Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Kevin Trudeau smacked around again by ABC, while Loony Lenny & Captain Winky sell speed

I have so many blog posts that are screaming to be finished and published, but I am on deadline today. So here are just a couple of quickie snippets...
Click to enlarge. Source: http://abc.go.com/schedule

ABC's The Lookout follows up on Kevin Trudeau
[Note: See my review just below this section. ~CC] On May 29, 2013, the premiere episode of ABC's new consumer-oriented summer series, The Lookout, tackled serial scammer Kevin Trudeau and his Global Information Network (GIN). As you know, much has happened since then, and over this past weekend ABC began running TV promos of a follow-up, scheduled to air tonight (at least in the US) at 10:00 Eastern/9:00 Central. I announced this on some of the Facebook forums a few days ago, but it's only fitting that I post it on this Whirled too.
Click to enlarge. Source: broadwayworld.com

I decided it would also be very helpful for me to share this information and a couple of other crucial tidbits with people who would not normally read my blog, so I also posted a brief announcement on the Stand With Katie Facebook page:

Click to enlarge

To catch up on what's going on with Kevin's civil and criminal court cases -- including links to important court documents -- click here.

This should give you an idea of what will be covered on tonight's KT segment of The Lookout.

Those of you who are rooting for him will be pleased to know that at least for the time being, he will be allowed to live in his rented McMansion in the Chicago area.
Quick review after viewing The Lookout episode...
Okay. It was good but not great, though it will probably be useful for those who didn't catch the May 29 segment. Most of tonight's episode was, in fact, a re-hash of the May 29 show. Of the old footage, it appears that this time around, they did add a few things that weren't in the original version (e.g., a couple more seconds of ex-GIN member Abe Husein actually behind the wheel of Katie's Bentley), but there was really no new background information. There was, however, a brief update mentioning the latest court actions -- most notably, the order signed by Judge Gettleman on August 7, assigning a receiver to handle Trudeau's assets, and a mention of some of the receiver's considerable powers. Here again is a link to that order.  There was no mention of the upcoming criminal trial, scheduled to begin on November 4. All told, it seems that there is more "new news" on the ABC link I provided in the paragraph above... and here is that link again.

Even so, we can expect the usual suspects to be crowing on the Facebooks tomorrow about how THIS story is the final nail in the coffin of GIN. Some of the folks on the Facebook forums are laughing about the huge number of "final nails" there have already been (well, "final" according to certain Loony prognosticators), and one of my Facebook buddies mentioned that there has been less fanfare about the bag of hammers driving those nails in. I can't imagine what he meant...
Don't get me wrong about any of the above. I still think ABC has done an excellent job of digging up information and chasing Katie around the globe and so forth. And they certainly know how to put together a riotously entertaining piece. Also, according to Bill Weir, the reporter who did both segments, some of the information in the May 29 story was actually used as evidence to help bolster the FTC's case, ultimately resulting in the decision to clip Katie's wings for a while. So there's that. But it remains to be seen how much, if any, difference it will make in the fight against Scamworld.
Here's a link where you can watch the video on the ABC site.

Speed-scamming
Meanwhile, two of KT's ex-cohorts, Loony Lenny Coldwell and Peter Wink, collectively known on this Whirled as Petard Winkwell, are up to their old tricks. As you may recall, these two are the brothers-in-harms who have deemed themselves the Supreme Founders of the IMBS-ing U Master Baiter's Seekrit Klub (which is a cheap rip-off of the Global Information Network (GIN)). Lately they've taken to promoting yet another scam by yet another former co-scammer of Trudeau: speed-reading hustledork Howard Berg. They've been billing him as "the smartest man in the world," and are pushing one of his "can't-fail" home biz-ops.


I noticed the above promo last week and knew it was infinitely rich snark chum, but I had other distractions. But never fear. My pal Omri Shabat at Glancingweb has published a hilarious and informative post about this latest lame attempt at scamming the masses (link below, at the end of this post).

Yesterday's info-frauduct, from the days when
"The World's Fastest Reader" teamed up with "Mr. Mega Memory" himself 

In his post, Omri shared an old FTC order from 1998. You have to wonder if Howard Berg is currently violating any part of that order -- portions of which are apparently valid for at least five more years -- by continuing to promote his biz-ops. I wonder if the IMBS-ing U Supreme Tacos even care about that possibility. Maybe since Peter is pals with the FTC, having testified against Kevin, it's all okay.

As many of you may know, 1998 was the year the FTC first really got after Kevin. Howard Berg, among several others, are mentioned in this classic document.

In a snarky nod to the past alliance between Berg and Trudeau, Omri writes:
Every day, before he brushes his fangs, Leonard Coldwell gazes lecherously upon the portrait of his homoeroticized hero and growls to himself “THE NAME IS TRUDEAU, KEVIN TRUDEAU.” In the meantime, he’s just scratching Trudeau’s moldering leftovers.
Yeah, that sounds about right.

But enough from me. Here's Omri, waxing hilarious as usual on "The World's Fastest Bullsh-tter."


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1 comment:

Cosmic Connie said...

My friend Paul on Facebook pointed out that he found one part of the ABC online story particularly interesting:

"The club's U.S. subsidiary, GIN USA, reported more than $60 million in gross revenue over the past three years, virtually all of which came from payments, purchases and upgrade fees from the club's own members. It is not clear how much, if any, of that money remains. The receiver will now have to determine if GIN and its affiliated entities should be allowed to continuing to operate or should be shut down and have their assets liquidated."
###

I noted that these are indeed important points that may have been somewhat obscured in all of the videos and blogs and Facebook discussions.

We should all keep in mind that the court order signed on August 7 is pretty serious stuff. It clearly states that the receiver has the POWER to shut down any and all Trudeau entities, fire any and all employees, and liquidate any and all assets as the receiver deems necessary -- with the court's approval. That much seems pretty straightforward.

Now, whether or not any of this will actually happen is still not definite, since the receiver was only officially granted their powers a little over a week ago as I write this. Also, as noted above, the ultimate power still remains with the court. The receiver can do all kinds of digging, and make all sorts of recommendations, but to do anything radical such as fire employees or dissolve companies, the court has to approve. That's my understanding, anyway.

In addition, the court order says the receiver has an obligation to try to keep the Trudeau companies running -- and I assume that GIN is included in this, since it is named in the order as a Trudeau entity -- unless the receiver deems that is not feasible for various reasons. And again, the court has the ultimate say.

Granted, the court seems disinclined to give any concessions to Trudeau at this point and it doesn't look real good for him right now. But it's not over yet.

As I have also noted on Facebook more than once, I have been trying to avoid either understating the seriousness of the trouble KT is in, or overstating the significance of the recent events. That is sometimes a difficult balance to strike, especially since not one of us -- whether we are a KT fan or a critic -- can predict with 100% certainty what is going to happen.

At this point I will stick with my lame but somehow sensible mantra that there will be no neat and tidy endings here. And I suspect that this is not the end of Kevin Trudeau's scamming career, particularly since he still seems to have so many avid supporters.

Friday, August 16, 2013 10:45:00 AM

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