Thursday, October 31, 2013

Kevin Trudeau: Here's where the story ends. Oh, wait, it doesn't.



I love
that classic by The Sundays, "Here's Where The Story Ends," but as you know, I strongly feel that the saga of serial scammer Kevin Trudeau, like that of most sagas in Scamworld, will have no neat and tidy ending, and actually no ending at all. As Trudeau preps for his criminal trial, which commences this coming Monday, November 4 (I will have a recap/update post soon, with links to relevant documents), GIN and ex-GIN members alike continue to struggle, in their own respective ways, to keep Kevin's scam-dream alive.

As noted
here the other day (scroll down to, "And in other news..."), Perry Kiraly, an Ohio GIN member who describes himself as a Level VI candidate, Visionary, Founder, and Inner Circle member (which means that he paid either $50,000 or $75,000 (!) to be considered a member of that rarefied group), recently started a Stand With GIN movement to enable members to wrest control of GIN from the court-appointed receiver and the FTC. Perry issued an update on Wednesday.
October 30, 2013

Update on SWGF

Activities to date:

• Approximately 80+ hours personally devoted to writing letters, answering emails, phone communications and setting up hardware (i.e. dedicated mailing, email, phone, banking, and computer applications to conduct SWGF business).
• 3 Lawyers in the Cleveland Ohio area have been consulted
• 5 Law firms/lawyers out of the Chicago area have been communicated with

Objective being researched and reviewed by Law Firms/Lawyers:
The main objective of this effort is to restore or transfer the club, GIN, to our, the members ownership, direction, and control.

Aspects being researched and reviewed to achieve the main objective:
• (Non-Litigation approach) Utilize skilled attorney in corporate law to negotiate with the Receiver to purchase the club directly from them on behalf of the GIN membership.
• Initiate litigation to strengthen the legal ownership or right to ownership position of the membership then negotiate with the Receiver to purchase the club directly from them on behalf of the GIN membership.
• Initiate litigation to contend that the true owners of the clubs assets are the members in GIN since it is the member’s money that paid for them.
• Litigate that innocent people (GIN members) are being collaterally damaged by the interference of GIN’s affairs by the Receiver. I use the term innocent in the legal sense meaning not having anything to do with the act that resulted in the 37 million dollar judgment against one of our members, Kevin Trudeau.

Progress made toward main objective:
The first of the Chicago based attorneys got back with me today to say that his firm would be interested in representing us in negotiating a direct purchase from the Receivers. This approach is certainly the path of least resistance in that it does not require litigation in court; and it does achieve our main objective. But it is not necessarily the best path especially if we can establish a stronger position of ownership or ownership itself.
It is certainly a good start and the first response that was expected. Whereas the other listed aspects of achieving our objective will take a bit more time to review and research the applicable laws which govern this case and the extensive record to date.
Once that data is reviewed by the lawyers I have contacted and I am advised of the likelihood of success in the various aspects under consideration the GIN membership will have viable options from which to choose.
Tomorrow I have an office appointment with a different attorney and will keep the members updated as things progress further.
As a final note I appeal to all the members that have not yet contributed to this fund – do so now. So that when all the data is in and assessed, the lawyer can be readily retained and initiate the action.

Thank you,

Perry Kiraly
How can the members negotiate with the receiver when the receiver does not actually own GIN either? Seems to me they would have to negotiate with the court, in whose hands the decision about GIN's fate ultimately rests. But then, I don't have the fine legal mind and business experience necessary to understand all of this stuff, so I'll just leave it to y'all to figure out.

Other loyal higher-level members, who are also (finally) seeing that GIN is in trouble,
don't seem to be supporting Perry's cause, however. And why indeed would they want to put out more of their hard-earned (or perhaps hard-scammed, in some cases) cash to "own" GIN, when they'd been putting out thousands of dollars over the past few years precisely because they believed they already "owned" the club?

Meanwhile, there are the GIN spinoffs (GINoffs?), and I believe we can expect more in the months to come. For now, there's the
IBMS Master's Society, run by GIN's former marketing director Peter Wink and Katie's former b.f.f. and resident alt-health quackadoodle Mocktor Loony Coldwell. There's a newer rip-off org called the Omnia Society, run by a couple of GINsiders named Deano Andrews and Stephen Lee, who saw that GIN was sinking without Katie and decided to grab some of the content and hop into a lifeboat. And there are tons of other scams, such as Empower Network/Blog Beast, that are attracting GIN and ex-GIN. The big sick machine is going on without missing a beat.

I also heard some buzz that at the recent Kevin Trudeau fundraiser in the Washington DC area, Kevin expressed confidence that he will prevail in the upcoming criminal trial (some of his fans who were apparently called to testify at the pre-trial hearings have expressed similar confidence). Katie and a few of his fans are apparently in favor of just ditching GIN altogether and starting something new. Katie suggested that if he did form a new club he could simply redo the Success Mastery Courses that his fans have been insisting is the most valuable part of GIN. He'd have to do some pretty extensive retooling, since most of the existing material is now available for free-ish. (Then again, it always was recycled/borrowed material, so in that respect not much has changed).

The point is that Katie still has a fiercely loyal fan base, and despite my never-wavering opinion that he is a lifelong scammer and can't be trusted, he is more brilliant and skilled than any of the "GIN Destroyers" who have been capitalizing on his troubles for the past year and a half.

Someone sent me this series of screen shots, taken from a private GIN group (name redacted out of respect for a vulnerable soul). This is yet more evidence that with Kevin Trudeau's fans there's a fine line between dogged persistence (a trait of successful people) and utter denial (a trait of the easily scammed).

Of particular note in the denial department is the un-named member's insistence that the vast majority of people didn't join GIN to make money from the affiliate program, as evidenced by the fact that most people didn't make money from the affiliate program. Well, actually the commenter says that the evidence is in the fact that there were not more Platinums and other high achievers. But it's the same thing (
it's in the third panel, number 3 of 5). And oh, good Goddess, my brain hurts.

1 of 5


2 of 5



3 of 5


4 of 5


5 of 5


It goes without saying that I was not at the GIN Family Reunion, nor was I at the Katie fundraiser that took place the following Monday. But I know how these pep rally events work, and how pumped people can get when they so desperately want to get pumped, and they find themselves in a room full of other people with similar desires. The need to believe and to keep on believing runs strong in the human heart. And the emotions generated by these events are very real, but so often the factors that fuel those emotions... well, they're more in the unicorn realm. From where I sit as an observant outsider, that unicorn thing was precisely what was going on in Washington the weekend before last. Your mileage may vary.
 
My friend Tim was spot-on as usual when he commented, on a recent Facebook thread, about the scam that was GIN.
So MH [Mark Hamilton, Neo-stink owner] and kt's wife [Natalyia Babenko] walked away with millions free and clear, kt spent 10s of millions all while the members' payments were delayed, illegally "taxed" and sometimes not paid at all due to glitches/stories etc from GIN. That's not how any legitimate business works, probably par for the course in MLMs though.
Yep, that sounds about right, particularly if we're talking about an MLM with Katie at the helm. And here's where this blog post -- though not the story -- ends. I'll be back soon with more.

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Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Why Kevin Trudeau's GIN lost its soul


Updates and minor revisions appear below in Halloween orange. ~CC


It's no longer new news that serial scammer Kevin Trudeau is doing the old in-and-out-and-in-and-out routine -- in and out of jail, that is. As reported on
the update to this Whirled post the other day, and in mainstream news media pieces all over the Interwebs for the past several days, Katie was uncaged on Monday the 28th, the better to help the court-appointed receiver search for True-dough's hidden assets, in much the same way, I imagine, that O.J. Simpson helped the authorities search for his dead wife's real killer. Judge Robert Gettleman also said he felt that an uncaged Katie would be in a better position to prepare for his criminal trial, which starts this coming Monday, November 4.

There will be another hearing in the civil case (the one which involves the receiver and the latest incarceration interludes) on November 21. The criminal trial may or may not still be going on by then; it is expected to take two to three weeks. Judge Gettleman has warned Katie that if it comes out again that he has not cooperated with the receiver, he'll wind up right back in jail, no matter how the criminal case comes out.

I was originally planning to devote today's blog post to a recap of the latest court case doings, and I was going to give you some handy, accessible Scribd.com links to all of the documents. Oh, my goodness, I was going to be such a conscientious and balanced and responsible blogger, all in the service of being a useful source of information for those of you who are not on Facebook. But I think all of that is going to have to wait till tomorrow, because today I am so stunned by an amazing seekrit that was recently revealed that I can scarcely concentrate enough to even write this post.

What rocked my Whirled and shook me to my very core was a recent (yesterday-ish) conversation on Facebook. It has finally been revealed why Katie's greatest scam of all, the Global Information Network (GIN), is failing. The real reason is not that GIN was a scummy scam from the beginning and that it was a personal piggy bank for Katie. No, actually it was a noble club. But it lost its very essence when Katie's ex-b.f.f. and alt-health spokes-quack, Mocktor Loony Coldwell, left GIN.

But let me let you read for yourself. The second panel is where the gold is. As usual, click to enlarge.


So there you have it. Loony was the very soul of GIN, rather than just the diseased scrotum of Scamworld. Also, in this conversation it seems that he's taking a little of Abe's glory away, although he does still say that Abe "brought the conman (Kevin) down" all by his lonesome. Apparently the FTC, SEC, et al. didn't know anything about Kevin's wrongdoings till Abe said something.

Notice too that True-dough's ex marketing guy, Peter Wink, pipes in with yet another promo for the IMBS-ing U Master Baiter's Society. The scavengers are circling, circling, circling... But Peter is perhaps the most persistent, desperately pimping for Loony's cheap GIN ripoff.


For those who are interested, here is a direct link to the GIN member-and-downline conference call referenced in the conversation. As my friend Mike said, put on your boots for this one. These folks seem to be in denial, even at the same time they are grudgingly acknowledging that GIN is in serious trouble (interestingly, though, they don't seem to support GIN member Perry Kiraly's new Stand With GIN campaign, mentioned on this post). On his contention that the remaining GIN members are in denial, I agree with Abe. But only on that point. Obviously I do not agree that he and Loony are bastions of "truth" about GIN or Trudeau. And the whole IMBS-ing U scam is definitely a case of jumping out of the frying pan into the fire, as the aforementioned Mike also noted.

Here's my pal Bernie with
his own commentary about Loony's latest grand delusion.

I promise I'll be back within the next couple of days with some more actual updates and useful information... or maybe even a blog post about something else besides Kevin Trudeau and his Loony legacy. It's about time I get back to those Access lunatics, for instance. So many scams, so little time...


For now, and in celebration of Halloween -- which fits right in with Loony Coldwell's whole "GIN is like a body without a soul" meme -- here's a playlist of songs with a zombie theme. I've shared 'em before on Facebook but here they are again. Enjoy!
The lyrics to “Zombie Jamboree” can easily be adapted to describe a GIN or alt-GIN cruise party…
It was a Zombie Jamboree
Took place in a ship on the deep blue sea...
…They were dancing back to back and belly to belly
Said, I don’t give a damn ’cause I’m brainwashed already…
On the other hand, the back-to-back butt-bump dancing thing sounds more like a Loony Coldwell Chumpions event than a GIN party.

Anyway, Happy Halloween to all of you. Have fun, be safe, and watch out for
pimps-n-hos. Particularly the scary kind.

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Sunday, October 27, 2013

Trudeau still caged, vultures still circle, and Wink seizes the moment, blabs to press, and pimps for Loony Coldwell (again)

I apologize for being away from my Whirled for a few days, when there has been so much going on in the saga of serial scammer Kevin Trudeau. But wonderful things were going on in my real world, and they occupied most of my time and energy for a few days. Now I'm back... well, mostly back, anyway.
 
As most of you may know, Katie is still behind bars and is expected to stay there at least until his next court hearing on Monday, October 28 at 1:30 PM Central Time. After being allowed to attend his legal defense fundraiser in the Washington DC area on October 21 (his brother Bob says that 58 folks gave Katie checks for $1,000, but I have not been able to substantiate that), he had another civil case hearing on October 22, during which he made a last-ditch effort to keep himself out of jail. Alas,
Judge Gettleman showed him no mercy this time and Katie was forced to surrender to US Marshals.

There was a follow-up hearing on October 24, continued to October 28. At the October 24 hearing, the government -- not the FTC, but the US Attorney's office -- was granted a motion to unseal a January document (Document 540, filed under seal) that they are claiming contains false financial statements from Katie. The US Attorney is actually the one who's prosecuting the criminal case. Katie's lawyers had protested that motion, saying that the US Attorney had no business intruding into the civil case. But Judge Gettleman apparently disagreed and granted the motion, giving Katie's attorneys leave to file a redacted version of Doc 540. The catch is that they only have until Monday, October 28 to do so, which didn't give them much time.

Anyway, the bottom line is that for now Katie is in the clink, until and unless he can either pay the fine or prove to the court beyond a doubt that he simply can't do it. Meanwhile, he's been complaining that being in jail without Internet access is making it difficult for him to prepare for his upcoming criminal trial, which commences on November 4, a week from this Monday.

UPDATE, 28 October: Today's hearing resulted in Judge Gettleman springing Katie from the cage so he can better prepare for his criminal trial. But the judge still doesn't believe Katie has been honest about his assets. And to add to the drama, one of the FTC attorneys has repeated the oft-expressed concern that...duh...Katie's biggest scam yet, the Global Information Network (GIN) could possibly be an illegal pyramid scheme.

And in other news...

...some of the remaining members of GIN may be trying to scrape together a class action lawsuit to recoup their own considerable investments in the GIN scam. Or at least it looks like that may be happening. A high-level GIN member named Perry Kiraly has proposed a "plan of action" that he thinks will help the GINfolk push to the front of the line, even in front of the FTC, so they can get the money they think they have coming to them. It appears that Perry is basing his argument on the belief that GIN is actually member-owned, when most of us who have read the court docs know better. (Actually, I figured out that GIN was Trudeau's personal piggy bank years ago, even before I saw a single piece of correspondence between him and his "asset planner" Marc Lane... but I guess you're probably tired of hearing me repeat myself about that.)

My first impression was that despite that whole "ownership" delusion, Perry was -- on the surface, anyway -- still taking a marginally more civilized and intelligent approach than ex-Trudeau b.f.f. Mocktor Loony Coldwell, with all of his big talk, last year and more recently, of a "class action" lawsuit. The problem with Perry's plan is that it's too little, too late. He should have awakened and smelled the coffee about a year and a half ago. Actually he should have awakened and smelled the coffee before he invested so much in GIN, because...duh...GIN is a Trudeau business entity, and it was never a "member-owned" club.

And actually, the more I look at his letter (see screen shots below), the more I am inclined to agree with some of my Facebook pals that it seems like just another money grab, but this time a money grab for Perry. Perhaps his name should be added to the list of
circling vultures. Read the letter and decide for yourself (and note that page 5 is not included, because it contains personal contact information).






In still other news,
the "alternate" cruise that the GIN faithful were planning is apparently going to have to sail without Fred Van Liew and B-list huckster Joel Bauer, who have pulled out. I guess they decided that all of that love and light and positive energy couldn't make up for the fact that the speakers were not going to be compensated.


However, it appears that "Gentle Wind" fraudster Mary Miller, who like so many GIN speakers sells grievously overpriced frauducts and flopportunities, may be sailing with the alt-GIN cruisers. So the scavengers continue to circle...
 
So let's get to the pimp-n-ho already
But that "other news" and "still other news" are probably fodder for another blog post. I'm still running on limited steam after the festivities of the past few days, and I need to stick to only a couple of topics at a time. And since I already have that purty Halloween pic at the top of this page, let's focus on that general topic.


One of the most entertaining things to happen over the past week is that Peter Wink, former GIN marketing director and former good buddy of Trudeau (or so he used to claim) insinuated himself into the drama again, holding a "press conference" on October 22. He was quoted by a few local (Chicago) media, but his stellar meet-the-press moment apparently didn't make it into many of the other stories about Katie getting thrown in jail again. In this Chicago CBS story Peter comes across as a tad self-righteous, and he seems to be saying that notwithstanding his claims of pennilessness, Katie really does have money set aside.
Peter Wink, a one-time employee of Trudeau’s, attended Tuesday’s hearing. He said Trudeau’s a con artist, and got what he deserved.
“It was what was expected. Do I believe someone of Kevin Trudeau’s nature would have no money? I don’t personally believe that, but I never was involved in his finances, and can’t prove it,” Wink said.”He’s not the type of person who’s going to get out of jail, and have no funds. That’s just not his makeup, and it’s not his personality.”
But another Chicago media story seems to qualify this statement somewhat, quoting Peter as saying Katie was always one step away from being penniless.
A former employee of the TV pitchman says Trudeau likely has money, somewhere, but probably not much. “I believe that he’ll always keep something for himself when he gets out of jail.  I do believe that.  Does he have $37 million?  I believe that he was always one step from broke because he spent money as fast as it came in,” said Peter Wink.
Some are speculating that this is exactly what Katie needs for more people to say, because it backs his tale that he is a poor boy and can't pay the fine. They say that Peter, either by design or unwittingly, was helping Katie's cause by making that statement. But I don't think the court is buying the poor-boy thing, no matter who says what. Furthermore, some of the past court documents have indicated that the courts are not likely to give Katie much leniency if they believe that he was responsible for his penniless state.

In other words, if being broke had been something beyond his control, if he didn't have the money because he simply couldn't make the money or because he was faced with some catastrophic event, that would be one thing. But if he was raking in the dough like a mo-fo and blowing it on Bentleys and fine cigars and McMansion rentals -- when he theoretically could have been using at least some of those earnings to pay the FTC fine -- that's another story altogether. The court docs have revealed plenty of evidence that the latter scenario is the correct one, that he has willfully and deliberately funneled and hidden money all over the world. And even the long-patient Judge Gettleman is not inclined to look kindly upon Katie's extravagances any more.

Whether Katie is actually broke or not, Peter Wink in his press ops has come across to many as opportunistic and sleazy. I suspect that most of the journos he talks to have that same impression, but they go where they must to get quotations for a story. The big elephant in the room where Peter is concerned is that ever since his separation from GIN and Katie in late April 2012, he has made numerous references to his long-time observations of Katie's behavior. He has said that Trudeau was predictable and that none of what has happened has surprised him. Yet -- and I know I've harped on this before, but it needs to be said repeatedly -- for two and a half years he promoted Trudeau and GIN, and actively participated in the scam.

At the same time Peter has also said that he got duped, just like everyone else. Well, I don't buy it, and I don't think many other people are buying that he's just a nice guy who got fooled by a master con artist and is now simply trying to do the right thing.

In other words,Peter is not exactly what one would call an unimpeachable source, particularly since he has been promoting a more evil scammer for years, and a cheap GIN imitation scam,
the IBMS Master's Society, since the beginning of this year. And (this is where we get to that Halloween pic), he has now apparently taken over Loony Coldwell's "GIN Council" email campaigns (if you follow that link, scroll down to "Dispatch from Deutschland: the phony letter from the 'GIN Council').

Peter, or someone who writes remarkably like him, just sent out a mass email to GIN and ex-GIN. As usual, the email address has a German suffix, but this one -- gin-council at newbigjob.de -- is a different one from the semi-literate, obviously Loony-written missives the "GIN Council" formerly sent. (Newbigjob.de is one of those automated proxy deals; there is no actual site at that domain.) Anyway, here's the message, and I am not responsible for any links that may have been tinkered with. Well, yes I am.


Dear GIN Members and Affiliates,

Now that Trudeau is locked up tight behind bars, it’s time to dust off and pick up the pieces in a big way.

The unfortunate reality is that it appears Trudeau manipulated thousands of people --- perhaps even you. He seems to have put many people in their own mental and financial prison through clever manipulation tactics.

If this is the case, you need to understand that it is not your fault and you can break free.

Trudeau utilized PROVEN mind-altering techniques to program your conscious and subconscious minds simultaneously to do whatever he wanted. He used NLP, Hypnosis, Science of Mind, and Scientology. It has been cleverly placed used in audios, emails, videos, conference calls, and at all his live seminars. This is how he created his buying frenzy totaling tens of millions of dollars of people’s hard earned money. Many people lost their life savings and real properties with questionable investments like the Inner Circle, Lazy Man, Hot Leads, and other programs rendered financially useless based on measurable results --- not Trudeau’s verbal hype and folly. Some people have even been pushed to the brink of suicide.

He obviously also used specialized techniques for the purposes of marketing including telling people he had access to special secrets that did not exist, as well as access to ghostly billionaires, invisible millionaires and the phantom GIN Council. It turns out that all he had access to is your money --- which he unfortunately spent handsomely at your expense.

The good news is that help is on the way.

Dr. Leonard Coldwell is hosting a special de-brainwashing live event where you will not only learn how to de-brainwash yourself --- you will also learn the basics of brainwashing so you can recognize when someone is doing it to you. This is a one-time teleseminar event being taught by one of the world’s leading authorities on the mind and how it works.

Here are the details...

Brainwashing and Debrainwashing Exposed
Date: Tuesday, October 29th, 2013
Time: 6:00pm (Pacific), 8:00pm (Central), 9:00pm (Eastern)
Call-in Number: 1-805-399-1200
Access Code: 982755 (you need this to to access the live interview)

And there’s even more...

Dr. Leonard Coldwell, who was maliciously pushed out of GIN because he was telling the members the truth about the fraud and deception committed to the Gin members, by Kevin Trudeau, has been planning how to help GIN Members and Affiliates de-brainwash themselves from Kevin Trudeau’s trickery for over one year now. He is a master at Neuro Associative Conditioning and reprogramming the mind --- based on actual results. He has personally helped hundreds of people recover from cults, agenda-based religions, and other mind-altering groups.

Before you go off on a Dr. C tangent, I want you to remember who the only speaker was who talked with every member during and after seminars. Remember who it was that captivated audiences. Remember who it was that worked on Members and Affiliates for hours and hours to help them reprogram their mind. And here’s something you probably never knew --- Dr. C had more positive testimonials from Members and Affiliates than anyone else including Trudeau himself.

Hopefully, everyone can get around, and get past the hype and negativity that has circulated around GIN since all the Dr. C turbulence. Remember, Dr. C truly cares about you, which is why he stuck around to do what I’m about to tell you.

Our friend Dr. C is inviting you back into his life --- not only on the teleseminar --- but he wants to be in yours again and truly misses you --- and he’s here to help you, laugh with you, entertain you and most of all teach you.

On December 6th, 2013, in Panama City, FL, Dr. C is hosting an event called...

Taking Back your Mind and Your Life (The Debrainwashing LIVE Seminar)

The only cost is $49 to attend --- which covers his real cost for the room and to promote the event to you.

If you want to attend, please sign up at
www.DrColdwellEvents.com or let Amy Chappell know at amy@drleonardcoldwell.com --- and she will help you register right away.

You can come FREE if you join the IBMS Master’s Society.

For more information or to petition to join, please go to...
www.IBMSMastersSociety.com

Hope to see you in FL! Call into the teleseminar early --- limited lines!

Cheers!
What, Peter? No "Hugs" this time?

It's amusing to me that Peter is indicting Trudeau for using some of the same mindf--k techniques that
he has insinuated he also possesses and uses, techniques that, according to him, provide the big advantage that has made him a master copywriter (or whatever it is he used to be before he became Loony's pimp).

At any rate, Peter's letter on behalf of Loony is wrong on so many levels that it goes beyond being amusing and stupid; it is downright disgusting. He insinuates that there is some negative buzz about Loony C, but doesn't mention
the police report, or even the phony degrees or dodgy cancer cure claims. I suppose that isn't surprising, since Peter has been pandering on Loony's behalf to vulnerable folks for many months now. Once again I am reminded of Ron's comparison of Peter to a serial pimp who promotes diseased whores. (Since Loony has spread lies about me being an AIDS-infected former hooker, it seems only appropriate for me to haul out that handy comparison again.)

There will be more to come soon; this coming week and the next one are going to be busy ones. Within the next day or so I will post links to the latest court docs on this blog. I shared them on a Facebook forum as soon as they came out, but I also want to share them with a wider audience, since I am aware that there are still some folks who are sensible enough to not be on Facebook.

However, if you are on Facebook,
go to the public group, GIN Network Truth, and look for my posts from October 22 through 26. You'll see several posts concerning both the civil and the criminal case, and you can download the documents from there. My friend Julie Daniel has also posted lots of links to the latest news media coverage of Trudeau's troubles. GIN Network Truth is becoming a great resource for keeping up with Kevin, and the good thing is that even if you're a pro-Trudeau person, you can join in the conversation without being derided.

Stay tuned!


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Click here to donate via PayPal or debit/credit card.
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Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Kevin Trudeau pours his heart out in effort to stay out of jail, to no avail

As I write this, serial scammer Kevin Trudeau is headed back to jail, despite his efforts to convince the courts that he had purged himself of the civil contempt charges that landed him there. According to Kim Janssen at the Chicago Sun-Times, this morning's hearing was "fractious."
“If I’m incarcerated tonight my question is what specifically can I do to prove that . . . there are no assets,” an indignant Trudeau said, before he was led away by court security officers.
Trudeau was allowed to travel to the DC area yesterday (October 21) for his fundraising event, and so far I haven't heard any word on how that went or how much he was able to raise.* But while Kevin was at the Holiday Inn Old Town in Alexandria, Virginia, presumably preaching to his flock about how much money they need to give him, his lawyers were filing desperate, last-minute papers saying that he has met the conditions to purge the latest civil contempt, so he shouldn't have to go back to jail. There are a whole lot of histrionics in them thar docs.

But the FTC's lawyers filed a statement and exhibits saying he is full of crap and should go to jail. Histrionics there too, if one is to be perfectly honest.

And for now, anyway, the FTC prevails.

There's still nothing new on the criminal case docket; I assume that's going forward as scheduled, with the jury trial set to begin on November 4.

But the civil case saw quite a bit of activity, as evidenced in the links above.

I personally don't think Katie belongs in a cage. I've said that before. But that's where he'll be, for a while, anyway. He's due back in court on Thursday, October 24, and we'll see what happens from there.

By the way, ABC7 also reported on the new court docs yesterday.
One can appreciate Chuck Goudie's rather snarky tone in this article; he's a man after my own heart.

* I did hear that the big event, the GIN Family Reunion in DC, only had about 800 attendees, but they were apparently very enthusiastic attendees and they seem convinced that one way or the other, the GINtanic will sail on, even without Kevin. One person who attended was giddy with excitement on Facebook the other night, and I didn't know whether to be happy for him or feel sorry for him. I've seen that post-event high too many times, fueled by too many scammy hustledorks, and I know the high is what keeps people coming back. But the almost inevitable hangover can be a real bitch.

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Sunday, October 20, 2013

Kevin Trudeau gets ready for last hurrah in DC, while Hollyweird prepares for his close-up (maybe)

 
As the remnants of serial scammer Kevin Trudeau's huge Ponzi-like Global Information Network (GIN) wraps up what may very well be the last GIN Family Reunion (and perhaps the last GIN event ever, unless the org can be re-branded and reorganized without him), Kevin himself is prepping for what may very well be his last public appearance for a while, his fundraising event, also in the Washington DC area. As reported here on October 16, and elsewhere in the mainstream media, Judge Robert Gettleman said True-dough can attend the event on Monday, October 21, before attending his hearing on October 22 and then surrendering himself to the US Marshal, who will presumably escort him to Chicago's MCC. Reportedly Katie's long-suffering parental units put their home up again to back his $200,000 bond.

The GIN DC event appears to be a group of hardcore loyalists putting on a brave face,
as indicated in this video from Friday night the 18th. But apparently at least one old-timer with some renown and money is at the event; a Facebook friend who is attending the Family Reunion said it was a hoot to see former Congressman and long-time motivational speaker and Trudeau pal Ed Foreman talking about "that joker from South Carolina" who used to stand up on stage and spew filth. I imagine that Mr. Foreman is referring to ex-Trudeau bud Mocktor Loony Coldwell, who was notorious for using foul language during some of his GIN presentations, as well as pointing out women in the audience and boasting that he'd had sex with them. (This is according to numerous reports by ex-GIN members who saw things like this happen, though there have been various versions of the tale (e.g., see screen shot, which is a comment from a September 2012 post on Salty's blog).) Either way it played out... way to rock a "family" event, Loony.


Meanwhile, some folks who RSVP'd yes to the October 21 Trudeau fundraiser, which will run from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM at the Holiday Inn in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia (yes, that is in the DC area) have told me that they were contacted by a woman named Janine, who said she's known Kevin for 35 years. More than likely that would be Janine Nubani, aka Janine Contursi, recently let go from the GINpire by the court-appointed receiver. Janine is a longtime business partner, past co-defendant, and loyal friend of Trudeau; they dated for a while too, way back when. Janine told my contacts to "bring a check."

I do wonder how much money Kevin will actually be able to raise -- hopefully at least enough to cover the bond should he decide to make a run for it after all (as some have been speculating). At least then his folks won't lose their home.

But it's very possible Kevin will come back and face the music, and will continue to rack up martyr points among the faithful, jail or no jail. And his criminal trial is set to begin on November 4, with a possible 15-18 year sentence should he be found guilty of criminal contempt. (His lawyers mentioned in an earlier court document that he is facing a possible life sentence but I have not seen any other document to back that up.)


Meanwhile in La-La Land (well, actually, in beautiful Downtown Burbank)...
I would be remiss if I were to fail to mention a few details regarding the big news about the Kevin Trudeau Major Movie Project -- at least it's big news in that it showed up on a few isolated Facebook forums, as well as getting a brief mention on
Emmy Award winning journalist Ryan Kath's latest Trudeau story. A California film production company, Adventures In Film, Inc., has expressed interest in telling the story of Trudeau and GIN, and last month they contacted the most vocal anti-GIN activist, Abe Husein, and apparently signed him on as a script consultant.

Ever since then Abe has been waving his new film creds around on Facebook as proof that he and he alone "gets results" and that the rest of the GIN critics are "loosers" and "hatters" who are jealous of him because he's the go-to guy for the media and film makers. It doesn't do any good to 'splain to him that even in this era of blatant media whoredom, where attention is one of the most powerful and sought-after forms of currency, some of us remain perfectly happy working behind the scenes, occasionally nudging the media (in fact a certain Cosmic blogger nudged ABC last November on Abe's behalf), occasionally being nudged by the media, and so forth. Not everyone wants to be in front of the camera.

Speaking for myself, as an avid movie consumer who has practically zero interest in producing, writing, filming, or even consulting for movies, I say, "More power to the film producers!" -- that is, if they actually do their homework and talk to at least a few people in Trudeau's life who don't have an axe to grind.


Understanding that the project is only in its earliest stages and that the concept, title, and storyline can change several times as things progress, I still think that the description in the blurb misses the mark on both extremes: Trudeau is neither an "evil genius" nor a "terribly misunderstood do-gooder." Genius he may very well be, but he's not evil (though it could certainly be argued that he is part of a greater evil). And he is certainly no misunderstood do-gooder, as I've mentioned a few times on this Whirled. He's an interesting phenomenon somewhere in between those two extremes, and I'm hoping the movie can capture that. I'm hoping it will also at least touch on the fact that even if Trudeau ends up demonstrating that orange is the new black for a while,
he and GIN are just a drop in the Scamworld bucket. There are hundreds -- thousands -- of scams and scammers.

And Trudeau himself has planted a firm legacy.
IBMS Master's Society, anyone?

Regarding the question of whether Trudeau is evil, however, I too raised it briefly
on my First Amendment Stuporhero blog post in August 2011, under the subhead, "Evil emperor, or buffoon in a silly hat?" Trudeau may be sociopathic and an irredeemable scammer, but I have never thought of him as actually evil. Loony Coldwell, on the other hand, comes closer to the definition of evil than anyone I've ever written about on this blog. Nevertheless, Loony has been bragging on Facebook that the film producers have contacted him too. One can only hope they are merely exploiting him for any legitimate inside information or gossip he might have that would enhance the storyline, and that they are not intending to work him into the plot as any kind of hero.

I think even the people who want to believe in Abe as a GIN-destroyin' hero know that the real tale of Trudeau -- and GIN -- is much more deeply rooted and complex than a story of the "kid who brought GIN down by himself" spin that Coldwell and KT's ex marketing guy, Peter Wink, have fueled and nurtured, and that Abe has at least implicitly allowed. Abe even said from the beginning, when he first started talking about the film project on Facebook, that the producers were interested in exploring how Trudeau could attract people with his outrageous lies in this day and time. That's something I wondered about for years myself (and yes, snarked mercilessly about in the beginning). I think that what it boils down to is timing, more than anything.

GIN succeeded as well as it did for one simple reason: Trudeau was selling big dreams in hard times.

GIN was launched in late 2009, though it had been in the planning stage for well over a year before then, as evidenced by many now publicly available communications between Trudeau and his chief asset hider, Marc Lane. The economy had cratered, the US was facing the deepest recession in many years, and people were desperate. And along came GIN, all dressed up in lofty idealistic clothes, with lots of sweet talk about community and like-mindedness and even about actually changing the world for the better. But beneath that luminous garb and sweet talk was the body of a cynical, money-hungry streetwalker (no offense to actual streetwalkers) who had been around the block more than a few times. The streetwalker cynically promised wealth and happiness to those who would just give of their time and their treasure. And people were willing to do that, because so many of them felt they had no other choice.

Big dreams, hard times... and now Trudeau may very well be facing some hard time himself. But even now, with all of his legal troubles, and the near-certainty of at least a little more jail time, he still has his staunch defenders. As Ryan Kath wrote in his October 17 report, "legions of loyal followers continue to line up in Trudeau’s corner. Judging from the endless court battle, Trudeau has proven he isn’t going down without a fight."


The story isn't over yet, and once again I think I can predict with reasonable certainty that there will be no neat and tidy endings.

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Thursday, October 17, 2013

You can't go home again, but you can get your parents to risk THEIR home so you can go to DC

So the big news, for those of us who are following the court cases of serial scammer Kevin Trudeau, is that yesterday Judge Robert Gettleman ordered him to the slammer until he can satisfy certain legal conditions. But in a twist that has the mainstream journos buzzing and certain anti-Trudeau activists' panties in a wad, the judge decreed that before those jail doors slam, Katie can go to Washington D.C. for his legal defense fundraising dinner on October 21.

Some have been speculating that he is a flight risk and that he will end up getting away, somehow. At this point I'm tending to think not, particularly in light of the fact that once again he has put his parents' home at risk so he can travel. Yes, according to various news sources,
including this piece from the Chicago Tribune, Mr. and Mrs. Trudeau secured his $200,000 bond with their Massachusetts home, which according to Kevin's older brother Bob they built by hand, and according to real estate records have lived in since 1953.

So that's sixty years of family legacy down the tubes if Kevin flees and doesn't come back.

As you may recall from the buzz this past summer,
including the buzz right here, Mary and Robert Trudeau secured a bond for their youngest boy so he could go to Canada in July.
 

And he came back.

So let's hope, for the sake of two apparently very nice and long-suffering parents, that he comes back this time.

Still and all, it really doesn't seem like something that a successful billionaire would do -- allowing his elderly parents to risk their home just so he can go to DC to raise money for his legal defense fund. But at the very least, it bolsters the ruse that he is penniless. And I guess that's good enough for the remaining fans of Katie, many of whom seem to think he can do no wrong, no matter what he does.

Here's to your success!

This is from July 2013.
Sorry for the rerun, but I liked it too much not to use it again.

PS added later on, 17 October 2013 ~
I just went to PACER and saw that Judge Gettleman issued an amended order to supersede yesterday's order. This one, dated today (Oct. 17) adds one item that would appear to put some more restrictions on Katie's DC activities (and here's a direct link to the entire document):

6. As stated in open court on October 16, 2013, Trudeau is prohibited from communicating with any of the Trudeau Entities (as defined in previous orders) or persons affiliated with them (other than Trudeau’s wife), or any financial institutions with which Trudeau has done business or had a relationship, without the express consent of or direction by the Receiver.
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Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Kevin Trudeau: Mr. T goes to Washington... and then to jail (maybe)

Early report from the Kevin Trudeau court hearing today (October 16): Chicago's ABC7 reports he will go back to jail, but the judge will allow him to go to Washington DC for his Legal Defense Fund dinner on Monday, October 21, before reporting to his old haunt, Chicago's Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC) on Tuesday the 22nd. More details -- and court docs -- as they appear. [See below. ~CC]

Meanwhile, here are details about the recent court filings, if you need to catch up.

If you're a Katie fan, don't be too concerned. This newest jail thing will give him a chance to still have his "hero's welcome" and last hurrah in DC, and then he'll get to rack up some more martyr/hero points. Or maybe he can use his mighty mind to manipulate events so that he ends up not having to go to jail after all, or maybe some member of the Illuminutty or GIN Council will come up with some moneys to pay his fine, or maybe he will be able to escape to Canada or Zurich or the Ukraine or whichever planet he's from.

It's all good.

 
Update, a little later on...
First of all,
here is a link to Judge Gettleman's October 16 order. It does indeed appear that Trudeau is a "free" man 'til Tuesday October 22, on which date there will be a hearing at 9:30 AM Central.

Secondly,
here's an update by investigative journalist Ryan Kath at KSHB-TV (Kansas City MO NBC). Ryan is one of the few journos outside of Katie's beloved Chicagoland who has kept on this story. And yes, he was alerted in the beginning, last year, by ex-GIN member Abe Husein. I'll give credit where it's due.

Third, the reactions among Trudeau's loudest detractors, including, unfortunately, Abe, are... well, I pretty much as I predicted
on yesterday's blog post when I wrote:
If he doesn't get thrown in jail [immediately], we'll see:
  • Grumbling among the "GIN destroyers" about how the judge is corrupt or cowardly or gay-with-the-hots-for-Katie, accompanied by the reassurance that Judge Guzman, who is presiding over the criminal trial, will for sure have the gonads to throw Katie in the clink once the jury finds him guilty as sin for criminal contempt. And they will add that once he's in prison for criminal contempt there will be more charges from the IRS and FBI and the US Postal Service and on and on, and he will spend the rest of his life in prison, and it will be -- at last! -- a neat and tidy Hollywood ending for the "kid" who singlehandedly set the whole thing in motion (never mind that the kid was still in diapers... or actually not even born yet... when the Feds first turned their Big Eye on Katie).
The GIN destroyers did not disappoint, with ex-Trudeau b.f.f. Mocktor Loony Coldwell leading the charge with all sorts of defamatory allegations about Judge Gettleman. Loony once again shows how obsessed he is with homosexual sex and bisexuality. And the level of anger -- and obsession with prison rape -- on those forums is really quite disturbing. Here's just one shot...


It gets worse...



But that's more than enough space wasted on screen shots of idiotic conversations.

Now, I realize there are many legitimate questions about Judge Gettleman's order and even his reasoning, particularly in light of his stern words to Katie in the court room, time after time, not to mention his own signed orders over the past few months. Well, call me a softy, call me crazy, call me an ignorant slut, but at this point I am still tending to give him the benefit of the doubt because I think he's truly conflicted about the whole jail issue.

There are also many legitimate questions about Trudeau's fund raising event in DC. Is there anyone -- even the most ardent Katie fan -- who is honestly going there to learn seekrit seekrits of success that True-dough has never revealed? I mean... REALLY? On the other hand, there are people who still support him in his alleged fight against government tyranny, and if they want to go to DC to lend him their moral or financial support, it's their right to waste their time, energy, and money.

Anyway, here's a little vid for you to watch,
courtesy of NBC Chicago.

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Tuesday, October 15, 2013

FTC (and Receiver) protest Kevin Trudeau's protests, hope October 16 hearing will end up with Katie in a cage

For those who had hopes that the U.S. government shutdown has continued to be totally good news for serial scammer Kevin Trudeau, yesterday's filings by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) might be interpreted as not-so-good news. Here's the link, complete with exhibits. But I have learned to take nothing for granted, and even though there is some new-ish info (or elaboration on older info) in these documents, not to mention pics of those now-famous $6,400 men's cufflinks that Katie says his wife bought for herself with her own moneys (though he'd previously disclaimed knowledge of her jewelry purchases), I'm taking a wait-and-see attitude.

The new documents were duly reported by NBC5 Chicago, which featured the Trudeau family jewels in a video. The reporter wrote that Monday's filings came as a surprise because it was assumed the case was on hold due to the shutdown. Well, I assume nothing, and frankly, it didn't come as much of a surprise to me in light of the docs that had immediately preceded it, to wit:

I've written about
the apparent effects of the government shutdown on the progress, or lack thereof, of Trudeau's court cases. Mostly I think that effect has been to generate a small flurry of momentarily-optimistic-for-Katie content from the mainstream media ("Pitchman free... for now!"), and throwaway blog fodder for my Whirled (see link immediately above). Shutdown or not, though, where there's a will there's a way, and it seems that the FTC is particularly willful right now. It appears that the hearing scheduled for tomorrow, October 16, at 1:30 PM, will indeed take place. Since there have already been at least two delays due to the shutdown, it looks to me as if the Feds are "Fed" up and have either obtained emergency funding to pay their attorneys (maybe from that $2 mil escrow account?), or they are just going ahead and working the case with the understanding that they will get paid whenever.

The answer to the question of why and how they are going ahead may lie in the short documents about "filing for leave to file" (they lost me with that second "file"), which were included in the October 14 docs.
Here's that link again (see Documents 767-0 and 768). I don't have the trained legal mind to figure it all out. Maybe you can put the pieces together.

Some folks are speculating that if Kevin doesn't totally fly the coop while he still might have a reasonable chance of doing so (albeit illegally at this point), then jail is inevitable. But I am still not so sure about the inevitability of jail even if he doesn't take flight. In the end, once again, it depends on Judge Gettleman. The judge has delivered so many ultimatums to Katie already, and for many weeks it seems he has had more than enough evidence to incarcerate him under the terms of Judge Gettleman's own previous orders. But he hasn't. Do the October 14 filings represent what will be the last straw? I won't try to predict that. What I can predict with more than reasonable accuracy, judging from repeated past performances, are the reactions from various pro- and anti-KT factions if Katie gets thrown in jail... and if he doesn't.

If he does get thrown in jail, we will see:

  • The usual high-fives and "We did it!" declarations among the self-proclaimed "GIN destroyers" on Facebook, with plenty of accolades for the "kid" who "singlehandedly brought down the greatest con man of our time." Yawn.
  • Grumbling among the KT fans about government tyranny and the bogus case the FTC has built against KT, "all for saying a diet is easy!" Double yawn.
If he doesn't get thrown in jail, we'll see:
  • Grumbling among the "GIN destroyers" about how the judge is corrupt or cowardly or gay-with-the-hots-for-Katie, accompanied by the reassurance that Judge Guzman, who is presiding over the criminal trial, will for sure have the gonads to throw Katie in the clink once the jury finds him guilty as sin for criminal contempt. And they will add that once he's in prison for criminal contempt there will be more charges from the IRS and FBI and the US Postal Service and on and on, and he will spend the rest of his life in prison, and it will be -- at last! -- a neat and tidy Hollywood ending for the "kid" who singlehandedly set the whole thing in motion (never mind that the kid was still in diapers... or actually not even born yet... when the Feds first turned their Big Eye on Katie).
  • High-fives among the KT fans, and jubilant declarations that their hero will for sure be in Washington DC in a few days (the GIN Family Reunion is set for October 18-20), and that he has once again used his mighty magickal mind powers (or his influence witht the GIN Council) to stay his incarceration indefinitely, and that ultimately, right will prevail and the court cases will all be tossed out, and The King will return in triumph to his rightful place on the throne.
Speaking of Kevin triumphing, yesterday a mass email was sent by NaturalCures.com, with the subject line, "KEVIN TRUDEAU WINS COURT CASE!!"

Then it was qualified by the first sentence in the body of the email, which read: "This is the headline we hope to see very soon." Apart from the subject line, the missive was almost identical to the one that was sent out to promote KT's latest begging-for-funds video nearly a month ago. That original message also said he only had one week to raise $400k.
I wrote about it here last month.

As usual, my pal Tim (whom the "GIN destroyers" and a few other cowards so love to hate), offered a plausible scenario re the fund solicitation:

I have a feeling that the lawyers have been holding a few million in escrow somewhere for kt, whatever doesn't go towards legal fees gets returned when the case is over. Very few lawyers will work without money up front, especially for a client who is a known scammer who also has significant jail time hanging over his head. This is just another money grab by friends of kt.
In another thread Tim wrote:
Kevin has effectively hidden the bulk of his money, the government knows that it can't attach it or they would have. The best they can do is threaten and cajole in hopes he gives up and pays the bill. The worst thing they can do is lock kt up, and likely for less than a year. It seems that kt is willing to get locked up in order to keep his money hidden. Another reason the delay helps the ftc is that they don't want to lock him up, if he calls their bluff and goes to jail, he wins and they have wasted millions for nothing. They are in the process of killing the goose that laid the golden egg so without kt's cooperation they get nothing.
Tim's second comment suggests more interesting -- and plausible -- plot twists for a possible Hollywood movie than the silly stories of a heroic "kid" single-handedly bringing down a conman.


Stay tuned. Tomorrow's hearing may or may not yield significant results. At this point, I think we may need to worry more about that default thing that's coming up on the 17th unless the dolts in DC can really strike a deal.



PS added later, 15 October 2013: More court documents were filed today. They include confirmation that the hearing tomorrow (Oct. 16) will go forth as scheduled: no big surprise there. There is also more from the receiver re throwing Katie in jail. And Kevin's lawyers came back with another statement of opposition to all of the above. Here's a link.

One of the main points of Katie's Oct.15 statement of opposition was that the October 14 and 15 statements from the FTC and receiver introduced some new information, with the intention that it be discussed at the October 16 hearing. Trudeau's lawyers said that the FTC and receiver were out of order to do so, particularly since they did it so close to the hearing -- giving KT's lawyers almost no time to respond. I wouldn't be surprised if Katie's attorney files an emergency request for another last-minute continuance. Lacking that, I wouldn't be at all surprised to see still more documents filed between now Wednesday afternoon, as all parties seem to want to get the last word in before the actual hearing.

One item of interest that has been causing some buzz was actually a footnote in one of the October 14 documents (Document 767-1, page 7, footnote 13). This was concerning a retired Texas attorney, W.P. Barlow, to whom GIN FDN paid $129,692.34 this year. Actually the related correspondence was between Mr. Barlow and Neil Sant, although I'm sure that anything Mr. Barlow did was with Katie's approval. However, Sant may have been taking liberties that hurt Trudeau more than helped him. Looking at the email correspondence, it seems like the whole effort was lame at best, even if it wasn't technically illegal.
 
At any rate, although Mr. Barlow's name and the dollar figure he was paid had actually appeared previously -- on the Receiver's Supplemental Report of Sept. 16 (Document 750-1, page 26 -- screen shot below) -- apparently the receiver's subsequent digging uncovered the fact that Mr. Barlow was paid to speak to people who might possibly be able to influence the FTC to back off on the litigation against Katie.
Click to enlarge.
Mr. W.P. Barlow, a retired lawyer who was paid to
try to get some officials to lobby the FTC
on Kevin Trudeau's behalf, was first mentioned on
the Receiver's Supplemental Report of September 16, 2013.

The correspondence from Mr. Barlow to Neil Sant is part of the October 14 exhibits -- specifically, Document 767-2, pp. 86-87.
Here's that link again. You can scroll down and read the emails yourself.


[Note: I've modified this a little since I originally published it, because I really am trying to make sense of these issues. ~ CC] I realize that technically what Mr. Barlow was doing could have been construed as attorney misconduct, had he actually been acting as one of Trudeau's attorneys, and if it could have been determined that he was trying to improperly influence a government agency or official. But from all indications he wasn't acting as Trudeau's attorney, and in fact he is described by the FTC as a retired attorney. And again, his interaction seemed to be primarily with Neil Sant -- presumably with Trudeau's blessings, but I don't know the details of the situation, and I don't think anyone else who has only read the court documents knows either. So it seems that it's an exaggeration at best to say that Trudeau was caught trying to bribe the FTC. However, I think many of us can agree that it's sort of humorous that once again Kevin, or someone working on his behalf, would try to game the very institutions that he criticizes as being so corrupt because they allow themselves to be gamed.

Another item I noticed in the October 14 batch-o-docs was a footnote on page 6 of Document 767-1. The FTC is discussing Katie's lies about his gold purchases (it will come as no surprise that he claimed that his wife bought the gold). Footnote 11 on that page refers to Peter Ragnar by Ragnar's real name, Peter Lundell. It mentions that GLM (Golden Lion Mint) managers Peter Lundell and Tony Balistreri have a "close relationship" with Katie. That is not the first time those guys have come up in the court docs, of course...

I wonder if Lundell/Ragnar really did separate from Golden Lyin' -- or if he is just distancing himself till all of this blows over.

PS added October 16:
This just in... Katie may be headed back to the cage for a while, but not right away.


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