Kevin Trudeau's McMiracle (and a few mundane matters too)

[Updates/additions are in gold text.
~ CC, 20 December 2013]
 
Dear Ones, I have astounding news for you, a beautiful gift for this Season of Miracles. Jailed serial scammer Kevin Trudeau has experienced a True Spiritual Miracle. Actually he experienced it last month, before the official onset of the Season of Miracles, but Kevin has always been ahead of his time. He is only now revealing the Miracle to us, and it is so earth-shattering that my hands are shaking as I type this.

I learned about the Miracle from Katie's long-time cohort (as in, ex-girlfriend, past co-defendant and current business partner) Janine Nubani Contursi, who reportedly is writing those schlocky jailhouse posts on Facebook, the first one of which appeared a month ago. Through Janine, Katie has been keeping us apprised of the marvelous time he is having on his big adventure in the clink. And today -- December 19 -- Janine-as-Kevin revealed to a waiting world that the REAL reason he didn't testify on his own behalf during his criminal trial last month, a decision that was apparently made without notifying the court in advance (thus earning the ire of the presiding judge, Ronald Guzman), was that he had a Truly Miraculous Experience. He was going to testify, truly he was, but then, oh my goodness, the night before he was to take the stand, he had a vision... or a visitation... or something (he and Janine are still working on their story, and Janine will share it in future seminars).

The truth is that we simply don't know the deets yet. They will, presumably, be revealed in the fullness of time. But as far as I'm concerned, if Katie said it was a Miracle, that's good enough for me! A pox on all you doubters and naysayers who thought that the decision not to testify was due to Katie having spun such a web of lies over the years that, once in the witness box, he would have ended up either perjuring himself or incriminating himself. Now we know better. Oh, ye of little faith...

You can see for yourself in the pic above, or in the one below, the latter of which includes a fervently supportive comment from Neo-stinker Mike Ginther. Mike's is one of 65 comments at the time the screen shot was made (click to enlarge).



I mentioned Mike Ginther in passing a couple of years ago on my first Neo-stink post; scroll down to the subhead, "The heady smell of bromance in the air." Today, Mike says he looks forward to sharing fine cigars on a distant beach with his Katie, sometime on the other side of all of Katie's troubles. It may be a long way to that other side, Mike, a slow-forward rather than a fast-forward. Just saying.

For now, it seems clear that Janine, acting on behalf of Saint Kevin, is going to milk that McMiracle for all it's worth. For those of you who can get to it, here's the permalink on Facebook.

Some of us have been speculating about this ever since the jailhouse crock first began oozing out of the MCC and on to Facebook. It seems painfully obvious that Katie's next planned scam will be a tad more spiritual -- or even downright religious -- than his previous scams. He's been making noise in that direction since the early days of that behind-the-bars blather. One former GINsider tells me that some time ago, in pre-jail, pre-conviction days, Katie confided that his next big step is... wait for it... Evangelism. Oh, goody. No offense intended to folks of faith, but I think we all know that evangelism and scamming are a match made in.... well, you know.

On the other hand, Katie could have had an altogether more mundane type of evangelism in mind, such as evangelism marketing. But I gathered that from the context of the conversation, the ex-GINsider figured it was the more Godly type that Katie had in mind.

So now we have clearer hints of Katie's next step. Jail is a perfect place to hone one's phony conversion. Frankly, that whole finding-the-Lord-in-the-lockup theme is kind of overdone, but it seems that some people never tire of it.

In a Facebook discussion about this newest Wondrous Thing, Kevin's brother Bob wrote that he remembers years ago hearing how Katie tried to get minister creds "so he could get on TV and have us all praise the Lord with a little green." Bob noted that this was about the same time Katie became pals with televangelists Jim and the late Tammy Faye Bakker, formerly of PTL (Praise The Lord) fame/infamy. Years after her 1992 split with Jim Bakker, Tammy Faye appeared in a 2005 Natural Cures infomercial with Katie. The infomercial was nailed by the New York State Consumer Protection Board for, among other things, giving the false impression that Tammy Faye (who eventually died of cancer) opposed chemo in favor of the "natural cures" in Trudeau's book. But one of Tammy's reps said that wasn't true and that she was starting chemo again at the time.

As for Jimbo, he's still going strong at the age of 73, though he has had his share of troubles -- financial and sex scandals, as well as more than his share of resulting legal problems (some of which may sound awfully familiar to those who have followed Katie's troubles). He spent time in prison but is out fleecing his flock once again, though he's also permanently indebted to the IRS.

And as for Katie, if he has truly been interested for any length of time in that particular career pathology...um...path, I don't know why he didn't go for it years ago. Getting minister creds is easy -- even I am an ordained minister, and I'm an agnostic! -- and getting on TV has always been easy for Kevin too. He could have started a church and probably have acquired and retained nonprofit/tax-exempt status, and possibly have avoided a lot of government scrutiny. On the other hand, he may not have been able to restrain himself from the very same excesses that led to Jim Bakker's downfall.

In any case, perhaps he is trying to make up for lost time now. But it may be too little, too late. He and Janine are probably going to have to cook up a very elaborate and compelling miracle story in order to gain a significant new following. But he does still have a very loyal fan base who would probably embrace him even if he came out as a worshiper of Satan.

My big question is whether his McMiracle will be Christian based or more New-Agey like Abraham Hicks (another Whirled favorite, whose works were on Katie's Global Information Network (GIN) reading list). The former GINsider speculated that a Christian angle would be a possibility, considering the fact that so many GIN members were Christians. And indeed, there's a huge audience for Christian e-scam-gelism, particularly if it is prosperity-based -- as in, "The Lord wants you to be wealthy! Give to our ministry and we will show you the way!" (Though it must be said that in more recent years, Jim Bakker has renounced his own "prosperity theology" and even wrote a book about how wrong he was. He came to that conclusion in... you guessed it!... prison.)

But if Katie gets TOO dogmatically or self-righteously Christian, he risks alienating his New-Wage/McSpirituality fan base, which is also significant. I think he needs to test-market several different miracle stories and see which one sticks. Maybe his nearly lifelong buddy Fred Van Liew, who I understand has experience with demons, can help out.

* * * * *

Meanwhile, back in the mundane realms, there's more from Katie's ongoing civil case. First, there's another status report from the court-appointed receiver: Document 805-0, dated December 17, 2013, plus 13 exhibits. This was one of the items on the docket for the civil court hearing today, December 19. Here's a link for you. I'll get the newest docs that were generated by today's paper shuffling session when they're available.

What seems clear is that Katie is still begging the judge for his freedom. Chicago Tribune reporter Jason Meisner wrote of the December 19 hearing:

Dressed in an orange jail jumpsuit, the normally dapper Trudeau implored [Judge Robert] Gettleman to relent, saying that keeping him locked up at the Metropolitan Correctional Center isn’t going to change the fact that there is no more money to disclose.

“I sit there back at MCC with nothing to do because I don’t know what to do,” Trudeau said. “If you could just tell me what it is.”

Of course this is completely incongruous with Katie Janine's Facebook posts, including this December 20 post that describes how Katie is earnestly trying to help the other inmates better themselves, and also reveals that he is plugging into some mysterious "field."

Perhaps he is wandering through a Chopra-esque "field of all possibilities." Or maybe he is picking weeds from one of Rupert Sheldrake's morphic fields. Whatever they are, it seems that these fields are particularly strong on the "inside" and Katie just couldn't get to 'em when he was a free man, smoking his fine cee-gars, tooling around in his leased Bentley, and scarfing down expensive steaks. In any case, as my friend Julie Daniel said, perhaps his fans should stop rallying for his release and just let him stay in the cage and do his fieldwork.

Notwithstanding those who are rallying for his freedom, including Katie himself, the judge seems inclined to let Katie stay in his MCC study hall till he coughs up more info about his hidden overseas assets. According to the Chicago Trib piece linked to above, Judge Gettleman said to Katie, “If you think you can wait this out, or wait me out…I guess I could reach a point where I give up, but I haven’t reached that point yet." So perhaps the issue of Katie's continued incarceration over the civil case (the one involving the $37.6 million fine) has just come down to being a matter of who blinks first.


There's nothing particularly surprising in the aforementioned December 17 receiver's report, in which the receiver basically states that even though Trudeau has made some half-hearted efforts to comply with requests for information about his assets, the receiver knows very well that Trudeau is not really telling everything he knows. They are also trying to squeeze info out of his cohorts -- such as Lee Kenny, who is in the UK most of the time. Kenny has been cooperating to a limited degree but hasn't given them all of the information they have requested. Accordingly, the receiver says that since Katie hasn't made any material change regarding their requests, at least not that they are aware of, he belongs in jail for now.

But Katie apparently doesn't care, since he is being so blessed by being behind bars. As Janine keeps telling us, he consciously created and chose this route, putting him in the category of Jesus H. Mandela Gandhi-Chavez and all of the great ones. In light of that I wonder if he'll just have his lawyers cancel that whole motion for acquittal in re his criminal case. That's the case that, depending upon the court's decision, could result in a super-long prison sentence for Katie. By the way, according to a December 11 docket entry, the February 6 sentencing date has been stricken, and the parties were to contact the Courtroom Deputy to reschedule. I don't know if they'll end up scheduling the sentencing before or after February 6, but at least Katie won't have to spend his birthday in the courtroom.

As for the aforementioned Lee Kenny, it seems that he is the worst-kept seekrit behind the ongoing scams. I sense that he will not be visiting the US any time soon, at least not voluntarily. He did, however, recently visit former GIN Platinum affiliate Matthew LoCicero, aka "Bangkok Matthew, in Thailand while on a layover during a trip to Australia. Someone pointed out to me that Lee's Facebook posts indicate he was only in Oz for about 24 hours and that it seems an awfully long way to go for such a short visit. Maybe Lee wanted to visit some of his and Katie's hidden assets Down Under.

In any case, it appears that as Katie continues to refuse to cooperate, Lee is not being totally forthcoming either (to say the least). While Katie taps into magickal fields at the MCC and spends his spare time whining to the judge to let him out, Lee remains free to continue to build the scampire. Among other things he is reportedly making money hand over fist with his and Kevin's $997.00 baccarat scam, which is being promoted (though not sold) through the Natural Cures web site... but that's another story, and not part of the latest court docs. (As discussed on this Whirled previously, according to information in Trudeau's former CFO Michael Dow's deposition this past May, Kenny "bought" Natural Cures from Kevin for a mere $100,000.)

Click to enlarge.

Despite Katie's claims that he has done the math that proves the baccarat system works for just about anyone, resulting in a generous, effortless, and steady income, several folks I've corresponded with have done the math proving that it's a losing system. I know, I was as shocked as you are. Another dream bites the dust.

For now, let me just say that more than one person has pointed out what is apparently a joke between Katie and Lee: the fact that Lee's and Katie's company, Future Transactions Company Limited, a company registered in the UK, has the acronym of... FTC. Now, if THAT'S not thumbing your nose at the gummit, I don't know what is.

In related news, the Intervenors who joined the KT civil case recently are still trying to get the court, the receiver, and the FTC to come to some sort of agreement with them so they can legally take the reins and turn GIN into a more respectable and legal scam. Lead Intervenor Perry Kiraly of Ohio has been sending out semi-regular updates, this December 17 missive being his latest. In that update he discusses an email sent out last week by the receiver, in which the receiver admonished GIN members who are thinking of holding off on paying dues to stop "interfering" with the receiver's duty to stabilize GIN. That's probably worth a whole other blog post, which I may or may not get around to doing really soon, since there's so much going on, and so much information flying around. 

[NOTE: More info became available about this with the release of new court documents late on Friday, December 20. More about that in the next blog post. For now, here is a direct link to those documents. ~CC] By the the way, it appears that two GIN speakers, good ol' Ed Foreman and his lovely bidness partner Earlene Vining, are supporting the Intervenors' efforts (they recently donated a thousand bucks to the cause, according to Perry Kiraly's update).

Click to enlarge.

The road goes on forever, and the scamming never ends. Or, in other words: No neat and tidy endings. I'll have a lot more in the near future, but for now, I must get back to the paying work, and then I'm going to throw some random Christmas decorations around the house, in the parts where the cats don't live, to make it marginally more festive for the upcoming Big Day. So until next time, keep your eyes open for McMiracles. They are all around us.

* * * * *

Now more than ever, your donation is needed
to help keep this Whirled spinning.
Click here to donate via PayPal or debit/credit card.
If that link doesn't work, send PayPal payment directly to
scrivener66@hotmail.com
or to cosmic.connie@juno.com
If PayPal, be sure to specify that your contribution is a gift. Thank you!