Kevin Trudeau: The trial of the century...or the week...or maybe just another trial

Will Kevin Trudeau be caged again or ultimately set free?
That will be determined by a jury and a judge
at his criminal contempt trial, which got underway
on Monday, November 4, 2013.
(The document pictured above is a statement of the charge,
for which he faces a potential prison sentence.)

As I write this it is Sunday night, November 3, and tomorrow morning, November 4, at 9:00 AM Central Standard Time, serial scammer Kevin Trudeau's criminal contempt trial will get underway. [United States District Court, Northern District of Illinois, Case # 1:10−cr−00886−1, Honorable Ronald A. Guzman presiding.] I've been yammering about this thing for months, here and on Facebook, trying to make sense of it all and to help others make sense of it as well.

There's actually been precious little about the criminal case in the mainstream media so far; for the past couple of months the journos -- with the notable exceptions of Kansas City, Missouri's Ryan Kath (KSHB-TV), and the crew at ABC News -- have mostly been concerned about Katie getting jailed, and un-jailed, and re-jailed, and re-un-jailed, and so forth. (Ryan Kath and ABC did more extensive investigative stories about Trudeau's big Ponzi-like monstrosity, the Global Information Network (GIN).)

All of the in-and-out-of-the-joint action has been in regard to the related civil case [same court as above, Case # 1:03−cv−03904, the Honorable Robert W. Gettleman presiding]. The plaintiffs and the court have been holding jail -- or coercive incarceration, as they like to call it -- over Katie's head as the court-appointed receiver has struggled to find his hidden assets, while he has continued, on the one hand, to thumb his nose at all of them by going shopping for pricey stuff; and on the other hand, to whine and plead abject poverty, particularly when he's clad in orange and standing humble before the judge.

I've made no secret of my opinion that even though I think that Trudeau is a lifelong scammer and GIN is a scam (something I've been harping about since late 2009), I still don't think he belongs in prison, particularly not for fifteen to eighteen years or longer. That is one point on which some of my allies and I may respectfully disagree.

Some people thought this case would never actually get to trial (I was one of them, for a while), but it looks like it really is. For real.

Just to recap: Trudeau is going to trial for criminal contempt for violating court orders he'd previously signed. The prosecution says that even though he'd promised not to do so, he willfully misrepresented, in infomercials, the contents of his book, The Weight Loss Cure "They" Don't Want You To Know About. His supporters say his First Amendment rights are being violated, and that he is being nailed just for claiming a diet is easy. But it's really about so much more than that. I think that both the FTC in the civil case, and the U.S. Attorney's office in the related but more recently initiated criminal case (the one that's going to trial tomorrow) have made a very strong case against Katie. I just don't agree with the proposed punishment.

Trudeau has plenty of detractors, of course, but he also still has plenty of loyal supporters, and some have recently said that they were called upon by Katie's lawyers during the pre-trial conference stage to provide testimonials about Trudeau's goodness and heroic qualities, as well as about the ease and efficacy of the hCG weight-loss regimen that is at the heart of the criminal contempt trial. The problem there is that the prosecution has been trying to do everything possible to keep such testimonials out of the trial, because they claim that such things will derail the proceedings and cause a sideshow trial that will only confuse the jury.

But Katie's lawyers continue to insist that these testimonials are relevant, as are other pieces of evidence that they say the prosecution is unfairly trying to suppress.

The main aspect I've found a little troubling about the criminal case is the potential long prison sentence, and the fact that even though the jury will decide guilt or innocence, the judge will decide the sentence. And the prosecution wants to prevent the jury from considering the potential sentence when rendering their verdict. It appears that they are doing everything they can to avoid a prosecutor's worst nightmare: jury nullification.

Over the past couple of months I've shared quite a few of the court documents that are publicly available via PACER.gov. I've downloaded thousands of pages and have shared many documents from both the civil and the criminal case on the publicly viewable Facebook forum GIN Network Truth, and also on Scribd.com, with links to the latter in various blog posts on this Whirled. However, for the benefit of those who haven't yet seen all of the docs or who just want to review them and don't want to go hunting all over the place, I'm providing a handy list of links. Each link below -- with the exception of the civil and criminal dockets -- is a PDF that is actually several documents in one. I often combine documents so there won't be so many different links to follow.



Some relevant court documents for your review
Court documents don't tell the whole story, of course, but as I've noted before, they give a more complete picture than you'll find on revenge-driven amateur videos or even on sight and sound bites generated by the mainstream media. These are some of the most important recent documents, beginning with the pre-trial motions filed early in September. The ones not included are simply one-page minute entries making note of a proceeding but giving no details beyond that.

• Criminal case docket as of 11-03-13
  This is the complete criminal case docket, as of November 3, 2013 (the most updated version as of my most recent visit to PACER). The dockets of both the civil and the criminal case give a good encapsulated history of the proceedings. (NOTE: You cannot follow the embedded links and get to the individual documents unless you have a PACER account and are signed in.) This docket was initiated in October 2010 and is now 11 pages long, having generated more than 1,100 ages of court documents.
  http://www.scribd.com/doc/181221048/Trudeau-criminal-case-docket-as-of-11-03-13-pdf
• Criminal case, pre-trial motions, Documents 82 through 91, filed on September 6, 2013. These include the proposed jury instructions.
  http://www.scribd.com/doc/180368274/Trudeau-Criminal-case-Documents-82-through-91-09-06-13-pdf
• Criminal case, responses to pre-trial motions, Documents 93 through 95, filed on September 23, 2013.
  http://www.scribd.com/doc/181217149/Trudeau-Criminal-case-Documents-93-through-95-responses-to-pre-trial-motions-09-23-13-pdf
• Criminal case, Documents 97 through 106
  More pre-trial activity, filed between September 30 and October 11, 2013.
  http://www.scribd.com/doc/181217677/Trudeau-Criminal-case-Documents-97-thru-106-09-30-13-thru-10-11-13-pdf
• Criminal case Documents 109 through 125
  Still more pre-trial activity: documents filed between October 22 and November 1, 2013.
  http://www.scribd.com/doc/181218504/Trudeau-Criminal-case-Documents-109-thru-125-10-22-thru-11-01-13-pdf
• Criminal case Documents 127 through 132, filed on November 3, 2013. These were filed after I signed out of PACER on November 3 and originally published this post. They include numerous important documents, such as the government's revised jury instructions, government witness and exhibit lists, and Kevin's lawyers' ongoing attempts to argue that the evidence the government is saying is irrelevant is in fact extremely relevant, and central to the case.
  http://www.scribd.com/doc/181463886/Trudeau-criminal-case-Documents-127-through-132-11-03-13-pdf 
• Criminal Case Document number 133, filed 11/04/13:
  This came in after I posted the group of documents linked to above. Rather than uploading to Scribd right now, I'll just copy and paste from the document itself, since it's a short one.
  
  DEFENDANT KEVIN TRUDEAU’S WITNESS LIST
  Defendant Kevin Trudeau hereby discloses the following witnesses who he may call during the upcoming criminal contempt trial that is currently scheduled to begin on November 4, 2013. Trudeau reserves the right to add further witnesses to this list before trial and as trial proceeds. In addition, Trudeau incorporates by reference all witnesses on the government’s trial witness list.
  1. Donald Barrett
  2. Ron Braver
  3. Rob Curan
  4. Heather Hippsley
  5. Daniel Hurtado
  6. Laureen Kapin
  7. Dorothy Cornelius Kiraly
  8. Marc Lane
  9. Jim Leto
  10. Jackie Lyon
  11. Dru Martin
  12. Michael Mora
  13. David O’Toole
  14. Suneil Sant
  15. Michael Sciucco
  16. Loretta Wilson
  17. Tina Wilson
  18. Business Records Custodian From At Least The Following:

a. United States District Court for the Northern District of New York
b. United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois
c. Alliance Publishing Group
d. Federal Trade Commission
e. ITV Global Inc. and Affiliated Companies
f. Jenner & Block LLP
g. The Law Firm of Marc J. Lane P.C.
h. Alliance Publishing Group, Inc.
i. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition
j. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society
k. Buffalo News
l. MSNBC

Those are some pretty interesting names. The list includes some of Kevin's past lawyers and associates (Marc Lane was his asset-shuffling co-conspirator... I mean... his asset protection professional). Suneil "Neil" Sant is a long-time buddy of Trudeau's and former financial officer at some of his companies. He's been part of the court cases for years. And Alliance Publishing Group is actually one of Kevin's companies, formed to disguise the fact that his books were self-published and that the most of the money from book sales was going into his piggy bank.

I wonder if Dorothy Cornelius Kiraly is related to Perry Kiraly, the GIN member who is currently orchestrating the "let's take back GIN campaign I discussed here previously (I first mentioned it here; scroll down to "And in other news..."). Also, I noticed that Donald Barrett is at the top of the list. Barrett was head of ITV Direct, the company that produced the infomercials at the heart of this criminal case (and the civil case as well). Donald Barrett is a scammer in his own right and I still need to tell that part of the Trudeau story. I have just the person to help me tell it too: my friend Julie, who worked for ITV back in the day.

From civil to criminal in ten easy years...
You may still be wondering how a civil case morphed into a criminal case. It's a long, long story -- more than 14,000 pages long, to be exact. I don't pretend to understand it all myself. But once again the court documents tell the story better than I can.

• Civil case Docket as of 10-31-13
  This is the complete docket of the civil case, as of October 31, 2013 (the most updated version as of my most recent visit to PACER). This is the case involving the $37.6 million dollar fine from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC)). Again, note that you cannot follow the embedded links and get to the individual documents unless you have a PACER account and are signed in. This docket was initiated in June 2003 and is now 61 pages long, having generated more than 14,000 pages of court documents.
  http://www.scribd.com/doc/181221903/Trudeau-civil-case-docket-as-of-10-31-13-pdf
• Older documents from the civil case: the history of that big fine
  While I have downloaded and shared many hundreds of pages of court documents, there's no way I can download and share every page that has been generated in this case, which, as noted above, has dragged on for longer than a decade. However, there's one small group of older documents I downloaded and combined the other day, because they provide some historical perspective for the benefit of those who are wondering how the FTC fine got to be so large ($37.6 million-plus).
  
  I combined a 2010 order from Judge Robert Gettleman (Document 336) with some relevant 2009 documents that show how the FTC calculated the $37.6 million fine. Although these are, as I mentioned, are older docs, they are enlightening nevertheless. Here's that link:
  http://www.scribd.com/doc/181222940/Trudeau-Civil-Case-Documents-OLD-docs-336-04-16-10-and-267-and-269-11-13-09-pdf

One point of interest is that these older docs show some correspondence from Trudeau's asset protection lawyer Marc Lane, who was earnestly giving his word that he and Trudeau would cooperate with the FTC and the courts... at the VERY SAME TIME that (as we now know, based upon more recent court documents) he and Trudeau were diligently planning the asset shuffling as they prepared for the launch of GIN.

I also noticed this interesting snippet from the Chicago Tribune:

Although the court record is massive, it establishes very little about Trudeau's finances or the book's performance, and the author is pleading poverty.
"I've been pretty much wiped out," he said in an interview last week. 'Their intent is to bury me."

Sounds like yesterday's news, right? Not quite. It was from an article dated September 14, 2009. Yes, boys and girls, at the very time that Katie was preparing to launch GIN -- AND using his lavishly wealthy lifestyle as a big selling point for GIN -- he was pleading poverty to the courts. Someone call the waaaahhhhmbulance! And that was more than four years ago. The more things change...

I remember the ad copy that appeared on the (now defunct) official Your Wish Is Your Command site, and still can be seen on countless poorly designed affiliate sites (as well as eBay stores where the seller is desperately trying to unload YWIYC for pennies on the dollar, and on certain snarky graphics on this Whirled)...

Once I finally learned the right information from the Brotherhood, billionaires, the politically elite, captains of industry and the members of the Illuminati, Freemasons, The Skull and Bones and other secret societies, I cracked the success code.

And now I live an exciting, fun and free life filled with financial wealth and happiness.

Here are some other things I achieved and accumulated ONLY when I learned and put these secrets to work...
- My companies have done BILLIONS of dollars in sales.
- I have owned TV networks, publishing and manufacturing companies and other corporations in many countries - all over the world.
- My associated companies have employed well over 3000 people.
- I attained the status of "New York Times #1 bestselling author" AND sold over 50 million copies in over 18 countries.
- I have lived in multi-million dollar homes all across America and on 3 continents.
- I have owned super luxury cars including Rolls Royces, Ferraris, Bentleys, and various Mercedes Benz cars.
- Collected millions of dollars in luxury jewelry.
- I have traveled first class everywhere in private jets and limos and stayed in the most expensive hotel suites.
- I've had servants including a butler, private chef, chauffer [sic] and bodyguard.
- I have wined and dined in the finest restaurants and enjoyed the most expensive wine and champagne.
- I have associated with some of the richest most powerful people in the world including Presidents and Prime Ministers, Generals, business
tycoons, and the world's most famous Hollywood celebrities.
- I have dated some of the most beautiful sexy women in the world and now am outrageously happily married to a stunning woman who is well traveled, well educated and one of the nicest people you could ever meet. I am enjoying an amazingly satisfying romantic loving relationship beyond my wildest dreams!
- I also have unreal almost super human health. I virtually NEVER get sick!

There's no question that you can have everything you want. You can attract any amount of money! You can meet your soul mate and have the relationship of your dreams! You can live in a beautiful home in an affluent community! You can drive the car of your dreams! You can wear expensive, stylish, designer clothes!

And most important of all...

YOU CAN BE TRULY HAPPY!

And so on, and so forth. This copy was being generated and distributed at the same time Katie was telling the courts and anyone else who would listen that he was just a poor boy because the mean old FTC was wiping him out. As I said, the more things change...

Context is so important, and the lawyers on both sides in the criminal trial are trying to keep the entire context from the jury. That's their job. But we who are not directly involved in this case have the luxury of context. If you look at all of the information that has been made available so far you can easily see that the government isn't a knight in shining armor here. From where I sit, however, all of this information -- particularly the info in the court docs -- also makes Katie look even more sleazy and smarmy and deceptive than even I have been portraying him in my years of blogging about him. No, I still do not think he belongs in a cage for the rest of his life, but that context thing is definitely a two-edged sword.

At any rate, this should be a busy couple of weeks for Katie. The trial is expected to last two to three weeks, and Katie is also due back in court for another civil case hearing on November 21. I'll do my best to keep you updated. And within the next couple of days I might even finally publish a PACER tutorial so you can go hunt and gather documents for yourself, if you feel so inclined.

PS ~ Let's make this a real conversation.
I believe that most people who are well-informed and are totally honest with themselves know that the issues at stake here are not all black and white. I do not see the government as the force of unequivocal good fighting the force of pure evil (Kevin), but neither do I see Kevin as the troubled hero fighting the big evil Goliath government on behalf of free people everywhere. One point I do want to make here is that the real evils committed by government in other areas do NOT excuse or exonerate Trudeau or other similar scammers, and I believe that those arguments are often used as red herrings, to distract people from the real issues. Even so, just with the saga of Kevin versus the government, I believe that there are enough gray areas here that reasonable people can disagree. 
 
Accordingly, I really would like to hear from all of you -- whether you're pro or con Trudeau and/or GIN, or just on the fence. I've read hundreds of comments and have participated in scads of discussions on Facebook, but believe it or not, not everybody is on Facebook (in fact I've heard numerous times that Trudeau himself has advised people to stay off of Facebook because it's a waste of time). Even if you just copy and paste some of your own comments from Facebook or other conversations to the comments section here (why reinvent the wheel?), I'd like to have a variety of opinions represented here. You can be anonymous if you wish, or use your own name or a pseudonym.

Just be patient, because, due to spammers and true evil doers, I have my blogs settings so that all comments do have to be approved -- and I can only do that if I'm signed in to Blogger. So more than likely your comment will not show up right away. But I will publish pretty much anything, no matter how critical it is of me or what you think my "agenda" is. I do generally draw the line at excessive obscenities, what I see as potentially actionable content, or obvious spam. Beyond that, just about anything goes. And even though I may snark about Trudeau and GIN, I'll treat you with more respect than you may have encountered on the forums of some of the so-called "GIN destroyers."

* * * * *

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