GIN Council disclaimer now on GIN web site, but Fat Lady still not singing

I've got a neverending tale for you
It explains that sense of deja screw.
The old scams give way to the new
And that's my neverending tale of scams for you.
~CC (to the tune, of course, of "Neverending Song of Love")

[NOTE: Updated content (to clarify a couple of points) appears in gold text below.
~CC, 1 December 2013]

I would have posted this yesterday, the moment everyone started buzzing about it on the Facebooks, but I had other Matters of Consequence to attend to, and frankly, it just didn't seem all that urgent. The buzz is that on the newly designed official web site of now-jailed serial scammer Kevin Trudeau's Global Information Network (GIN), there's a new disclaimer. It's at the bottom of every page. And it sez:

According to the information gathered by the Receiver of The Global Information network, the entity referred to as the GIN Counsel does not exist and therefore any reference or endorsement of this entity by any of the Global Information Network’s previous trainers/hosts should not be interpreted as an endorsement, benefit or part of the training curriculum of the GIN organization. GIN’s Affiliate Program may also be referred to in past trainings or educational materials. GIN’s Affiliate Program officially ends on November 30, 2013.

Of course, some of us called that Brotherhood/GIN Council nonsense for what it was... oh, back in 2009. Just saying.

Notwithstanding the fact that the disclaimer used the wrong spelling for "Council" (unless they actually did mean that the GIN lawyers do not exist), this disclaimer has caused quite a stir in some circles. Actually, however, it should have come as no great surprise, in light of recent court docs, which I wrote about on this November 18 post, shared on the GIN Network Truth group on Facebook, and uploaded to Scribd. Here's a relevant passage:

11. Mindful of the Court’s direction in the Receivership Order that the Receiver may only continue and conduct the business of any of the Trudeau Entities to the extent it is possible to operate such business legally, the Receiver has continued to review the legality of such businesses and has commenced tailoring the Trudeau Entities’ operations accordingly. For example, the Receiver has begun the process of causing the Trudeau Entities to remove false and misleading claims from its websites. As reflected in its First Report, the Receiver is continuing to work on a marketing plan that can be operated lawfully. As provided by the Receivership Order, if the Receiver determines that a Trudeau Entity cannot be operated legally, the Receiver will promptly notify the Court and parties and seek the Court’s permission to terminate the entity’s respective operations.
~ From court document in Kevin Trudeau's civil case (Case: 1:03-cv-03904 Document #: 790 Filed: 11/15/13, Pages 4-5 of 11)

But... but... but... isn't that disclaimer worth something? Isn't it yet another indication that GIN is on its last legs? Actually, it could just as easily be seen as a sign that the receiver is still, even now, trying to keep GIN alive, despite the end of the Affiliate Program (the MLM portion of GIN). The receiver had been questioning the legality of that program for months, in light of the fact that a Level 1 GIN membership didn't seem to be a legit "product" to sell via an MLM. Even so, they're still trying to keep GIN "legal," and one of the ways they're doing that is to remove any web site copy that could be construed as misleading.

But... but... but... Didn't Kevin himself admit there was no GIN Council? After all, some are claiming that Trudeau said in open court months ago that there is no GIN Council.

All I've seen, however, are documents that strongly indicate that...duh... there is no GIN Council, no group of idealistic billionaires who had a new vision for humanity and who happily co-founded GIN along with Kevin Trudeau and then stayed on, somewhat behind the scenes but nevertheless somehow involved in the operations. To the contrary, these documents point to GIN being a carefully structured private piggy bank for Kevin Trudeau, one that he had hoped would be out of the FTC's reach. The documents include but are not limited to pre-GIN-launch correspondence between KT and his asset-planning attorney, Marc Lane, and they are pretty damning for several reasons. But I do not recall seeing any notice or reading on any of the currently available transcripts that Kevin actually said, in court, that there is no GIN Council.

A few months ago -- May 2, 2013 to be exact -- Abe Husein made a video in which he waved around court documents that, according to him, clearly stated there was no GIN Council. He also made a pretty big deal of it on Facebook.

But I downloaded and looked at all of those court docs myself, as well as relevant preceding and subsequent documents, and saw only the above-mentioned correspondence and other evidence -- not a full-blown courtroom confession from Katie that the GIN Council was a figment of his imagination.

It is true that one of the court documents to which Abe referred in that May video (and on his Facebook posts) says, "Trudeau admits that he founded the Global Information Network, and Trudeau serves as its chief spokesperson" (Document 658, filed on May 1, 2013, page 4 of 7). Although the case centered around Trudeau's infomercials for his weight loss book and was not specifically about GIN, GIN's ownership had become relevant to the case because the FTC and court were trying to determine the extent of Trudeau's assets. They were striving to disprove Trudeau's claim that he does not own GIN FDN (the Nevis company).

Following that statement about Trudeau's "admission," however, is a footnote indicator. The footnote (number 7) cites record support for the statement, and that support lies not in statements that Kevin made in court under oath, but in statements he made during various media appearances, e.g., a promotional video, a radio interview, and his "radio" show on KTRN (click to enlarge).

The footnote makes reference to some July 2012 court documents; relevant screen shots are here. Actually, if you look at the first bulleted item on page 11 of 22 (the first shot, below), the text implies that there is a GIN council of some sort.


It may seem that I am nitpicking, an offense of which I've been previously accused, since the bottom line is that there is so much evidence that Kevin did own and control GIN -- in all of its various incarnations -- that one would have to be in deep denial not to see it. In that regard, of course, Abe was and is correct, as are those of us who have been saying this since long before Abe even joined GIN: There is no "GIN Council," at least not in the form that most believers in the GIN Council apparently imagined it, thanks to Trudeau's misleading statements. (In fact Abe himself was very drawn to the idea of the GIN Council, as he told the ABC reporters on The Lookout earlier this year.)

However, to some remaining GIN members and KT defenders, there is an important distinction between statements made in promotional content and a statement made under oath in a court of law.

And for that matter, it's an important distinction to me as well. I believe that it is as crucial to clarify these small details as it is to have a solid grasp of the big picture, since, as they say, God (or the Devil, take your pick) is in the details. So the bottom line is that I have not seen evidence that Kevin stated under oath, in court, that the GIN Council does not exist. If it's there and I've merely overlooked it, please point it out to me so that in the interests of accuracy I can make a retraction.

Nor have I seen any report from the court appointed receiver, Robb Evans and Associates, that Kevin specifically told anyone from that firm that there is no GIN Council. Again, I may be wrong, and please point it out to me if I am so I can make a retraction, but I believe the receiver has simply inferred the non-existence of the GIN Council from all of the documents uncovered in the FTC investigation and in the receiver's own investigation, the latter of which began on August 7, 2013. Here is the link to the receiver's own web site, which has links to the relevant documents.

Granted, the court documents I have been able to see do not reveal everything that has been going on. And I have not seen complete transcripts of all of the hearings. But what I have seen does not indicate that Kevin himself has really and truly come clean about the tall tales he told to market GIN.

Of course the other part of that new GIN site disclaimer -- the fact that the affiliate (MLM) program in GIN ends... why, today!... is also significant. But that fact has been known for weeks now. And there are some GIN members and KT fans who have big dreams of taking over GIN, keeping the "training" portion, and perhaps even revamping the MLM. They may very well have embarked on a fool's errand, but they will be heard in court. It's on the civil case docket now.

In any case, this seems clear: To many folks, the disclaimer on the GIN web site is no big deal, and for some it's just one more obstacle on their road to "reclaiming" GIN and making it bigger than ever. Besides, most of Kevin's fans and defenders -- and he still has many, whether some of his detractors want to admit it or not -- look at the receiver as "the enemy," an agent of the government and the courts that are striving so hard to silence the voice of the fans' First Amendment Stuporhero.

Some KT fans are saying that they never really believed the "GIN Council" was an official part of GIN anyway. They say that Kevin knows many influential elites who have given him advice over the years, behind the scenes. Some have even said that Katie himself has explained this. And then of course there are those who believe the Brotherhood story, and they say that of course these folks are going to keep their identities seekrit. That's the convenient thing about these types of tall tales -- there's enough wiggle room for all sorts of interpretations and rationalizations.

And then we need to consider the fact that not everyone joined GIN because of the Brotherhood tale or the GIN Council myth. Some actually joined in spite of these blatant fibs.

But the point is that the new disclaimer on the GIN site is simply not the bombshell that some are declaring it to be. And even though I believe the same thing I have been saying on this blog for four years -- that GIN is a scam and Kevin Trudeau is a serial scammer -- and even though GIN as a private piggy bank for Kevin Trudeau and a few of his cronies is definitely on its way out... the story is not yet over. People who want to believe will simply continue to believe. Kevin Trudeau may be incapacitated for now, but his legacy thrives, as some folks try to keep GIN alive and others simply move on to new scams. Whether they're MLMs, "secret" societies, LGATs, or some combination thereof, Scamworld is a busy, buzzing place -- and when one door closes, hundreds more open up.

This ain't no night at the opera, kids, and I have a feeling that when and if the Fat Lady does decide to grace us with a tune, she will be warbling something along the lines of those lyrics you see at the top of this post.

For truly, it is a neverending tale.

* * * * *

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