

    If it is on cable or on local broadcast, those commercials being paid for and local ad insertion agency might be not aware of the whole case or never received an official request to pull it down.
    Bailing out of advertisement contract, which has several levels of affiliates in the line getting commissions might cost lawsuits and loss of future business.

    Somebody should notify if Trudeau infomercials which been found as misleading, on which networks and at which areas can still be seen. so local agency will get served with an order to pull them down.

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    Re: Feds urge jail for pitchman Kevin Trudeau

    That is a good suggestion NikSam and something we should do the next time we see one. I plan to do just that. Thanks!
    Don't get ripped off!! Stay informed!

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    Re: Feds urge jail for pitchman Kevin Trudeau

    Cosmic Connie reminds us...

    ... currently jailed serial scammer Kevin Trudeau`s criminal sentencing is due to take place this coming Monday, March 17, 2014, at 2:00 PM in Judge Ronald Guzman's court.
    Trudeau-asking-for-people-to-attend-his-sentencing-03-06-14.jpg

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