Hot tub slime machine

Last month I wrote about the recent revitalization of a Facebook fan page, as well as other new web content, devoted to previously imprisoned/currently on "home confinement" serial scammer Kevin Trudeau, aka KT, aka Katie on this Whirled. After a hiatus of several months, new content has been appearing on the Facebook fan page, mostly with motivational/inspirational themes centered around Katie's teachings. But the main purpose of the page seems to be to inspire people to send money to help support Kevin, and to motivate them to join what remains of the seekrit club he founded, GIN (the Global Information Network).

I check in on the fan page every few days or so, and on August 20 this brief post appeared:

How many times have we heard Kevin say 'dream a dream so big it would take ten lifetimes to accomplish'?

Would you like to know how big Kevin's dreams are? Read the vision for 'The Ship': https://kevintrudeaufanclub.com/the-ship
Read the vision for 'The Club': https://kevintrudeaufanclub.com/the-club

Well, there are some big problems with this post about big dreams, apart from the fact that Kevin's "vision" for "The Club" is really nothing more than recycled content from the early daze of GIN, when the same lengthy list of lofty goals was presented to members, and aside from the tiny little detail that "The Ship" is creepily Scientology-like. (I discussed both points at some length in this December 2019 Whirled post; see under the sub-head, "Kevin's big dream: life on a cruise ship, and a new club with even less accountability than the old GIN").

To me, the issue with the August 20 fan page post lies not so much with the verbiage, which is pretty much the standard fangirl/fanboy gushing that we've come to expect from this and similar pages, and which was more than likely directed by Kevin himself from the safety of his "home confinement" situation. The real problem is the rub-a-dub-dub-three-men-in-a-hot-tub image accompanying the post. Maybe Kevin himself specifically wanted that pic, or maybe the writer of the post took the liberty of choosing it out of hundreds in the archives. I guess it doesn't matter. But if it was selected with the intent to illustrate the concept of dreaming "a dream so big that it would take ten lifetimes to accomplish," it fails on several levels.

To begin with, and let's just get this out of the way first, it's really quite silly. It's also a very old pic -- ancient, in Internet time. Although when I first published this post I wrote that I did not know exactly how old the picture is, but that I knew it had to be before 2005, someone in a very good position to know has since informed me that it was taken circa New Years 2000 in Sydney, Australia. (In case you're wondering where I got the photo, it's in Kevin Trudeau's Flickr collection, specifically in the "Business As Usual With Kevin Trudeau" album; here's the direct link to the photo. As you'll see if you follow that direct link, the site indicates that the photo was taken on July 15, 2011, but even if the person in the know had not informed me of the correct date, I would have known that it couldn't have possibly been taken that recently. You'll see why in a few moments, if you haven't already guessed.)

And while I speculate that the pic is intended to portray a complacently successful Kevin just chillin' with similarly accomplished buddies in a hot tub on what one can imagine is somebody's luxury yacht, chomping on what one can only assume are outrageously expensive cigars... is that image really the most compellingly seductive depiction of the giddy heights of success that Kevin has been promising to deliver to his followers for decades, if they are only willing to pledge their life savings and their eternal fealty to him? More to the point of this particular post, is it truly representative of Kevin's grand "visions" of "The Ship" and "The Club?"

I will concede that there's a vaguely nautical theme, so while it may be a stretch, I guess you could say that it is suggestive of "The Ship" -- but all in all it seems kind of lame from a materialistic standpoint, while at the same time being hopelessly mundane and even a tad vulgar in light of that whole enlightened-guru image that Kevin and the minions have been flogging for at least a year and a half. I imagine it can be a challenge to market to diverse demographics: spiritual seekers and the conspicuously enlightened as well as greedy or envious materialists and scammer wannabes. (This is not to say that one can't be both a conspicuously enlightened type and a scammer wannabe, since Scamworld is rife with hyper-materialistic McSpirituality types, but I digress.)

On the other hand, maybe the picture is merely intended to portray something more abstract, such as the simple heartfelt joys of kicking back with good pals, fellow members of an elite group of folks who have Realized Their Dreams. But there's a problem with portraying these particular friends, or at least one of them.

The guy on the right hand side of the photo is Kevin himself, of course, and if you overlook the fact that he's currently serving out a ten-year federal prison sentence, and that his water carriers claim he's utterly penniless and needs you to send him money, I suppose you could say he's successful by the traditional Scamworld definitions of "success" embraced by the shallow, the crass, and the naive.

The bloke in the middle is the UK's Andrew Malcher of High Street TV, a "multi-channel retail group." He sells stuff, in other words. Lots and lots and lots of stuff, apparently. He was also involved in various ventures that included Kevin Trudeau in the past. Hustle, hustle, hustle.

It's the guy on the left who should make you raise your eyebrows. That would be the late Rene Walter Rivkin, Australia's most notorious insider trader. (If you thought that the worst Oz had to offer in the way of crooks was investment fraudster and star of The Secret (he was the car-park guy) David Schirmer, think again.) It was on Rivkin's boat that the Trudeau hot tub party apparently took place.

For Rivkin, though, the party was most likely on its way to being over even at that time, because his troubles were steadily mounting, resulting in misery to his family as well as to himself. Finally on May Day 2005, at the age of 60, he committed suicide at his elderly mother's home, where he had been living. He had already attempted suicide the previous year and by all accounts was not a happy man at all. And no wonder: he had been battling a shipload of legal problems that resulted in the permanent revocation of his stockbroking license, as well as a slew of health challenges, including benign brain tumors, a gangrenous gall bladder, deep vein thrombosis and bipolar disorder.

I've mentioned Rene Rivkin a couple of times on this Whirled, years ago: in passing in this September 2013 post, and in a bit more detail in this May 2014 offering (see under the sub-head, "The infomercial wizards of Oz"). In the latter post I linked to a June 2000 piece on Australia's Media Watch site about the infomercial partnership between Kevin and Rene. As co-directors of the Rivkin Group, the two spewed out infomercials together back in the day for Shop America (Australasia), hustling everything from memory techniques and weight loss schemes to Rivkin's own scams, including his stock market report "and other more magical products" targeted to the Australian TV public.

Their go-to technique was the phony interview, geared to make viewers think they were watching actual programming in the style of the then-popular Larry King Live (which of course is no longer a thing, especially since Larry King is dead). Trudeau had gotten himself into a spot of trouble with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for, among other things, using that technique in his infomercials for American audiences, and the FTC required him to tell viewers that his "talk shows" were in fact paid advertisements. In Oz, though, he and his grift-buddy were still able to get by with the ruse, at least for a while, until Australia also passed laws to better protect consumers.

In any case Rivkin was thrilled with Kevin's magic touch, gushing:

From first hand witnessing of Kevin in action, I can tell you he truly is a marketing phenomenon....You may have seen us on TV. The results have been excellent.
(The Rivkin Report, issue 133)

Clearly he didn't care at all about Kevin's criminal "past." In a June 2000 letter to Media Watch, Rivkin wrote:

I am of course aware of [Trudeau's] criminal record...I am also and have always been acutely aware of Mr Trudeau's past...suffice to say I remain of the very strong view that people with criminal records are capable of rehabilitation.

That was then, and there's been a lot of water under the bridge since then, with Rivkin ultimately succumbing to his own inner demons and Trudeau going on to create bigger scams and, finally, a bigger prison sentence for himself than he'd accomplished at the time Rivkin knew him.

More recently, in August of 2019, Institutional Investor published a profile on Rene Rivkin by David Wilson, "The Down Under Scammer You've Probably Never Heard Of." Wilson described Rivkin as Australia's "singularly tragic version" of both mega-fraudster Bernie Madoff (who at the time the piece was published was still alive and was begging #NeverWasMyPresident Trump to commute his 150-year prison sentence) and notorious sex predator/trafficker and Trump buddy Jeffrey Epstein (who had just died in prison of apparent suicide). Wilson wrote that when Rivkin was sentenced to a mere nine months of weekend detention stints, even that relatively lenient sentence was still cause for "national gloating" in Australia; the lead story in the Sydney Morning Herald crowed, "Cell, cell, cell." Had Rivkin not ended his life, Wilson speculated, he might have ended up serving considerably more time.

For one thing, he was also a suspect in a seamy murder case and the recipient of a lavish insurance payout under suspicious circumstances. And he allegedly offloaded stocks that his newsletter, the Rivkin Report, tipped. Last, despite having untold wealth hidden in the Swiss banking system, Rivkin owed the taxman millions. 

His memory still casts a tailored shadow across the Australian investment landscape, because the “guru of greed” was such an epic character: a high-octane, cigar-smoking, Prozac-popping Sydney-sider dubbed “Australia’s most aggressive broker.” Some even labeled him messianic based on his grandiose claims of persecution, going so far as to compare his criminal conviction to the crucifixion of Jesus. 

I suppose it was only natural for Rene Rivkin to be good buddies with Kevin Trudeau, who has compared his own trials and tribulations to those of Jesus Christ, Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, and other martyrs.

But you know what? Nothing about Rivkin's sad story probably matters at all to Kevin's most loyal minions, who will continue to praise Trudeau as the savior of humanity and a key to making all of their dreams come true. Someone told me years ago that Kevin himself had spoken of Rivkin as a tragic example of skewed values and poor choices. Maybe so, but the fact remains that Kevin Trudeau continues in a multitude of ways to promote many of those same cockeyed values, leading countless followers to make poor choices themselves. For the vast majority, those choices may not result in prison sentences and hopefully not in suicide, but GIN did, by many accounts, leave a trail of empty bank accounts and damaged lives, and call me cynical, but I really don't believe that Katie has changed in any significant way.

Related on this Whirled:

•  July 2021: Serial scammer Kevin Trudeau: new websites, same old hustle
  I'm adding this link again, though it was embedded above, because the point needs to be emphasized: Trudeau, through various proxies, is begging for money, which the minions claim he could very well earn for himself once he gets out of prison, but (according to their narrative), instead of money-grubbing he intends to devote his life to "serving humanity." Don't buy it.
• March 2021: El-Ron is dead. Long Live Kevin Trudeau!
  Kevin's big "vision" of "The Ship" didn't just spring up spontaneously. More than likely it's at least partly related to his longtime affection for Scientology (not to mention his desire to get the hell out of US government jurisdiction as soon as he possibly can).
• December 2020: Spotify series "Fraudsters" tackles Kevin Trudeau in 3 parts
  While it may seem that much of the world has forgotten about Trudeau for the time being, not everyone has. The Spotify series provides a good history of his life of fraud, including the big GIN scam.
• August 2020: Whiny babies of Scamworld
  When he's not hustling scams and schemes, or waxing wisely McSpiritual, Trudeau is whining about his martyrdom. Of course he's not the only whiner in Scamworld...
• March 2020: The Lie-land of Dr. Trudeau: Kevin Trudeau joins the ranks of the corona-crapitalists
  Fairly early into the COVID-19 pandemic, Kevin Trudeau hopped aboard the misinfo train, dictating "COVID-19 Updates" from prison that were faithfully recorded by the minions on his Facebook fan page and his current main web site. Though Trudeau billed his messages as exclusive information that "they" don't want you to know about and that was available nowhere else, the content was -- you guessed it -- little more than recycled stuff from the conspiranoid slush pile. In this post I go into some detail about the earlier "updates," and if you can stand to wade through it, there's also a link to some of Kevin's subsequent covidiocies.
• January 2020: Kevin Trudeau asks Judge Robert Gettleman for post-prison scam guidance
  Just how much scamming will Kevin legally be able to do once he completes his sentence in either May or July 2022? In early 2020 he wrote a letter to the judge who'd presided over his civil case for many years, asking for guidance. To my knowledge, Judge Gettleman never answered him, but in any case this post contains a link to the original sentencing document, which provides general guidelines on what he will and won't be allowed to do.
•  December 2019: Saint Kevin Trudeau becomes GuruKev as Facebook clamps down on is "celebrity" page
  Another one I linked to in the main post, but it needs to be emphasized. Expanding his brand as a "spiritual leader," Kevin and his devotees are really pouring it on thick about Kevin being an enlightened master, or some such: a source of wisdom that you just won't find anywhere else. Is he grooming the cult followers, or just cynically exploiting another avenue to material riches? More than likely it's both.
• January 2015: Kevin Trudeau: an interview from the clink, and an attempt to take Business Insider for a ride
  Despite a few errors and omissions, which I discuss at length in this post, Aaron Gell's portrait of Trudeau for Business Insider remains one of the best and most comprehensive in recent years.