Whirled Musings

Across the Universe with Cosmic Connie, aka Connie L. Schmidt...or maybe just through the dung-filled streets and murky swamps of pop culture -- more specifically, the New-Age/New-Wage crowd, pop spirituality & religion, pop psychology, self(ish)-help, business babble, media silliness, & related (or occasionally unrelated) matters of consequence. Hope you're wearing boots. (By the way, the "Cosmic" bit in my moniker is IRONIC.)

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Kevie goes a-courtin': pleading the Fifth




Contrary to my predictions -- and I'm not afraid to admit when I am wrong -- notorious serial scammer Kevin Trudeau, a long-time favorite of this blog and the head of the notorious Ponzi-like Global Information Network (GIN), did indeed fly in from Switzerland and is now in court before the Honorable Judge Gettleman. Also in court to gloat over the proceedings: Peter Wink, former b.f.f. of Kevin and ex-GIN marketing director (among other things); and Abe Husein, former GIN member and now protege and loyal fan of the notorious Mocktor Leonard Coldwell. Not there in person but in spirit is Mocktor Lenny, former b.f.f. of Trudeau and former highly-paid GIN speaker.

Peter has already given interviews with Chicago's NBC station; expect more interviews from Peter and Lenny and Abe, as well as semi-literate updates from Coldwell. Abe is apparently giving live updates from the hallway -- a fact that has been duly noted by the court -- and Lenny is repeating the news on his Facebook page. Here's a pic Peter shared yesterday:

Today's hearing may or may not be the climactic event following years of legal paper shuffling and endless continuances. Trudeau has alternately said he refuses to pay the $37.6 plus million FTC fine on principle, and that he lacks the money to pay the fine. For the past year or so he's mostly been using the latter excuse.

Emmy Award winning investigative reporter Ryan Kath of Kansas City, Missouri's KSHB-TV (NBC affiliate), who led an investigation into GIN and KT and has already aired a couple of stories, did a brief followup last night. Click on the pic above to get to the video. And here's the link on the KSHB-TV web site.

I have and will continue to give all due credit to Abe Husein for getting this story rolling in the first place by approaching Ryan late last summer. (Peter Wink indicated to me that it was his idea, though.) While Abe may not have been the most sympathetic "victim," and in the eyes of many became less sympathetic as the months went by, he was one of the loudest and most persistent. He has declared again and again that his only goal is to take GIN and Kevin Trudeau down. And he's willing to do anything to achieve this goal, including an unholy alliance with Coldwell and Wink.

At any rate, Ryan took the ball and ran with it, and he and his investigative team went "undercover" to a GIN event in Nashville in the fall of 2012. His first story aired in November 2012. Even Salty Droid, who is more cynical than the average bear about "local" news stories (and TV journalism in general) admitted it was pretty darn good.

Ryan has continued to follow the developments and did a followup story in March 2013. As the May 21 court date approached he pitched the story to the NBC affiliate in Chicago, WMAQ, and helped them find a local former GIN member. He also took the initiative to call Abe and arrange for a last-minute interview before Abe flew off to Chicago for his front-row seat to "Kevin's Doomsday." So, good job, Ryan.

Now the big question is: What will happen? Will Kevin Trudeau be sentenced to prison? Will he pay his fine after all? Will there be some settlement for a smaller amount? Will Abe get his chance to confront Kevin "man to man," as he vowed in yesterday's video? Will Coldwell and Peter bluster their way in front of the cameras and try to paint themselves as heroes? (If the latter happens, I see that backfiring in a HUGE way. Good reporters have good instincts. Just sayin'.)

According to eyewitness accounts, Kevin has repeatedly invoked his Fifth Amendment rights throughout this hearing. Ryan Kath's colleague in Chicago is keeping him updated.

And of course Abe and Lenny are doing their own updates. I cannot give a blow-by-blow update myself because (1) I am not in the courtroom; and (2) Ron and I got a flood of small writing projects in yesterday that need to be completed ASAP. I have to focus on the work that pays the bills, and this ain't it. But I'll be back to update this story as needed, and to provide links to new news stories, but I trust that Kevin Trudeau's fate is in the hands of the judicial system -- the very system that Loony Coldwell so loves to hate, unless it can be used to help him get revenge (even if vicariously) for being out-scammed by someone who is much smarter, much more successful, and much more charismatic than he.

No matter what happens, today's hearing will be on Kevin Trudeau's "permanent record," thus planting more huge red flags for any potential scam victims who care to do a little research. But it will also add to his martyr points, and there will be those who continue to love and defend him, against all reason. And if his lawyers play their cards right, they may still succeed in making Kevin look like the poor put-upon victim who has been bullied by the big bad government.

For now, Kevin apparently continues to plead the Fifth (or "pleat" the Fifth, as Little Loony Coldwell put it in a recent Facebook post), and I imagine that Loony is looking forward to guzzling a fifth of his favorite elixir in celebration of.... well, whatever... as soon as he can.

But I'm still thinking that this hearing is not going to end with Kevin being led away in handcuffs.

PS ~ The above-mentioned Chicago NBC station was going to run a story about Trudeau last night, but pulled the story due to a more pressing one: the horrific tornado that hit Moore, Oklahoma. The Trudeau story is expected to run some time this week. Meanwhile, if you want to help the tornado victims -- many of whom have lost everything -- here is how.

Update: I know this will come as a huge shock -- HUGE! -- but Kevin Trudeau did not go to jail today. GIN did not end today. However, the FTC apparently laid their case out very well, and since they've had more than ten years to work on it I am not surprised. Trudeau apparently has to be back in court on May 30 for another hearing, and then the judge will probably make some sort of ruling in mid-June. This will probably affect the timing of the criminal contempt trial -- a real, honest to goodness jury trial, I believe -- which had been scheduled for June 3 (more info and speculation about that here, though of course some of that post is now outdated).

Pending an offering by a professional journalist or blogger, here's eyewitness Abe, who does manage to provide some information in between all of the self back-patting. Do take time to poke around the Interwebz for confirmation, though.


More True-dough on this Whirled:

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posted by Cosmic Connie @ 12:52 PM  1 comments links to this post

Saturday, May 18, 2013

Kevin Trudeau: Justice...or just more paper shuffling?

[Also see update to this post, dated 20 May 2013. ~CC]

This is the weekend that serial scammer Kevin Trudeau is scheduled to give depositions regarding his civil case with the FTC (case number 1:03-cv-03904, United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division, the Honorable Robert W. Gettleman presiding). As you probably know, there is an evidentiary hearing scheduled for this coming Tuesday, May 21, which I mentioned on this post a few days ago. (If you haven't done so already, read that post for more context for this one.) Unless things change, a brief status hearing on this case is set for Monday, May 20 at 1:30 PM. Though motions were made for yet more continuances of the May 21 evidentiary hearing, the judge finally put his gavel down on May 16, and said no more delays. Unless, of course, something happens at the eleventh hour.

So let's assume that the May 21 hearing really, really does go on as scheduled. Will Kevin show up in court in person? Is he even required to physically show up in that Illinois courtroom, or will he be able to phone it in? I have been asking these questions repeatedly, but so far can't find the answer, so I'll just keep on talking to myself till I get bored with it. Anyhow, while some of his ex-fans and current nemeses are claiming that May 21 will be Doomsday for Kevin and GIN, and that "sweet justice" will finally be served, I am withholding an opinion, except to state my usual mantra, which is that more than likely, there will be no neat and tidy endings to this saga. If there are, I will certainly blog about it, and I will be appropriately conciliatory. If there aren't, I will blog about that too. I will try not to be too obnoxious about it.

Meanwhile, I have been poking around on PACER.gov again, looking at some of the documents in the related criminal contempt case (number 1:10-cr-0086, with the Honorable Ronald A. Guzman). My understanding was that a jury trial had been set for June 3. This seems to be the basis of ex-KT b.f.f. Mocktor Loony Coldwell's declaration that Kevin will be arrested June at the latest, if not on May 21. (Actually Mocktor Lenny has been predicting Kevin's imminent arrest for more than seven months.)
This has been up on Little Loony Lenny's blog since October 2012.
I always wondered if Abe Husein was a bit insulted that his buddy
couldn't even be bothered to spell Abe's last name correctly.

Anyway, when I was looking at one of the criminal case documents I was puzzled, because, unless I was reading a sentence incorrectly, the document appeared to be saying that the June 3 jury trial will not happen. Here is the document in question, which was filed on April 9.



A couple of days after that document was filed, the U.S. government filed a document explaining what the penalties should be, should KT be found guilty of criminal contempt. The government recommended a range of 188-225 months in prison -- or between 15.66666666 and 18.75 years. They used a specific formula for determining this recommendation. Here are screen shots of that six-page document. (By the way, I apologize for doing it this way again, but Blogger apparently will not let me upload PDFs, and I don't have a Dropbox or similar account for you to go grab 'em. Anyway, as usual, click on pics to enlarge.)









Naturally, Kevin's lawyers had an answer to that, titled "KEVIN TRUDEAU'S MEMORANDUM REGARDING SENTENCING ANALYSIS OF CRIMINAL CONTEMPT CASE." (It's nine pages, but the last two pages are just the lawyers' signatures and the Certificate of Service, so to save space I am only publishing the first seven pages.) The upshot is that the lawyers were trying to get the judge to re-impose a six-month cap on any potential sentence for criminal contempt.






Re the footnote on page 6, above:
Nice try, Kevin's lawyers, but since Kevin's books
are self-published, that $37.6 million still went to him.



None of this is new news, of course, and since those documents were filed, Kevin Trudeau filed bankruptcy (case number 13-764, filed on April 22, 2013). And I have no doubt that numerous other machinations have been going on behind the scenes that aren't reflected in the documents that have so far been made publicly available.

But I doubt that Kevin Trudeau will end up in jail any time soon -- at least not as a result of these cases. And maybe never. Here again is Salty Droid's take on the matter -- and I don't think things have changed much in the six months since he wrote this post.

By the way, I think I've also linked to this article before, but here is a 2010 piece discussing the issue of criminal and civil contempt, with the focal point being Judge Gettleman's original sentencing of Trudeau for that email-deluge incident in early 2010.

Oh, and here is input from two of our top legal experts on what will probably happen on May 21. This was posted on Facebook this past Wednesday (15 May):

TV or not TV? Scamworld will prolly go on...
Apparently a major ABC News investigative story about Kevin Trudeau and GIN -- a story that Abe Husein has been talking excitedly about on Facebook for the past couple of months, due to his part in it -- is going to be part of a new Primetime/Nightline series, which will premiere on May 29. As I mentioned on a couple of Facebook forums last night, I watched ABC 20/20 on Friday night, May 17, and at the end of the broadcast they ran a promo that featured Kevin Trudeau, mentioning that they'd tracked him down in Switzerland, and mentioning his $37-plus million fine. A longer version of the same promo was run a little later, after Friday night's edition of Nightline.

Although Trudeau was the first one featured on the promo, it was in the context of announcing a brand new Primetime/Nightline show called Two Truths and a Lie. If the promo is any indication, Kevin will not be the only subject, though more than likely he will be the first one in what is obviously intended to be a series. As I noted, the series is set to premiere on Wednesday night, May 29, at 10:00 PM Eastern, 9:00 PM Central. Presumably the Trudeau expose will be part of that premiere broadcast. I haven't been able to find a link to the promo clip yet, not even on the ABC News web site, but here is a link to a May 3 press release:
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2013/05/nightline-two-truths-and-a-lie-premieres-wednesday-may-29-at-10-pm-on-abc/

Here is a mediabistro.com piece that has more detail and commentary:
http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/primetime-nightline-two-truths-and-a-lie-to-launch-may-29-with-consumer-focus_b177880

Of course, schedules are always subject to change, due to world disasters and other inconvenient things, such as network politics. But anyway, May 29 looks to be the big day. Too bad it will be AFTER the Charlotte NC Winkwell Militia Boot Camp.

So, will this investigative news story, and any related stories ABC News runs on some of its other regular broadcasts and/or on its web site -- be the final nail(s) in the coffin, the thing that will finally put an end to Kevin Trudeau's scamming career once and for all? Don't count on it. I have a sneaking feeling that the ABC stations, and stations on most of the other major and minor networks,* will still continue to run KT's and other scammers' infomercials. The big sick machine that is Scamworld will hum on, with or without Kevin Trudeau, with or without his infomercials. Even so, it is good that KT will be getting some much needed national exposure again, because it will wake some more people up -- if only for a little while.
* According to Abe, there will be several other media stories running about KT/GIN, beginning on Monday, May 20. Fine. But my point remains valid. See the update, just below.


Update 20 May 2013
The excitement deepens. In another shining example of echolalia (this time declaring, in his most professional Mocktor manner, GINtruth's Bernie O'Mahony to be loony-bin-worthy), Loony Lenny Coldwell has committed another Facebook neener-neener. He has pronounced that he, Peter Wink, and Abe Husein are really the ONLY ones who know what is going on with both the court cases and the media. Loony says that he and Peter will be live in the courtroom tomorrow, and either he, Peter, or Abe will be on the national newses and stuff tonight and/or tomorrow. There will be a "summery" [sic] on national news with Peter and Abe on Tuesday, according to Coldwell.


I have no "inside information" myself, of course, but I wouldn't be surprised to learn that some of the immediate action -- maybe tonight -- will be seen on Chicago's ABC7 station, which boasts one Ben Bradley, who has done numerous stories about Kevin Trudeau in the past. Particularly if his bosses in NYC are doing a big story (see "TV or not TV" section above), it doesn't seem illogical that Mr. Bradley would be up for another one. Boston and Denver are also markets I've heard in conjunction with upcoming media coverage.

But oops... it looks like I was wrong, at least about the pieces airing tonight. A couple of hours after I posted the above, Abe finally revealed that two stories will be aired tonight by NBC affiliates in Chicago and in Kansas City, Missouri. That makes sense, since Emmy Award winning investigative reporter Ryan Kath, who has aired two KT/GIN stories since last November, is with the KC NBC affiliate, KSHB-TV.

Here is the web site for the Chicago NBC affiliate, though presently it doesn't appear that Kevin Trudeau is exactly going to be the top story tonight, not even on the 5 Investigates section. Darn those tornadoes and stuff. (For that matter, there's been some really horrid weather around the KC area, so there may be other matters that take priority tonight. We'll just have to see, I guess.) [Latest word is that Chicago pulled the KT story for tonight, due to the Oklahoma tornado. But the story is tentatively scheduled to run Tuesday or later this week.]

Anyway, here's Abe's Facebook post:

Abe also posted a quick vid saying he is Chicago-bound to face Trudeau "man to man" at his Tuesday court hearing. But that assumes a lot, the biggest assumption being that Kevin will actually be at the hearing.

It remains to be seen if, or how, any local or national stations will portray Peter, Lenny, or Abe. But I have a feeling that the journos are all professionals and they have already figured out Lenny and Peter's agendas, and have done all due diligence on these guys. I'm thinking that they're not going to throw their sources under the bus, but neither are they going to portray them as heroes.

I know I have mentioned this before, but does anyone else see any irony in the fact that both Lenny and Peter have often dissed the mainstream media, and Lenny in particular is always talking smack about the US court system -- and yet they are trying to use both the media and the judicial system to make themselves look like heroic fighters for truth and justice? As a friend of mine noted, professional journalists know when they are being used, and let's just say that they don't take very kindly to it.
Meanwhile I continue to be amused that LennyPeterAbe are playing the "we know something you don't know" card. Peter even made a lame attempt at grabbing an "exclusive" recording of the ABC promo for the upcoming show, Two Truths and a Lie, and sharing it on Abe's Facebook page. That didn't work. But you can watch this poor-quality recording that Peter apparently did (you can see his reflection in the TV screen) and that Loony Coldwell uploaded to YouTube today (May 20). Here is Lenny's commentary on the vid:
ABC found Kevin in Switzerland! Listen to him scramble!! The End Of Kevin Trudeau Televised on the 29th 10pm CST on ABC. Also tomorrow night a huge start at 10pm also and on Tuesday we are reporting live from the Court Case ( expected incarceration of Trudeau and the confiscation of Gin assets ) and some follow up interviews after trail [sic] and summery's [sic] on Tuesday. And that does not even include the 5 years jail time that is expected for him to get in his criminal trail [sic] in june. Bye Bye KT the end of a 20 year rein [sic] of Fraud, Deception and crimes.

See the first part of this post for some perspective on that criminal case.

And I just got a couple of screen shots of Lenny crowing about court tomorrow -- and sharing a little revisionist history. It was actually Kevin who created Lenny's success, not vice versa. And even Lenny has said as much. I have it on very good authority that Lenny was pretty much continually scrambling for money before KT first started promoting him in his first Natural Cures book. That really turned the tide for Lenny. Although certainly Kevin benefited from Lenny's body of misinformation, Kevin was "successful" -- at least he was a successful scam artist -- long before he started promoting Lenny.

As Salty Droid wrote about Lenny in his first Lenny post last August:
Totally :: but seriously … nobody had ever heard of this stupid little f----r.

Then came Kevin Trudeau circa 2005. Trudeau was using a popular lead gen book :: infomercials … and every other trick in the Scamworld book “they” don’t want you to know about to separate people from their money … writ large. Trudeau made fake doctor Lenny Coldwell his B-team bitch :: that changed things for Coldwell … and they’ve been together unhappily ever after.
Well, until the great divorce, that is. Anyway, heeeere's Lenny:


Ya know, I wish I could be more excited about tomorrow -- I really do, because I've been blogging about Trudeau for YEARS -- but I am actually getting ready for a whole lot of nothing in the court room. But at least the news stories should be good. Ryan Kath always does a good job.

More True-dough on this Whirled:

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posted by Cosmic Connie @ 2:25 PM  3 comments links to this post

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

James Arthur Ray: short-timer

Click to enlarge. Also follow link in
second sentence of first paragraph for more information.

Somebody call the waaaaaaambulance! Poor convicted killer James Arthur Ray, aka Inmate 267823, needs your help. As reported by my fake robot pal Salty Droid today, Death Ray is in in a terrible fix. Writes Salty:
Now that his saggy guru ass is only a few months from semi-freedom :: it seems the comeback plans have begun. He’s starting small of course :: with destitution … and then maybe he’ll work his way back up to Harmonic {I stole your} Wealth™.
Here's the problem. Although his absolute maximum release date is October 24 of this year, word is that James will be prolly actually be released on July 12. Now, you would think that would be a good thing in James' perspective, especially seeing as how he was given such a short sentence in the first place -- less than two years, actually -- for the deaths of three lovely people who will still be dead even after he is no longer forced to wear the orange.

But things aren't as rosy as they seem, because, oh my, he is destitute -- destitute, I tell you! -- and doesn't have a suitable place to stay during the 110 days that he must remain in Arizona, according to the terms of his parole. Apparently Salty got hold of an email that James' brother Jon sent out to special people. Wrote Jon, in part:

The alternative to us NOT being able to find him lodging, would be that he would have to stay in a “group home” (or halfway house) with other recently released prisoners. Although we all hope that newly released prisoners come into society with the intentions of leading a reformed life, the reality is that these halfway homes tend to be full of drugs, theft, and violence. James is simply hoping for a place to have solitude, and a location that he can begin to re-acclimate to life as we all know.
Once again… I apologize in sending out this straight to the point e-mail; however, I have simply exhausted my and James’ resources (me being 1200 miles away) and now am counting on the universe to guide someone to the right resource to help us in this desperate situation.

Oh, the horror, the horror! As Salty writes, Death Ray's "righteous self may be forced to slum it up in some halfway house with dirty drug using crooks who have never even been on the Today Show." To me this is nothing more than an indication that Ray hasn't been humbled at all by his experiences. He's still playing the elitist role, fancying himself above everyone else. This despite the fact that before he went to prison, his family told ABC that James was actually looking forward to the opportunity to help his fellow prisoners.

But for now, Ray plans to offer his brand of positive thinking to his fellow inmates as he begins his two year stint in prison, his family said.

"He was in good spirits and said this would give him the opportunity to help people in prison that need it," Ray's brother Jon told the AP.

It's something Ray's core group of loyalists say they have no doubt he'll do.


"Wherever James goes," [James Ray loyalist David] McCall said, "he always does good."
I guess his helpfulness and desire to do good do not extend to people who, like he, have just been released from cages and may very well be making sincere efforts to get their own lives back in order. But I am thinking that maybe they are better off without his help.

Anyway, Salty decided to write to Jon, who as he notes was on the bus with Colleen Conaway the day she died, about this email. Jon whined about how the death lodge tragedy had also devastated poor James, adding that anyone who thinks differently obviously has an "agenda and vendetta to carry the hatred and pain for as long as they can." Jon also wrote, "Although my brother still lives in human form, he has died many internal deaths since this unfortunate accident." Says Salty:
How many “internal deaths” does it take to equal one actual death? I’m no expert in death math :: but I’m thinking it takes many more than many.

In the spirit of unhelpfulness, Salty placed an ad on Craigslist on behalf of Death Ray, which, alas, was flagged for removal. But you can read it on his post. It's darkly hilarious.

Whether he has to slum it in a halfway house or not, it looks as if James Arthur Ray will be getting out of the joint on July 12, thirteen days before the fourth anniversary of Colleen's death in San Diego. Salty is still trying to help her family find a measure of justice for her death. And the families of Kirby Brown, James Shore, and Liz Neuman continue to deal with the pain and emptiness. James' early release is just another way of rubbing their faces in it.

Meanwhile, many of the rest of us are taking bets on which Scamworld scumbag will be the first to help James pick up where he left off. Will it be Kevin Trudeau (provided he doesn't end up in prison himself)? Bob Proctor? Joe Vitale? Or... horrors... will he be forced to cast his lot with C-List scammers like the Supreme Founders of the IBMS Master's Society scam? (That's a fate worse than a halfway house, in my book. But hey, it could happen. After all, as Peter once wrote in a comment on my blog, "...James Ray is not a bad guy. Maybe he just pushed the envelope a little hard and tragedy struck. I feel awful for the deceased, those who were hurt and the families who were affected...")

Or will James Arthur Ray be a pariah even in Scamworld?

What do y'all think?

Whatever happens, it is up to those of us who care about the victims and their loved ones to never let the world forget the damage that James Arthur Ray has done. I think he is yet another one of many Scamworld leopards who has not and will not change his spots. Whether or not he ever does another "extreme" event such as a phony sweat lodge, he is a sociopath and, in the opinions of many who have experienced him up close and personal, a dangerous man.

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posted by Cosmic Connie @ 3:21 PM  2 comments links to this post

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Kevin Trudeau: Countdown to court date (or not)


[Note: This post has been updated since it was first published. See huge red sub-head  below, dated 15 May. ~ CC]

Oh, my goodness, look at the calendar, Dear Ones. It's May 14, and one week from today, on May 21 at 10:00 AM, one of this blog's most favorite snargets for more than four years -- that would be serial scammer Kevin Trudeau -- is scheduled to appear in court in Illinois for an evidentiary hearing regarding his longstanding civil case (Number 1:03-cv-03904, United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division, the Honorable Robert W. Gettleman presiding). The hearing is related to the FTC's motion to hold Trudeau in contempt.

Will Kevin indeed show up in person in Illinois, despite the fact that reportedly he is currently living in Switzerland? Will the hearing take place via Skype or some other videoconferencing method? Or will his lawyers manage to get yet another eleventh-hour delay?

I am not sure but I'm thinking he won't show up and it will be NBD (see the bit about KT's bankruptcy, later on in this post). As of today, here is the latest document filed in this case, filed yesterday, May 13, 2013. It is a status update of third-party corporations, as well as a request by GIN lawyers to participate in the status conference by phone. It looks like the Court is scheduled to take a depo from True-dough on May 18. And that's a Saturday, and courts usually aren't open on Saturdays. But telephones and the Interwebz are. Anyway, here's the doc (as usual, click on images to enlarge):


You can draw your own conclusions, if any, from that. At any rate, the main reason I am posting today is to remind you that there is a way you can keep reasonably current with the goings-on too. I've discussed this on various Facebook forums and have mentioned it on this blog too, but now is as good a time as any to mention it again.

The reason I mention this is that, as you may or may not know, but probably do know by now if you've been following this blog or certain other "hater" blogs or Facebook discussion groups, Not-Doctor Loony Coldwell has been acting as if he is the sole keeper of this information. Loony is one of Kevin Trudeau's former b.f.f.s and was once a highly paid speaker for Trudeau's scammy, Ponzi-like Global Information Network (GIN). For more than six months he has been all over his Facebook page and his tawdry blog, boasting about having access to the court documents concerning the above-cited case. His protege Abe Husein has also been boasting, and has shared snippets of screen shots and commentary of some of the docs on his own Facebook page. According to recent comments from both Lenny and Abe, Kevin Trudeau will very likely be arrested on May 21, or some time in June at the latest. And they really, really, really, really mean it this time. Really!

For those who don't want to wait for Abe's screen shots or little Lenny's coy hints about the seekrit stuff he knows, there's good news: If you are in the US you can go to PACER.gov site and register. http://www.pacer.gov/

Costs for documents are quite reasonable: 10 cents per page, with a maximum of $3.00 for any one document. After you have registered or logged in, just go to the PACER case locator, which you can get to from the home page.

Remember: The case for which Abe and Lenny have been sharing all of those documents since last year is a civil case. Again, the case number is 1:03-cv-03904, in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division, Judge Robert Gettleman presiding. On some documents the case number is formatted like this: 03-C-3904. Sometimes the site is a little confusing. But you should be able to find your way around it after a fashion.

And remember that this is just one of the current cases against Kevin Trudeau. There is a related criminal contempt case as well with Judge Guzman, Case Number 1:10-cr-0086 (here again is a link to a June 2011 document from that case).

There is also a more recently initiated bankruptcy case, Case Number 13-764, filed on April 22, 2013, in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Illinois. I wrote about it on April 24.

In fact that whole bankruptcy thing may render most of the other scheduled court hearings moot. After all, according to the notification of bankruptcy filing document, which was filed on April 23, "The bankruptcy filing invokes an automatic stay...which precludes any creditor or any other party from initiating or continuing further legal proceedings against the defendant." The document I shared above only relates to "the narrow exception to the automatic stay as ordered by this court." So there's that to consider.
There is no telling how many other parties have sued or tried to sue KT over the past 20 years or more, but I don't have the time to go searching for all of that.

There is a lot of legal mumbo-jumbo in these documents, and a lot of it is very boring to non-lawyers and maybe even to most lawyers. I don't even pretend to understand most of it. But the docs are there for those who are interested and want to peruse them.

When I searched for info on the civil case a couple of weeks ago, I took a screen shot of my search result (I have deleted user ID, of course). If your result looks similar it shows you are on the right track (don't be confused by the notation that the case was closed in 2004. It is ongoing.). Happy searching!
Update 15 May 2013: The Three Stooges and Document 666
Some time after I signed off PACER yesterday, a couple more documents became available regarding Kevin Trudeau's civil case with the FTC. One was just a notification of filing, and the other one, Document 666 (ahem) on the very long docket for this case, answered some of the questions I asked above -- well, sort of.

Lenny Coldwell and Abe Husein got hold of that document, and in short order Lenny had posted it on his blog (along with some of the other recent documents). Abe posted a snippet of a screen shot that confirmed that Kevin Trudeau is required to be present at the hearing on May 21, 2013.

But the document doesn't actually say Kevin has to be physically present in the courtroom. Is that just understood? Anyway, here again are screen shots (remember to click on the pics in order to enlarge them enough to make them readable):





Anyway. Maybe I'm just being narcissistic again, but it seems that my publication of this blog post yesterday caused a little bit of a stir from the third stooge... I mean, self-proclaimed hero... of the anti-GIN movement, Peter Wink, who has been mostly silent about the KT/GIN saga recently. Apparently he felt it necessary to post an update on Facebook today, on the IMBS-ing U Master Baiter's scam page.


Peter responded to a remark that someone apparently made about this (I am not able to see all comments, so I can't post a screen shot, but someone copied and pasted this for me):
...there is nobody else online that knows what's happening in this case in real time. Everyone else is days behind and not even getting the facts correct. I have not seen one thing online with any semblance of real accuracy. Just a bunch of loosely gathered public data from PACERS [sic] that does not give any foundation or order to things. To understand this case, you have to be involved in it and know all the players. The meat of the story is not posted publicly. This is why everything I post, though little, has always proven accurate. All based on objective facts. I'm not into rants, raves and opinions. KT is on his ninth live [sic], that's a fact right now. Yesterday's final court order tells the story. I know the background of why it came about --- nobody else online does. The judge has constricted options to wrap things up one way or another. KT is now in a no-win as he pushed things too far. You will see this over the next few weeks as his case come to a conclusion. If GIN owes you money, I'd collect it if I were you --- if nothing else, as a precaution. Hugs brother.
So there! Neener, neener, neener. Actually I have never claimed to know what all of the court docs are about and have never claimed that I think they tell the entire story. In fact I've come out and said that I don't understand most of it. My purpose in posting the information about the documents, and the link to PACER, is so people who are interested can find the information on their own, without relying on lunatics like Lenny to spoon feed them the information. But as for Peter saying that everything he posts has always proven accurate -- um, I don't think so. After all, he was one of those who, along with Lenny, was saying that Trudeau would be arrested on October 30 of last year. And that's just one of many times he has missed the mark. So my advice would be to not consider Peter to be an unimpeachable source.

At any rate, the first thing I thought upon reading these comments from Peter was that he seems to be subtly, or not so subtly, distancing himself from Lenny and Abe -- who have been making brash statements and predictions online for many months now -- by making it clear that only he, Peter, is the credible source, because he is the only one making public statements who is also legally involved with the FTC case.

Are you paying attention, Lenny and Abe? Do you know how close you may be to being thrown under the bus by Peter? (Here's another hint, Lenny. You know how Peter was with Kevin's gold and the FTC.)

There's been a lot of speculation about whether Peter made some kind of deal with the FTC in order to avoid prosecution himself. Honestly, I don't know. But I do know that he threw Kevin under the bus last October, and it's all on paper as Document # 517 in the FTC's civil case against Kevin Trudeau.

I noticed also that in this latest statement on the IBMS Facebook page, Peter is once again painting himself as the hero who dared to tell the truth about Kevin. He does say he is sorry he ever went to work for the crook -- as if he had no idea when he went to work for him that KT was a crook. Uh-huh. I know I have mentioned this here before, but for the benefit of those who don't know... well, I happen to recall that last year Peter blithely told me, in a Facebook conversation that has long since been deleted, that he has known Kevin since the 1990s and had predicted everything that happened with GIN. He said Kevin hadn't changed. Though I didn't take screen shots I did have the presence of mind to copy and paste parts of this conversation, which took place on July 18-19 of last year on one of the publicly viewable Facebook pages.
Peter Wink: Hi Everyone. While Connie Schmidt and I do not always agree, there are some things we are totally aligned on. Read her blog "Whirled Musings." She is one of the best bloggers online whether you agree with her or not. Funny as heck too!
Whirled Musings
cosmicconnie.blogspot.com

Connie Schmidt: Thanks, Peter. At least we agree about KT now!

Peter Wink: My opinion is the same from day one. I've been around him off and on since the 90s. Same guy same predictability. Everything went as predicted.

Connie Schmidt: You still think he [KT] is the sweetest, most sincere guy around, and that anybody would want to work with him? Just trying to understand.
[And in the context of this comment, I cited this blog post I'd written, quoting him: http://cosmicconnie.blogspot.com/2010/04/conversations-with-peter-wink-part-2.html ~ CC]

Peter Wink: I will explain all this to you when we do our follow up interview. Personally I'm happier where I'm at. Learned a lot. Did a lot. I was smart enough to set myself up for this a year ago. Reporting to Kevin Trudeau directly had its good points. The reality is that I've changed a lot over the past three years and have very public ambitions. Therefore, to publicly comment about my former superior (employment wise) or any of his followers would have no reward for me. Unfortunately I believe the whole house of cards will absolutely come down soon, so getting out and doing bigger things was the right recipe. I just hope all the members and affiliates do not lose everything they have. I also hate to see all my former co-workers unemployed, which seems inevitable as most of them know nothing about the financial realities which were scary at best. When this all crashes I have a great opportunity for all the former members anyway.
As I've also noted, we never did our follow-up interview. But I'm not losing any sleep over it. By the way, I believe that "great opportunity" Peter mentioned at the end of his comment was, at that time, the 90forLife MLM Livinity/Youngevity flopportunity in which Peter and Lenny were passionately involved (but Lenny probably isn't any more, after making misogynistic remarks about Barb Pitcock of Livinity). However, Peter and Lenny may have been planning the IBMS Master's Society scam even back then, so I don't know for sure.

But back to the present. On his update for the IBMS page, Peter also claims to be weary of the whole GIN saga, but is apparently he is not weary enough to keep it off of the IMBS-ing U Master Baiter's page. He seems to be blatantly using the drama as a lure for people who are interested in the KT/GIN situation.

To me the main question, and one that will probably never be answered to anyone's satisfaction, is just how much of a part Peter played in the GIN scam, knowing it was a scam. There's a hint in some of the screen shots Bernie shared in a January blog post on GINtruth.com. And more recently... like just now... Bernie shared this. No offense intended to real snakes, I'm sure!

More True-dough on this Whirled:

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posted by Cosmic Connie @ 12:39 PM  6 comments links to this post