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Tuesday, May 07, 2013

Kevin Trudeau + Mark Hamilton = GIN with a twist of Neo-stink

As usual... click on pic to enlarge.
Same with other pics in this post.

Well, Dear Ones, it's May 7, and two weeks from today, on May 21 at 10:00 AM, one of this blog's long-time favorite snargets, serial scammer Kevin Trudeau, is scheduled to appear in court in Illinois for a hearing regarding his longstanding civil case (Number 03-CV-03904, United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division, the Honorable Robert W. Gettleman presiding).

Supposedly Trudeau has to be there in person, though reportedly he is now living the high life in Zurich, Switzerland. While one of his ex-b.f.f.s, Mocktor Leonard Coldwell, along with the bad mocktor's young protege, Abe Husein, are crowing that May 21 will probably be the day of Kevin's long-awaited arrest ("June at the latest!" barks Lenny Coldwell)... I'm not so sure. I still think there is a possibility that his lawyers could get him another continuance, despite current evidence that the powers-that-be have run out of patience with him. Continuance or no, his legal team has apparently also been trying to persuade the Court to come to Kevin in Zurich, or to just agree to do it all via Skype or something, as people in the twenty-first century have been known to do on occasion.

At any rate, I don't expect to see KT in an orange jumpsuit any time soon -- not even for his related criminal contempt case (0-CR-000886, assigned to Judge Ronald A. Guzman) -- although the thought of his former compadre the mocktor rockin' the orange seems like justice to me. Not that I expect that to happen either.

Anyway. With all of the buzz on Facebook and some of the blogs over the past several months -- indeed, over the past year -- about KT's troubles, and the possible downfall of what is arguably his biggest scam of all, the Global Information Network (GIN), people have mostly been pointing the finger of blame where it mostly belongs: at Kevin Mark Trudeau (who incidentally, as you may know, also recently filed for bankruptcy). But I think there is far too little attention being paid to someone whom I suspect is pretty much Kevin's equal partner in deception, and has been from the pre-GIN days: one Mark Hamilton, aka Wallace Ward Jr., aka Mark Scamilton (his Whirled moniker), current head of the Neo-tech/Neothink/NovaTech/Novus Tek/Nouveau Tech/Society of Secrets scampire. Hamilton is also head of the Neos' political party, TheTwelve Visions Party, or TVP.

For years, True-dough and Scamilton have been trading mail lists, and have run numerous schemes and scams individually and together. I have no doubt that KT got a lot of inspiration for the seekrit-society aspect of GIN from Scamilton. And many people believe that Scamilton is one of the very few, besides True-dough himself, who have actually made millions in GIN. Both men have done so on the backs of thousands of suckered hopefuls, most of whom have spent far more money than they will ever, ever, ever earn in GIN.

Nearly a year before the first real rumbles of discontent came from within GIN, thanks in part to the aforementioned Abe Husein (I do believe in giving credit where it is due), I had connected at least a few of the GIN/Neo-stink dots here on this Whirled. In these two August 2011 posts, particularly in Part 1, I take my time getting to the point, as I am wont to do, but even so, I think the posts contain some good background info and links. Here are those links again, for the benefit of those who haven't seen them or simply want to revisit:

Oh, and there's a little bit about Neo-tech in this interim post from August 24, 2011:
http://cosmicconnie.blogspot.com/2011/08/calling-all-lazy-men-lets-build-pyramid.html

As I said above, I believe there has been far too little attention paid to Neo-stink and Scamilton in discussions about GIN, at least outside of certain private Facebook forums. I can only hope that the Feds, as well as the TV journalists who have been poking around these issues over the past six months or more, are at least marginally aware of the Neo-stink/GIN connection -- and I trust they will dig or have dug much deeper than I am capable of doing, and will act or report accordingly, as appropriate.

According to something Abe wrote on Facebook many months ago, the Emmy Award winning investigative reporter Ryan Kath, who did the fine but all too short piece about GIN for KSHB-TV, the Kansas City MO NBC affiliate, had told Abe that the investigative crew was very interested in Mark Hamilton as well as KT. Abe, who had set that whole ball in motion (apparently under the direction and guidance of Peter Wink, or so Peter hinted to me), noted that he was puzzled because he really hadn't said anything to Ryan about Hamilton.

But I had. So maybe I planted a seed. Maybe not. I don't know.

At any rate, although the story and followup that aired on KSHB-TV did not mention Hamilton and Neo-think, it's good to know that Scamilton was/is on their radar, for whatever reason. And I can only hope that Scamilton and Neo-stink are also on the radar of the major news organization that is said to be airing an exposé on GIN/Trudeau later this month.

This isn't new news by any means, but I am posting it as yet another reminder of the way the big sick machine works. As I noted in one of my August 2011 blog posts, Kevin met Scamilton's late daddy, Frank Wallace (the pen name for Wallace Ward Sr.) when the two of them were doing time in prison. I am sure that this was the beginning of a long friendship and scamming relationship.

Some defenders of Neothink say the Neo-empire changed when Mark took over, and that it became more about greed and deception and moneymaking. Frank was the idealist, they say, or at least the ideologue. But good ol' Frank seems to have been quite the con artist himself, and he also went a little loony in his later years, what with that Zonpower stuff. Just follow those Whirled links I provided above, or go searching on your own. You will find plenty to keep you entertained.

For starters, though, there's the graphic at the top of the page, which I screen shot from an 81-page June 2012 FTC document that many of you have already seen. And below is one of the old-school solicitation letters that "the desk of Mark Hamilton" apparently sent to the Neo-mailing lists, as well as to KT's Natural Cures and various infomercial response lists.



Scamilton also used some of the Neo-stink newsletters to push GIN (I linked to this December 2009 piece in one of my earlier Neo-stink posts, but here it is again). In other words, Scamilton, who has quite the cultish following himself, played a huge part in getting his own followers to join GIN.

There's another minor player in this, one who has already been caught with his hand in a cookie jar, and convicted and sentenced. His name is Steven Hinz, and apparently he's been involved in Neo-stink for many years, and has also been active in recruiting people for GIN. I mentioned him in a couple of my 2011 Neo-stink posts, and he showed up on one of my KT posts as well. Here's a video of Steven dancing on the January 2011 GIN Leadership Cruise: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yt688U2ygcU

Steven's Facebook page, on which he hasn't really participated much for many months (no big surprise there, in light of recent developments) has numerous photos of Steven at various GIN events, including a series called "I love private planes!" -- snapped in June 2011 -- in which he is rather smugly sitting in the seat of someone's private jet, sporting a GIN event badge. He may have just climbed in there to pose; no word on whether he actually took the private jet to and from the event. But judging from the pics I've seen, he had the time of his life at several GIN events.

Here is a snapshot of Steven flanked by two of his buddies at a December 2010 GIN event.

Although the object poking between Steven's legs has not yet been identified, the other two dudes in the pic above are those fine German fellows, Mocktor Lenny Coldwell and Mocktor's twelve-years-younger half brother, Jens Anskohl, aka Nicholas Coldwell (for more on the Coldwell brothers' various enterprises, see here). No telling what kind of deals, if any, Steven and the Coldwells made at that late 2010 event, but apparently somewhere along the line, Lenny developed a soft spot for the Neos, and/or vice versa, because in May of 2011 he was a keynote speaker at a Twelve Visions Party conference.



 Maybe it was just a one-time deal and the Twelve Visions folks and Lenny parted friends (or not) after a one-night stand. I'm still waiting on more information about that. But I do know that this past February, Peter Wink solicited the Neo-stinkers, via Facebook (and no doubt via email blasts too, though I don't know for sure) to join his and Lenny's latest scam, the IBMS Master's Society (scroll down to "Neo-stinkers can join too!").




Going a little further back in time, to that aforementioned June 2011 GIN event, here's Peter Wink and Steven with sh-t eating grins on their faces.



But that was then, and this is now. One senses that Steven hasn't been doing much dancing and partying lately. In January, the FBI announced that Steven was sentenced to nine years in prison, and ordered to pay more than $500,000 in restitution, for his role in leading separate tax and mortgage fraud conspiracies. Here's the link to the press release. Apparently Steven and his partner were exploiting the Neo-mailing lists, maybe somewhat like Kevin has been doing, but apparently with less skill:

According to court documents, Hinz promoted a scheme to defraud the United States by filing false federal income tax returns claiming large tax refunds using the so-called “OID process.” The OID process involved the preparation of fictitious IRS Forms 1099-OID, Original Issue Discount, falsely reporting that financial institutions, creditors, and other entities had withheld large amounts of federal income tax on behalf of the defendants and other taxpayers, with respect to non-existent income. Hinz and English recruited potential clients by promoting the OID scheme to investors in and employees of Hinz’s real estate business in Youngstown, Ohio, as well as to individuals they knew from organizations known at different times as NeoThink, NeoTech, and the Society of Secrets. English prepared or directed the preparation of the 1099-OID forms and prepared and electronically filed the tax returns. Based on these fictitious withholdings, at least 17 false tax returns for the year 2008 were filed with the IRS, claiming false refunds totaling over $3,000,000. Under the scheme, taxpayers recruited by Hinz were to pay 20 percent of their refunds to Hinz and English, split equally between them, sometimes referred to as commissions and sometimes labeled as “donations.”
This isn't an indictment of the entire Neo-scampire, of course, and certainly not of all of its members. Just because one of their long-time members -- and trainers -- is a convicted criminal, this doesn't mean they all are. And I have no idea how many mailing lists Steven got hold of to run his scams, or whether or not he had the approval of the owners of those lists. Even so, I think this shows the type of person that these "secret societies" all too often attract.

There are many more dots to connect, many more pieces of information about Neo-Stink and GIN. I've only done the most superficial work on this post and my previous ones for my usual reasons: because I'm basically lazy, distracted by other matters, and, since this is a hobby blog, I'm not getting paid to connect these dots. But I suspect that there's plenty more Neo-stink in the GIN mix than even I know about.

Moreover, I haven't even delved into the GIN/Scientology connection (except superficially, on this post). I intend to have more on both Neo-stink/Scamilton and Scientology, not to mention on KT and GIN, fairly soon. But if not, perhaps this is enough to get your own investigative wheels turning. And I hope you will investigate. Further, I hope you'll comment on this blog and share your own experiences and opinions, for or against Neo-think etc. and/or GIN and/or Scientology.

After all, we're all in this together. And despite the fact that I have never been in GIN or Neo-tech or Scientology, and therefore according to some I have no right to an opinion, I do care that people are being scammed and possibly brainwashed in order to line the pockets of scammers. And I find it utterly disgusting.

PS ~ One of many pieces of evidence that Mark Scamilton is not the world's most honest marketer: Phony testimonials from Neo-Tech... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5o_aHd1EkI
PPS ~ A little comic relief: a Twelve Visions Party hip-hop offering: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NXlpRAugao&feature=share

PPPS added 8 May 2013 ~ The Wikipedia entry on Mark Hamilton redirects to an entry on one of the publishing companies his daddy started, Integrated Management Associates. It's a short entry but has some interesting links, including links to an old blog (ca. 2005) by someone who knew Mark and his daddy. That blogger, Brett Peters, apparently had his own agenda -- selling people miracle vitamins based on nano-technology -- but he still has some interesting ruminations.

PPPPS added 8 May 2013 ~ Oh, my goodness. Reading crap like this confesstimonial blog for Mark Hamilton really makes me despair for the human race again. Poor "James" is one of many who have apparently been fooled by the "you're very special" marketing that Neo-stink is apparently still doing. This is pathetic.

Also, I've only mentioned this in passing in a previous Neo-stink post, but one of the things Mark Hamilton boasts about is being part owner of the famous (or infamous) Grand Canyon Skywalk, which has been the center of some controversies and troubling tribalpolitics in recent years. However, there seems to be no mention of Mark Hamilton's name in conjunction with the Skywalk, outside of Mark Hamilton's web sites. Even so, he apparently got some marketing mileage out of the thing, as this screen shot of a 2009 complaint on a spam-phone call complaint board indicates.







PPPPPS added 4 June 2014 ~ Legal battles over the Skywalk continue; this is from January 2014. Thanks to my friend Julie Daniel for sharing this.
 
More True-dough on this Whirled:
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2 comments:

  1. AnonymousSaturday, January 18, 2014 2:33:00 PM

    The receiver taking care of GIN posted the commissions esrned by KT, mark Hamilton and mrs babenko (KT 's wife) hamilton got more than 10 million dollars of commissions, a lot more than Kt and Babenko who got a little more than 3600000$ between 2009 and 2013. See the receivers report on page 16
    http://media.kshb.com/pdf/20131017ReceiversFirstReport.pdf

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  2. Cosmic ConnieSunday, January 19, 2014 11:58:00 AM

    Yep, Anon... I originally wrote this post in May 2013. After the receiver's report came out I wrote this one, in September 2013.
    http://cosmicconnie.blogspot.com/2013/09/neo-stinker-mark-scamilton-cleaned-up.html

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