GIN turns ten, and Kevin Trudeau continues to spew wisdumb from Camp Cupcake

With February fading fast, it occurred to me that I need to post something in order to maintain my record of blogging at least once every month since the Whirled was created in July 2006. I don't want to disappoint my four or five readers, after all. There are scads of things to write about, as usual, but for now I want to return to one of this blog's longtime favorite topics, the inimitable scammer for all seasons and all reasons, Kevin Trudeau, aka KT, aka Katie.

I've been blogging about Katie for more than ten years now, often focusing on what was once his greatest scam of all, the Global Information Network, or GIN, which was spawned in 2009. In its heyday GIN involved a yuuuge multi-level marketing (MLM) scheme that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) eventually declared was a pyramid scheme. To my knowledge the courts never ruled on that particular point, but it became moot when the court-appointed receiver pulled the plug on the MLM as it then existed. At any rate, lots of folks lost lots of money that they'll never get back, and quite a few were, and remain, justifiably angry about it.

Katie is currently serving a ten-year sentence in a federal prison camp -- FPC Montgomery, Alabama (Inmate Number 18046036). He has referred to the place, either fake-fondly or sarcastically, as Camp Cupcake. His vacation at Camp Cupcake isn't punishment for GIN -- there may never be any justice served for that -- but rather for a criminal contempt charge related to false claims that Katie made on infomercials for his diet book, The Weight Loss Cure "They" Don't Want You To Know About. In the process of being pursued by the government for years and years of fraudulent activities, Katie became a fake hero/martyr in his own mind -- and in the minds of his doting fans and followers -- for the First Amendment and freedom of speech. His imprisonment only added to his martyr credentials.

Most of y'all probably already know all of this, but a quick recap never hurt anyone, and might be helpful to those who are unfamiliar with the background.

Although he is imprisoned, Katie is still doing everything he can to remain relevant in Scamworld, and some of his long-time pals are helping him. While GIN is in some senses a shadow of its former self, with a scaled-down affiliate program instead of the big scammy MLM with its extravagant promises of wealth, health, and perfect happiness, Katie continues to push his own shtick via his Facebook page, and apparently still has allies in and around GIN.

As of this writing, Katie's latest Facebook offering is a long spiel about ancient wisdom and self-realized beings and whatnot.

Everything already IS when it comes to the mind and spirituality. All has already been discovered and revealed to all of us because so many have already achieved "Enlightenment". There have been millions of highly evolved beings on earth spanning thousands of years, who have reached the spiritual level of being able to observe and witness the mind in action and the entire spiritual nonphysical nature of the Universe. These people are known as being "Enlightened" or "Saints" or Avatars or Self Realized.

Many of them, over thousands of years, have written such observations and discoveries for all of us to learn from. These texts are available to all of us. But, who will spend the time, reading these esoteric texts from all around the world? Very few.

Lucky for us, right now in fact, there are hundreds of thousands of such "Enlightened" Self-Realized beings on planet Earth. Many of them are sharing what they "know" through books, lectures, videos, and workshops. They are sharing what they KNOW, not just "know about".

I encourage you to seek Truth from SOURCE via someone who is not claiming to BE Source, but rather working to open you up so that you can connect with Source directly. Finding such a person, and following their teachings, is the fastest and easiest path to get to where you absolutely want to go. Much love to you as you proceed on your journey. Make it an adventure!

Much love, and may you never be the same.
Your friend, KT

How's that for a shameless attempt to slap a patina of timeless-spiritual-wisdom legitimacy onto Katie and his Scamworld buddies? Subtle, huh?

There's also a new Katie-related Facebook page in town, or at least it's new to me: Kevin Trudeau Teachings, which popped up on my FB feed today. It's partly a rehash of some of the wisdumb Katie shares on his own page, partly a GIN promo vehicle, and partly a promotion for continuing efforts to free Katie from the clink. (More on the latter in a little while.)

The first post that caught my eye on Kevin Trudeau Teachings, written on February 27, was a rather garbled invitation to what the writer described as a celebration of the tenth anniversary of Katie's big dream: an event billed as the Global Dream Celebration (GDC) '19.

Come join us in celebrating the 10 Year Anniversary of Kevin Trudeau's Dream... Celebration with all KT's Global The Success Mastery Course Students www.ginunited.com When the student is ready The Teacher/Mentor will appear. To Receive a Mentor, use the following Affiliate Code: 1519886 and continue into deeper teachings of KT. The Month special ends at midnight...

Interestingly enough, on the actual GIN site, Katie isn't mentioned in the promo for the event.

A journey of 10,000 Miles begins with the first step! Elevate Your Journey as the Dream continues.... Join us in the Mile High City! Our journey of 10 years began with the first steps and Big Dreams in 2009.... We are going to continue to think BIGGER! We will soar to new heights! We will climb new mountains! We will stand on the summit and celebrate that we have risen above every challenge on our pathway to greater successes! Big Successes begin with Big Dreams, So Dream Bigger, Accomplish Bigger Successes, Climb New Peaks, Fly with the Eagles and Soar Even Higher

But judging from the social media content I've seen, it seems clear that the Beloved Founder is still very much a presence in GIN.

Apart from promoting GIN and Katie's own social media ramblings, the Kevin Trudeau Teachings page is also pushing the efforts to get Donald Trump to commute Katie's prison sentence and pardon him. Natch, I've written about that quite a few times here too, this being one of the more recent-ish posts. Also on February 27, the KTT page offered this breathless post, announcing what the writer claimed to be progress in the long struggle, though it looked to me like the same old same old.

A clear, coherent strategy is quickly taking shape to #FreeKevinTrudeau! We’ve hinted about this on our page before, but now ALL the pieces are in place and our strategy will be executed very soon! It is VERY IMPORTANT, however, that our efforts be duplicated. What this means is that when we, Janine, Lee and others give the word and send out the link, IMMEDIATELY sign the official White House petition and then email, text, and FB message ALL of your friends and family, regardless if they are KT supporters or not, and ask them to sign the petition as well! Every single one of you will need to take personal ownership to make this happen. You will need to be more persistent than ever and FIGHT HARD to make this happen, as if it all depended on you! With everyone doing this, we are confident that we will not only reach the 100,000 signatures we need, but we will do it quickly and we’ll exceed that number! Then, President Trump will be required by law to respond to our petition and we are more than confident that he will #FreeKevinTrudeau!

Also, it is very important that you we have your email address on file so that you can be notified through the official channel at www.KevinTrudeau.com. You may also receive a text message notifying you that the White House petition has gone live.

It is time to get pumped! This is the calm before the storm! Let’s make this happen!

And lastly, please share the hell out of this post!

If you follow any of the links to my previous posts about the efforts to sweet-talk Herr Drumpf into freeing Kevin, you'll see that nothing has really changed. It's just the same old hype. But now, more than ever, I'm willing to bet that Trump's attention is on other matters.

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By the way, when Googling the other day, I came across a story from 2017 that had somehow escaped my attention: the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) sued one of the former GIN "inner circle" members, one Darrell Glenn Hardaway, for $4.7 million (later reduced to $3.1 mil). According to the complaint, Hardaway targeted GIN members with phony stock offerings.

1. This case is about a multi-million-dollar fraud scheme carried out by Defendant Darrell Glenn Hardaway ("Hardaway") using his private company, Defendant Hardaway Net-Works, Inc. ("HNW"). Since at least as early as November 2010, the Defendants have fraudulently raised $4.7 million or more by selling securities issued by HNW. Hardaway successfully marketed these securities to over a hundred fellow members of a nationwide "success club" in which he was a high-ranking leader. He targeted these victims both because they had great trust in him and because they had taken an oath not to criticize him.
2. The Defendants lured investor victims using baseless projections about HNW's business operations. They falsely claimed that investors stood to reap "massive" returns upon HNW's ever-imminent public offering. And they pressured victims to invest through a number of sham "limited time" incentives.
3. In truth, HNW barely had a pulse. From 2010-16, HNW's total revenue was a meager $24,812 from only a handful of customers. By comparison, it had total expenses of approximately $5 million during the same period—over 200 times revenues. Nearly $2 million of these expenses went to fund Hardaway's lifestyle, rather than toward legitimate business expenses. These payments took the form of both salary and "expense reimbursements."

That "success club," named later in the document, was indeed GIN. According to the release on the SEC site...

Without admitting or denying the allegations in the SEC's complaint, Hardaway and HNW each agreed to the entry of permanent injunctions and to defer determination of any disgorgement, prejudgment interest, and civil penalties. Hardaway also agreed to the entry of an officer and director bar. The settlement is subject to court approval.

I haven't really been able to find any updates on this case, so if you have any info, send it on and I'll post it.

In any case I guess you can't blame Hardaway for his misbehavior. As a high-ranking member of GIN, Hardaway learned from the best. And after all, as Kevin Trudeau himself loves to say, "Who do you listen to?"

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