Kevin Trudeau: caged for now?

It's cage-a vu all over again for Kevin Trudeau,
but it seems he hasn't run out of options -- yet.

[NOTE: See update at the end of this article. Spoiler alert (in the unlikely event that you hadn't heard): Katie is out of the clink for now. ~CC]

According to NBC5 Chicago, reporting earlier today, Judge Robert Gettleman has ordered serial scammer Kevin Trudeau to go to jail -- at least long enough to meet with the receiver and finally reveal everything about his finances. There was a bit of a flap the other day about that whole financial-revelation issue, as the receiver revealed that Katie was still trying to live large, and was playing around with a bank account in Australia.
 
The NBC story reports that Judge Gettleman let Katie know that this is real life, not an infomercial, and Katie can't talk his way out of this one. Judge Gettleman says he now regrets not sending Katie to the clink earlier.
 
A follow-up hearing is scheduled for tomorrow, Thursday, September 19.

Here is Judge Gettleman's order to incarcerate Trudeau until someone can shake money and/or info out of him.

As many may recall, this same judge ordered Katie to jail back in 2010, during that contempt issue stemming from a deluge of letters Katie's supporters sent to the judge. Kevin was able to talk his way out of that one, or at least his lawyers were. But the stakes are higher and the issues a bit more serious this time. And the judge has clearly run out of patience. After all, he has been dealing with Kevin's shenanigans for many years now. (Here's more about Judge Gettleman and his general background.)

Even so, don't count Katie out yet. He may not actually be in a jail cell right now at this very moment. According to today's court order, he will be a guest at Chicago's Metropolitan Correctional Center (aka the MCC), at least until his hearing at 11:00 AM on the 19th. The MCC has been home to several "notable inmates," according to Wiki.

Here's the link to the main Wiki article.

Judging by what the court order said, he will be in custody at least overnight.

"3. The court directs the United States’ Marshal Service to take defendant Kevin Trudeau into custody and to hold him until further order of the court, which will be entered tomorrow, September 19, 2013, at a hearing scheduled to begin at 11:00 a.m. The Marshal and the Metropolitan Correctional Center are directed to ensure that Mr. Trudeau is available to be interviewed by a representative of the Receiver and its attorney, along with access to defendant’s counsel, to allow defendant to demonstrate that he has or can purge himself of his contempt."
###

Now, I suppose that "custody" could mean anything. Maybe the Marshal is a member of Kevin's fabled Brotherhood and will usher him down to a seekrit subterranean luxury bunker where he can continue to enjoy fine cigars and booze and an organic banquet and manicures and pedicures out of sight of the general public. Or maybe the Marshal and Kevin will go out on the town together, with Kevin handcuffed to him. That would still be custody, technically speaking. *

At any rate, I just checked the "Inmate search" on the MCC web site and as of the time I am writing this (7:20 PM CDT, Wednesday, September 18), Trudeau hasn't been processed through the system. There was nothing for "Kevin Mark Trudeau," so I tried "Kevin Trudeau," and the only record was the one from Katie's past incarceration in the 1990s. Here's a close-up:

 
I'll check back again a little later. Or if I'm busy, one of you can check. Here's a handy link.

The Schadenfreude is so thick you can cut it with a knife on some of the Facebook forums, and the jokes about Kevin and his burly cellmate Bubba are flying back and forth among the ignoranti. But even if Kevin does end up in a cell, the big priority will presumably be for him to meet with the representative from the receiver, Kenton Johnson, to discuss his finances -- not to be thrown into the general population and degraded, as some of his detractors seem to want so badly to happen.

Understand that I'm not defending anything Kevin Trudeau has done; I've been writing for years about what a con artist and liar and sociopath he is. But those of you who are salivating over the prospect of Kevin and "Bubba" need to consider that some of those who have been crowing the most loudly about this are much more deserving of "Bubba's" attention than Kevin is.

Stay tuned..

* As people who have read or listened to Kevin may know, he has bragged that when he spent time in the Federal lockup in the early 1990s, it was indeed Club Fed and really quite cushy, because (or so he claimed) he had connections with his secret "Brotherhood" members who saw to it that he was treated like a king. A big part of his marketing shtick for the GIN scam was that he still had these kinds of connections and seekrit knowledge, and anyone who was willing to invest money in GIN could eventually acquire that knowledge and even those connections too. And many people apparently believed it. His brother Bob has told quite a different story of Kevin's prison experience, and particularly of how awful the experience was on Kevin's parents.

More media coverage:

• Here's another Chicagoland news story about Katie in a cage.
• Ryan Kath at KSHB-TV (NBC) in Kansas City, Missouri weighs in. Ryan has been following this case for more than a year and has done several investigative stories about Katie and GIN.
• ABC News' James Hill gives more details than earlier stories, including deets about Katie keeping the Federal Marshals waiting impatiently while he removed his shoelaces, cufflinks, and belt before they took him into custody. So... I guess there was no painting the town with the Feds, unless the shoelace and cufflink thing was just for show, for the media. ABC Nightline (the late-night edition) also covered this story on Wednesday night.

UPDATE 19 September 2013:
I didn't feel like writing a whole new blog post about this so I'll just update this one. Judge Gettleman agreed to release Katie again, with a warning.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-judge-orders-tv-pitchman-held-in-custody-20130918,0,182440.story

A judge agreed to free TV pitchman Kevin Trudeau from custody today, but warned that he would throw him back into jail if he does not cooperate with federal regulators looking into his financial affairs.

"I'm going to release you today," U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman told Trudeau, dressed in an orange jumpsuit after spending a night at the Metropolitan Correctional Center. "If I'm not satisfied that you've been forthright with them, you might be wearing the same color you're wearing right now."

The judge set another hearing for Sept. 26.

And here is the link to a longer version of Judge Gettleman's order, listing the conditions upon which Katie has been sprung for now. One point to note is that so far the FTC has not had its wish granted regarding its demand to have Katie's monthly allowance taken away unless he gets a real job and contributes to the receivership estate. That matter and others are continued to September 26, 2013 at 2:00 PM.

Mark your calendars, my pretties.

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