Does a canary with a GIN hangover sing as sweetly?

Well, Dear Ones, since the last time I wrote about one of my Whirled's fave snargets Kevin Trudeau and his Global Information Network (GIN) nonsense, some major sh-t has been hitting the fan in KT's world. As True-dough's present home base of Chicago erupts in angry mass protests over the NATO summit, True-dough is fighting a fierce battle on his own front. I get the feeling that things didn't go so well at the Lost Wages Dream Weekend in April. 

Apparently they haven't been going well for a very long time. From where I sit it looks as if the rats are jumping from the sinking GIN ship; some of them are waking up to the possibility that the whole thing is a big con. Or, rather, they're waking up to the idea that KT might -- just might -- be a hustler who is only looking out for himself, and is using GIN funds to buy himself Bentleys and other accoutrements of a rich-and-infamous lifestyle. Some are even... gasp... questioning KT's tall tale about having been a long-time member of a seekrit Brotherhood, a ruse that he has used all along as one of his main marketing hooks to promote GIN. In other words, folks are coming out boldly and suggesting that KT may have lied to them.

Gee, ya think?

But lest you think that this is part of the Victims' Spring or Occupy Scam Street movement, hold on to your idealism and save it for the Minion Uprising over at Salty Droid's blog. Some of those who are now hollering the most loudly about KT's actions seem to be hell-bent on continuing the extraordinary hustle that is GIN, and/or on promoting their own hustles. Some were in the inner circle and promoted and championed KT for years, till they apparently got the shaft themselves. Business as usual, in other words.

Still, it's a beginning. Maybe.

KT's sales and marketing director Peter Wink ended ties with KT late last month, and KT's former b.f.f. "Dr. C." -- aka Leonard Coldwell, the former Bernd Klein, aka Bernd Witchner, of Germany (he had some problems over there, apparently), the guy who was Lenny the Life Coach for a spell, and now has the answer to cancer and many other vexing problems -- has also left the party. At one point Dr. C. had written that he still had a 10-year contract with GIN, but apparently GIN cancelled that last week. And now both Peter and Lenny have made noise about wanting to spill the beans regarding what really went on behind the scenes at GIN. I can't wait.

Actually, Lenny's already singing. He published a blog post yesterday -- May 20, 2012 -- outlining how GIN might be saved, sans KT. Here is the current link. I say "current link," because the original link has been 404'd. The new one, slightly revised, is dated today, May 21. Read it while you can. And notice the strange headdress that Dr. C. seems to be wearing in the pic of him and True-dough in happier days. Maybe it's some kind of anti-cancer or anti-electromagnetic thingy. KT apparently left his hanging on the wall behind him and Lenny.

If you follow the link above, and if you are also a reader of Salty Droid's blog posts -- and the hundreds and hundreds of comments from Salty's readers who have been screwed by marketing luminaries other than KT -- much of Dr. C.'s post will sound very, very familiar. One itty-bitty little snippet:

Is it true that KT paid from GIN funds the $10,000 dollar per night hotel room in Las Vegas, and the private plane flight to get there (est. $23,000 each way in my experience) was also paid from GIN founds, while, in the meantime, Kevin is telling the GIN speakers and others, that GIN is millions “in the red” and has to save money? Is it true that most of Kevin Trudeau’s personal, elaborate lifestyle has been financed from the member owned nonprofit organization GIN, funds?...

...Is it true that GIN does not have the money to pay all bills due for bonuses or other outstanding liability’s [sic], commitments or bills?

 
See what I mean? No surprises there. Perhaps we should reserve our surprise for the fact that presumably bright, educated men who were so close to KT couldn't see all of this coming.

KT was not mentioned on the recent Internet Marketing expose on The Verge, by the way, but I'm thinking that such a mention would have been appropriate. On second thought, as I've noted here before, he's bigger than those Syndicate members, and has been in the game far longer than most of them (and most of them prolly look up to him and aspire to be just like him). Long before there was an Internet, KT was pulling his scams and schemes via TV infomercials and direct mail. He's been to prison for fraud, for gosh sakes, not that that really set him back. I'd say that he is worthy of a whole separate article, at the very least.

What I find extraordinarily amusing is that Lenny C. and other recently disillusioned souls have suggested that folks who feel they've been screwed by GIN should ask the U.S. government for help -- the very government that some of them have reviled in other contexts. See, for example, this one (scroll down to FTC, FDA, etc. Disclaimer).

Salty has them beat there too. This link has been up on his site a couple of years.

Meanwhile, True-dough's beleaguered brother Bob Trudeau, who has written that he got out of GIN last October, seems to be getting the short end of the stick. I don't know his whole story yet, but jeez, that does not seem to be a happy family. Sociopaths often hurt those who love them the most.

And some sociopaths are apparently not above calling those in their inner circle "idiots" and worse when said inner-circle members get uppity. It would appear that some of KT's most loyal loyalists are now seeing his true colors. Of course some of us haters and outsiders -- including numerous intrepid mainstream journalists over the years -- have seen those true colors for a long time, but I suppose that when you're in the inner circle and benefiting hugely (or at least subsisting on the bright and shiny promise of future benefits), you can get a tad color-blind. Or maybe there's so much going on in that inner circle that you have to put on blinders to stay focused.

Currently there is also quite a bit of out-in-the-open scuttlebutt and venting on various principals' Facebook pages about the Great Hustledork Rebellion of 2012. This whole thing has some of the GIN members, KT followers, and Coldwell fans extremely upset. There's talk of some of the "platinum affiliates" of GIN filing a class-action lawsuit. And someone (whose affiliate status I don't know) wrote this on a Facebook discussion, regarding the "secrets" you learn in GIN: "The only secret you get when you get to level 5 is you find out you have just been scammed out of 17.5k!"


Most notably, more and more GIN members and KT fans seem to be waking up to the possibility that True-dough was just pulling that whole GIN council/seekrit-brotherhood thing out of his arse. Amazingly, though, for some of them that doesn't even matter.


One person wrote, in part:

I think many people have doubted whether there is a GIN Council, whether YWIYC [Your Wish Is Your Command] was recorded as presented, whether there really is a brotherhood or not. I decided long ago that these things didn't matter to me AT ALL. Even before I got in I imagined that KT made the whole thing up. And now GIN is big enough where if the truth comes out, it won't matter. We've won. GIN is bigger than KT and the GIN Council. GIN is a membership organization that does not depend any particular external leadership. GIN belongs to those who say, "I AM GIN!" who have committed to the dream of a world where everyone has the opportunity to learn how to make their dreams come true. With 200 individuals on the Inner Circle who have invested so much for GIN to exist - those individuals will ABSOLUTELY band together and say: "WE ARE GIN"...

...GIN may have been created with lies (or it's possible that it really all is genuine), but The bottom line is this: GIN is a membership that is bigger than ANY SPEAKER and ANY PERSON - because WE ARE GIN... Love to everyone: The GIN members, Dr. C, Kevin Trudeau, The GIN Council if they exist, the space aliens if they exist, ... but mostly, I love myself. I am SO awesome! JUST LIKE all the other AWESOME people in GIN and throughout the world. YOU ARE MAGNIFICENT!

Someone else wrote:

I feel like my parents are divorcing: Mom and Dad are saying that I was lied to and now my family is being split.

That last one almost made me sad. Almost.

Of course I'm not suggesting that everyone who is jumping from the sinking GINtanic is a hustler or has a self-serving agenda. I'm sure there are some good folks who are genuinely surprised and disillusioned and are wondering what to do next. 

Well, then, here's a hint: Plotting to carry on the long con is not the solution. If you want to do something constructive, begin by finding another way to make money besides trying to talk others out of theirs in exchange for vague promises of endless passive wealth and an opulent lifestyle. Being part of what Salty Droid has often called "the big, sick machine" is not the answer. Perhaps being part of a larger effort to educate others is an answer. It's easy to join the movement, but first you have to wash the slime off of your hands.

In other words...
Wake the hell up, minions.

More True-dough on this Whirled:

• April 2012: Viva Lost Wages: Sin City Become GIN City for a weekend
• February 2012: A. Rose by any other name would shill as sweet
• December 2011: True-dough updates: Bad poetry for KT, hate mail for CC
• November 2011: A jumpsuit for Jimmy
• August 2011: First Amendment Stuporhero
• August 2011: Calling all lazy men: let's build a pyramid together!
• August 2011: Everything old is Nouveau again (or, Neo-scam by any other name), Part 1 of 2
• June 2011: Holy Guacamole! True-dough's racist rants
• June 2011: For he's a jolly good felon: True-dough speaks out for Death Ray
• December 2009: Illuminutty: the secret brotherhood of the chronically gullible
• November 2009: How to take over the world
• July 2009: Horse farts and related matters
• January 2009: Mr. Fire meets up with true dough

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