GIN head Troy McClain takes the (fake) moral high road

While cooling my heels in between posts about the awfulness that is Mein Drumpf, I saw a post from my pal Kenneth Reimer on the public Facebook forum GIN Network Truth. Kenneth, and as it turns out several others I know, recently received a rambling email from Troy McClain, the current patriarch of the Global Information Network (GIN), a "success club" and surrogate family originally created as a personal piggy bank for now imprisoned serial scammer Kevin Trudeau. In the missive Troy is very long on boasts about his fierce desire to protect his "family members," and painfully short on actual substance regarding the threat he says he has removed from the club. Here ya go:

Violation Of Code of Conduct Announcement Members Beware

To our Family:

Re: Mr. Shawn Kesling, Former AXS employee, has been removed from our Club. Any further interaction is at your own discretion

Allow me to declare that I am a fallible man and a practitioner toward greatness. I have been so overwhelmed with love, graciousness, and respect from all members – so much that while I continue to practice our principles, I like you, continue to learn my lessons each day. One lesson I am practicing is forgiveness, however this practice tends to be overshadowed by my strongest and greatest gift that I can give to others – Fiercely loyal and protective!

I have made a declaration to our entire membership, staff, and family that I would fiercely protect, report, and stand against any one person or group that would prey on or otherwise hurt our membership – if I in fact found them to be doing so. I will investigate, look into, and hold off on position until such time facts prevail. Then I will uphold what I hold dear to me – my word. I will do so in all situations, actions, and climates.

We are on honest, moral, and ethical movement that will stand together. However, I have also declared to others I would lead from the front to set the example. When I ask others to give back, I in fact give back. When I ask others to practice our principles I do the same. When I ask others to report and stand up when they see or experience potential wrong doing, I myself MUST do the same.

This movement must be dedicated to conducting our business consistent with the highest standards of ethics. We have an obligation to our co-workers, contractors, partners, community representatives, and family to do so each and every day without fail.

The security, safety, and stability of this movement and its members is vitally important to me and one I take extremely serious. I will not tolerate any action whatsoever that threatens any one persons future or related careers in our amazing environment. That said, recently, upon his own omission [sic], I have learned that one of our own has been less than becoming to our standards and has threatened our positive light and standard of being Honest, Moral, and Ethical.

This type of behavior will not be tolerated. And while it saddens me on so many levels to have had this happen under my watch, it also inspires me to do the right thing for the betterment of our team and family. I want to make it beyond clear to all that read this – any action against this club or those within it can be considered an action against all of us. YOU WILL BE CALLED OUT and I will back my family up. I trust this example sets a new tone in a new unit of time that, while a student at some things, I am great at standing up and speaking up for those I love and those who have brought love in my life. This club no longer will turn a blind eye to those whose intentions are bad. The standard must be "See Something – Say Something!"

I will act swiftly to remove the negative element from our positive environment and report publicly when found to be true. You, our staff, our members, and our family have worked too hard and too long building up and creating a positive, honest, and moral platform for us not to say something when actions against us happen. Again, I will not tolerate my family being subjected to this type of business nor will this ever be allowed.

My top priority is to create a safe and friendly environment for our entire membership; one where we can grow as family in a positive direction. Anything that threatens this will be considered as such and removed. I will act swiftly and report this publicly when conduct by others is found factually to jeopardize our futures. GIN, be assured we all must do this; and those hiding among us, be assured this leader will call it out!

What unifies us is trust and belief in a system of success and team that operates the system. When I find this type of practice happening it hurts and disappoints me greatly, however knowing that we have a team that will protect each other from bad apples, gives me a sense of honor and pride.

We have addressed and removed the negative. Now I have reported it as such, and as I committed to do.

Sincerely,
Troy McClain

For those of you who are wondering what the GIN Code of Conduct says -- and I assume for now that Troy is indeed referencing that "code" -- it's item number 11 on this document.

I set out to find out what Shawn, whom I'd never heard of before Troy broadcast his name and shame far and wide, supposedly did to violate the Code. I reached out to some people who might be able to give me some insight, including Shawn himself. Via private Facebook message, Shawn did not give details but simply told me that he harbors no hard feelings for Troy and wishes Troy et al. nothing but success. He said that the decisions made had to do with "life choices" he had made and that he completely respects the decisions of the GIN leadership. When I told him that it sounds as if he's taking the high road, he said there is really no low road.

Well, I'm thinking that maybe there is a low road -- it's just that some of the low roads are lower than others. I'm thinking that Troy McClain calling out a former employee carries about as much moral weight as Leonard Coldwell and Peter Wink calling out Kevin Trudeau and GIN.

A little background
Based upon my general knowledge of Troy -- who has been a subject on my blog several times since 2014, because, as I mentioned above, he is the person currently at the helm of Trudeau's big brainchild GIN -- I am willing to bet that we have a good case of Scamworld pot-and-kettle here. Troy, a "business consultant" and bloativational speaker (who seems to get more bloated every year -- check out page 4 of the November 2015 GIN Report), originally emerged into the spotlight for being on Donald Trump's "reality" show, "The Apprentice." Drumpf said that Troy is one of those guys who makes America great.

Currently Troy has several companies under the umbrella of his AXS Group. It seems clear to me that he has been steadily working to absorb GIN into AXS. To see the writing on the wall, all you have to do is look on the official GIN web site and you will see this:



And then click on to this up-and-coming site, which contains more Scamworld bidness babble per square paragraph (square-agraph?) than I've seen in a while. Troy is definitely marking his territory. It's the Scamworld equivalent of dominant male canine urination, but infinitely more foul than the latter. There's a word for this phenomenon, but "evolution" is not it.
 
Several credible sources have indicated that Troy intensely dislikes Kevin Trudeau, even though Kevin gave Troy a big platform in GIN. Ingrate. Though Troy is at the helm, other members of the AXS Investment Group that purchased GIN in 2014, when the court-appointed receiver put it up for sale, include Chris "Voldemort" McGarahan (a real a$$hole and MLM scammer); Blaine Athorn (very long time buddy and bidness partner of Trudeau, also a MLM veteran -- see MLM fever" in this post); and Greg Kramer (involved with a frauduct boutique called the GIN Store). Jeff Devine (another bidness partner and buddy of Trudeau) was originally involved too but no longer is. (A guy named David Cohen, a principal in AXS Consulting, may be an owner as well.) But Troy is at the head of it all and definitely seems to be marking his territory.

All of the above is general background that most of you know already, the sole purpose being to illustrate my points about pots and kettles and about turds of a feather bilking together. As anyone who has observed Scamworld at all knows, the bilking together doesn't necessarily prevent the bilkers from occasionally trying to peck each other's eyes out. No honor among thieves and all that.

Google provides some more background information
As noted above, I had never heard of Shawn Kesling till Kenneth shared Troy's letter. When I first started researching I immediately found a Facebook page for a Shawn Kesling, but it doesn't really reveal much. So I did a little bit of rudimentary research, and a simple search for "Shawn Kesling Idaho" (Idaho is Troy's home state and also the home of AXS headquarters), revealed this December 2013 court document referencing the several felonies of a certain Shawn Michael Kesling.

So there's that. My first thought upon finding the initial information about Shawn was that this might not be the same Shawn Kesling; there are a few folks in the US with that name (I did not mention the court docs to Shawn in my brief conversation with him). But a person in a position to know confirmed that it is indeed the same guy.

I couldn't help but wonder if Troy knew about Shawn's criminal background before he hired him for AXS but thought it was no biggie until Shawn did something to displease Troy. Or, I surmised, maybe Shawn did something so blatantly unethical and/or illegal that Troy knew he couldn't sweep it under the rug. I just don't see Troy as a model of integrity, is what I'm saying.

Though Shawn isn't telling any tales about Troy, Google is telling plenty of tales about Shawn. In addition to the court opinion linked to above, there is this January 2013 document regarding a complaint by Shawn that he was infected with Hepatitis C due to inadequate sanitation at the Ada County (Idaho) Jail. (On the GINtruth discussion I shared this link to the PDF of the document, but I am having trouble getting it to load now. Maybe it will work for you.)

I also found this May 2008 article from a Boise alt-weekly. It is mostly about one of Shawn's ex "business partners" (a man who just couldn't stay away from meth and hot women but still sued the state of Idaho for treating him unfairly), but there are a couple of paragraphs about their mutual ventures. Seems they had some vaguely Trump-ish aspirations, and there's something about an escort service involving strippers.

Some of my friends on the above-mentioned GIN Network Truth forum shared some pretty plausible explanations of the ways in which Shawn may have pissed in Troy's corn flakes. One wrote, "Maybe GIN still has a 'Do as I say, not as I do' policy like they use to, and Shawn was leaning more to the 'do' side." Another speculated, "He stole money that Troy was trying to steal. He probably used a short con to fleece an idiot who Troy had pegged as long con material. After he stole his bank account, Troy was unable to clean out his retirement fund and the equity in his house. You can't have that sort of scammer immorality in your club."
 
And Kenneth, the person who initiated the thread, said that people to whom he'd put out feelers indicated that Shawn's departure was related to the theft of money. Some rumors from several other sources indicated that the theft was in the mid-five-figure range.

Someone who knows the parties involved speculated on another forum that AXS/GIN either didn't do a background check or that Shawn was another "rescue" of Troy's. Troy reportedly likes to say that he "saves people," but speculation is that he also likes to have something to hold over their heads. In that respect, Troy would seem to have something in common with the Church of Scientology, which promises people a chance to clean their lives up and help "clear" the world -- but at the same time makes sure it has something to hold over the head of every member.

There are other whispers in the wind from other sources that Troy did indeed know that Shawn was a convicted felon but failed to inform anyone else, and that the long rambling letter he sent out after jettisoning Shawn was the first notice anyone had that anything was amiss. There are also whispers that at least one other convicted felon is still on staff AXS/GIN. In that regard GIN has something in common with GIN ripoff WIN (the World Information Network), whose principal Perry Kiraly has a pretty long criminal history himself, which includes robbery and safecracking and other wholesome activities (see this post for some links).

And let's not forget that many of the GIN membership still adore Kevin Trudeau, who has been a convicted felon since the early 1990s and is, of course, currently an imprisoned one. Being a convicted felon is not a deal-killer if you want to play in Scamworld.

I'm not just pointing fingers for the sake of pointing fingers.
When I referenced "moral weight" in my comment above, that was not just a throwaway point. No matter what Shawn did or did not do, no matter how Troy spins the firing incident, no matter how he tries to paint himself as the great protector of his cherished GIN/AXS "family," and no matter how hard he tries to convince the world (and himself) that his feet have trod on high ground all along, fighting like a knight of old for honor and integrity... remember this:

James Arthur "Death" Ray was a keynoter at a major GIN event, and was glorified before, during and after the event, and it was all under Troy McClain's watch -- so his lofty declarations about his integrity have zero credibility as far as I am concerned.

Pardon me for shouting in a larger font. I just get riled up sometimes.

I will continue in my efforts to get the details about the alleged violation of the GIN Code of Conduct that has Troy's panties in a wad. Meanwhile there is plenty of stuff about Troy on this blog, and for that matter Salty Droid (whose revamped site is set to launch soon) did a drive-by snark about Troy a few years ago. This was in relation to another scam; it was before Troy was handed the keys to GIN. Point is, Troy is on Jason's radar too. And I look forward to the day that the little fake robot is back on the job.

One more important point: In general I believe in giving people -- including convicted felons -- second chances if they can demonstrate that they are really trying to turn their lives around. This is particularly true of nonviolent drug offenders but I think even grifters, and even some violent offenders, may deserve a second chance in some cases. That's why I'm sympathetic to the "Ban the Box" movement, and to organizations and individuals who are working so hard to make life easier for deserving ex-cons.

But some leopards really do not change their spots. As my friend Julie noted, "The problem I have with the 2nd chances is that kt [Kevin Trudeau] overused it. It was always about a second chance, he wore his illegal moves (mostly stealing credit card numbers) like they made him more valuable. He said he'd learned and a 2nd chance to steal more credit card monies was what he needed."

Yes, there is that.

And it appears that even as Shawn Kesling was publicly preaching about GIN being the "Movement of Second Chances" (the link is to a December 2015 talk), he was privately doing everything he could to blow his own "second chance." But don't worry, Shawn, it's a big world, with plenty of other opportunities to grift. And for that very same reason, Troy has little cause to worry either. It's the remaining GIN members I'm concerned about, but then again, the writing is on the wall, and it has been for years -- so at least some of those who continue to support GIN and Trudeau, even after knowing the complete back story, must at some point shoulder some of the blame for their own losses.


Stay tuned; more to come.

Kevin Trudeau: Katie's at Camp Cupcake, GIN parties on, and all's right with the Whirled

I have a ton of work but am determined not to let September slip away without at least one more post, and one that is about something besides the stupidest man in Scamworld. I've said my piece about that for the time being, and even though I'm not going to give up on this subject, there are so many other more interesting and more important topics to blog about. So. Even though it has been a busy month, work-wise, I am going to make good on my promise to post updates about the saga of imprisoned serial scammer Kevin Trudeau, aka KT, aka Katie, as well as some of the folks who are struggling to keep his legacy alive while he cools his heels at Club Fed. Or Camp Cupcake, as he calls his new home at Federal Prison Camp in Montgomery, Alabama.

The gushing (and eye-rolling) posts on Katie's Facebook fan page continue, most of them first-person homilies that lately seem to be seriously pandering to the New-Agey Law of Attraction crowd. Trudeau seems to be sounding more and more like a New-Age ninny, as opposed to some of the earlier Facebook posts when he appeared to be pandering to the more traditionally religious believers in miracles and such. The messages for the posts are still presumably being sent via email to, and then posted by, Katie proxies such as his long-time business associate and ex-girlfriend Janine. Occasionally, however, one of his cronies will pop on and talk about going to visit Katie in the clink, marveling at the fact that he is in such good spirits and is An Inspiration to All of Us, and is really Walking the Talk and Living the Training and so forth.

For instance, Earlene Vining, cohort of staunch Trudeau loyalist Ed Foreman, recently posted this, which looks like an attempt at free-verse poetry but may just be an unfortunate line-break glitch (as usual, click to enlarge):

"Kevin is a bright
Star in all of our lives..."

Do I hear the sound of some of you gagging?

And every few days there's a blurb about an upcoming legal fundraiser for Katie that will take place in Colorado on October 23, 2014. (Here's a link to a September 24 promo post on Facebook.) If you make a contribution of "only $200" to the Defense Fund, you'll get a complimentary ticket to the big rally that will be hosted by Katie's pal Coach Coral (Grant, formerly Thomas). Coral is currently being flogged as Trudeau's "protege," who "does not do public speaking engagements so this is a very rare opportunity to spend time with Coral live and in person." Which is utter bull crap. Coral, whom I've mentioned a few times on my blog (particularly here) reportedly has a deal with Katie that she gets to milk his brand for all it's worth (and it's still worth quite a lot, apparently) if she contributes an agreed-upon amount to his defense fund.

Kevin himself, through his proxy/proxies, continues to pile it on thick, as indicated by this September 16 bit of inspiration:

Everyone likes/desires/wants different things. That is why there are menus at restaurants! LOL

Some people LOVE to skydive, or ski, or scuba dive, or garden, or paint, or play tennis, or watch horror films, or read terrifying novels. I personally do not LOVE any of those and might even HATE some of those. I like/love challenging my physical/mental/and emotional limits be it hiking for days with limited food and no shelter! Or being attacked by the US Government and having all my possessions taken away! Or being thrown in a jail cell for 23 hours a day for months not knowing when or if you will ever be let out! [Apparently this is a reference to his experiences at MCC, not Camp Cupcake. ~CC] Or do mental exercises for days straight without food or sleep to access spiritual dimensions few have ever been! The list could go on and on. These are MY desires.

The point is we all want/love/desire different things, experiences and conditions. There is no right and wrong, or good, better and best when it comes to desires/wants or things you love. You love and get pleasure from certain things, and I love and get pleasure from perhaps the things YOU hate, or scare you the most. Many people however, are not deliberate creators of their life's experiences. Most people do not consciously choose what they experience in their life. Most people are not focusing on their preferences or what they decided they love/want/desire. And most people are not focusing on WHY they want these things/experiences in their lives. When you focus on what you want and WHY you want it, (instead of HOW you are going to get it), you will be happier and you WILL manifest what you want. Many people ask WHY I would want to experience what I am experiencing. The answer is simple. I LOVE this! You see, my desire is to teach, to share. (this is my destiny as decided on by ME long ago...longer than you realize) In order to teach and share with complete effectiveness, I must KNOW, not just KNOW ABOUT. I must have DONE what I am to teach. And I must first HAVE what it is I want to share. VERY few people will ever feel the desire or have the joy I (and others throughout history) have for living these type of experiences. When you are taught by someone who KNOWS (experienced it firsthand) you can then truly learn because YOU then experience it vicariously through that teacher. You virtually learn via osmosis. This is why throughout history, Guru's, Sages, Enlightened Ones, Saints, Masters etc have had such a profound impact on those who were READY, and physically close to the one who KNOWS. I am doing my part. I am going "places" you will never want to go, and experiencing things you will never want to experience first hand. I am increasing that which I KNOW. I will be out and among you sometime between mid next year and 2022! LOL The Universe KNOWS the best and perfect HOW and WHEN. If you are ready, the sky is the limit for you, and the best is yet to come!
Much love

LOL, LOL, LOL.

In other words (if I'm reading this right), Katie's time in the clink is turning him into a gen-yoo-ine spiritual guru. All the better to reach his hand into your wallet teach you stuff when he gets out -- that is, if you're ready to be taught. When the mark student is ready, the con man master will appear. To date that post has 763 likes, 112 shares, and 118 comments. A woman who calls herself "Lena Lemurian" (I sense that is not her real name) responded to Kev's message with a magickal incantation:

I intend for Kevin Trudeau to be released and I see him released within the year and so it is.

I'm not so sure those intentions and whatnot are very effective. Remember that group mediation for Katie that took place about a year ago? Not so effective in getting him cleared of all charges, was it?

In response to the September 16 post a man wrote:

How do you go for days without food or sleep and still feel good? What discipline! Your NATURAL CURES books ,Your wish is my command and GIN Has greatly improved my health and thinking . They have made me signifantly [sic] more positive and improved my relationship with my friends and family and made dream again. I thank you Kevin from the bottom of my heart , you saved my life! I am glade [sic] you are feeling good and getting gooder [sic] every day. You are one of my greatest hero's. Love you!

Well, I too am glade for Kevin that he's good and getting gooder. Speaking of Glade, they've come out with their fall collection and holiday scents, and even though that stuff is probably really bad for you, I fall for the marketing every year. It makes Ron roll his eyes, but it sure beats litter box odor.

But I digress. Katie also had this September 26 message for the troops:

Thank you for all your continued love and support. Please know I am more than good here at Federal Prison Camp Montgomery. I am the best I have ever been. And getting better. My appeal has been filed. I should get the decision sometime next year.

As my dear friend Sam points out, I am not attached to any outcome, so I yield to the Universe and am allowing the perfect manifestation of my personal goals/dreams/desires in the WAY Source knows is best. My desires are not about myself, they are about you, society, the planet, and the universe. Peace, harmony, love, and all people feeling the deepest contentment and appreciation for all experiences is one of my visions. My desires are my desires. They are not your desires. Mine are right for me alone. Yours are right for you alone. All our choices, preferences, desires/dreams/goals are always right for each of us. Do not try to force YOUR desires, or your ways of living on others. You will just live with frustration and never be truly at peace/contentment or experience true inner total bliss. Many wonder about my situation and make all kinds of assumptions. Consider stop looking at others and judging, condemning, assuming things, and criticizing their conditions and they way they choose to go through this game we call life and the situations/events they create. Wanting to make oneself right and others wrong is a motivation that will keep you from experiencing all your desires and feeling true bliss.

Know at the deepest levels, we create circumstances in life (that in fact just games we create), to experience a full range of emotions as well as conditions to allow us to exercise our invisible power!

I have a request. IF you feel moved to do so, could some of you send me pictures of Zurich, and of beautiful things/scenes/mountains/etc for MY dream board! Guess what I may want to look at each day and vibrate into physical manifestation! Know all the well. I will be out and with you as soon as is perfect! Much love

Well, Katie, I have some ideas for your vision board. You say you want some pics of Zurich?


I grabbed that still from a vid on this page, Katie. I thought you might appreciate revisiting that glorious day in Zurich when the "ambush" journos from ABC caught up with you.

Or I could send you some screen shots of some of the horrid things written by a little Teutonic twerp you unleashed on the world through the Global Information Network (GIN) -- not just the stuff about me and about some of the other critical bloggers, but the hate-filled, anti-Semitic rants as well. Since you have been playing at being Jewish, Kevin (at least you mentioned to Judge Gettleman that you have a rabbi), I'm thinking these rants might not look so good on your vision board. But they are part of what you helped to create.

For now, please accept the vision board, or dream board, that I made for you my own self, with the help of Google images. It's up there at the top of this post. I know that vision and dream boards are supposed to be about the future, but I think you need to ruminate on your present and recent past as well.

For the rest of you, here's something to consider: no matter how cynical one may be about all of this, Katie's fans continue to look upon him as a hero. Every one of those Facebook posts gets hundreds of likes and at least dozens of comments. One woman, who apparently just got back from the 2014 Global Information Network (GIN) Family Reunion in Phoenix (more about that below), wrote:

FAMILY REUNION was Exceptional! You can be proud of the "Magic 5" and all the "Maple Syrup" who were there (ask someone who was) [One] man birthed the dream (ThU KT), AND we would have proven the Training untrue, if we hadn't Re-Birth bigger & stronger than before. Mission Accomplished! Onward!

Nice to know that the GINtanic is sailing on even without Katie at the helm, isn't it?

Another woman had this to say:

I'm living two hour away from Zurich and I'm watching the mountains right now while listening to your cd's. the world needs people like you Kevin... the important is who you become, not what you have. .... time goes on, get out of there, we have so many wonderfull [sic] things to do ! don't wayste [sic] your time...

There are no two ways about it: Trudeau still has a large and loyal fan base -- from all appearances a much larger and more loyal base than that bitter little German gnome who used to be his sidekick. And while the posts on Katie's Facebook fan page are truly eye-rolling, other sources besides Trudeau and his proxies and long-time loyalists say he really is in good spirits at Camp Cupcake. (You'll read more about that soon; I'll be sure to provide a link when it's available.)

I suppose it's possible that Kevin truly has accepted his fate and is cool with it no matter what. But I'm thinking that more likely he is just a really good actor, as many sociopaths are, or he could be basing his seeming tranquility and optimism largely on his belief that his appeal will actually be successful. At this point I'm still thinking it won't be, but we'll know in a few months, and we'll also see if he continues the Facebook shtick if the appeals process fails him. And speaking of the appeal (and the case that made the appeal necessary in the first place)...

Camp may be fun, but Katie wants out: the appeals process continues
It's been quite a while since I did an update here about Trudeau's court cases; the last post was on July 22, 2014. I've been remiss on my Katie reporting duties for sure. At any rate, the appeals process for his criminal contempt conviction is still ongoing and there probably will not be a decision until some time in 2015. I know you're probably thinking the same thing I'm thinking: if he's so happy at Camp Cupcake, why waste any more lawyer money trying to get out sooner? I guess that's just one of those mysteries of the Universe that only Kevin knows, and will be glad to share with you if you pay him or his cronies.

So what's going on, court-wise? Let's take a look...

1. Opening appeals brief and supporting documents: On August 27, 2014, I shared the initial appeals documents on the GIN Network Truth page (a public forum) on Facebook -- here is that link. And here is a Scribd link, for the benefit of those who cannot access the Facebook file.
2. Criminal trial transcript: I also finally downloaded some court transcripts, although I will have to keep such activities to a minimum because with actual transcripts, PACER apparently does not place a 30-page cap on download fees as they do on other court documents. At ten cents a page, it can get pretty pricey. I was able to nab this transcript of Trudeau's criminal trial, which took place in early November 2013 in Judge Guzman's court. It's a big'un. Here is a Scribd link.
3. Sentencing hearing transcript: And here is a Scribd link to the transcript from Trudeau's March 17, 2014 sentencing hearing.

One more thing: My PACER connection is having some glitches so I haven't been able to download any court documents since late August. As soon as I get those glitches straightened out I will pop onto PACER again and check for any newer activity. Or you can do it yourself if you are so inclined. Why should I get to have all the fun?

GIN rolls on, tries to lure big spenders back into the fold
Anybody who thinks that Katie's biggest scheme to date -- GIN -- is dead, has simply not been paying attention. Granted, it may be a shadow of its former self, but it's still definitely hanging on, as indicated by the pics from the big wingding that took place this past weekend: the 2014 Family Reunion in Phoenix, Arizona. You can see some of the festivities on one of the GIN Facebook pages.

Troy McClain, CEO of AXS Investment/Management etc., the group that bought GIN, hosted the promo video. And the first thing I noticed was that it was branding for AXS as much as it was for GIN. No big surprise there.



And Jeff Devine's Hybrid Group was also very much involved, judging from this little event blurb on etouches. 

As noted on this blog previously, the new owners of GIN reportedly consist of Troy McClain, Chris "Voldemort" McGarahan, Blaine Athorn, Jeff Devine and Greg Kramer.

In case you can't get to the GIN Facebook page I linked to above, here are some highlights from the weekend:

Looks like fun, huh? And oh, goody, there's going to be a cruise in 2015. And, not to belabor a point, but even without Kevin, and even though GIN membership is way down, it still appears that the Family Reunion drew a far larger crowd than the events put on by certain GIN ripoff clubs. (Unless, that is, GIN hired a bunch of folks to make it look like a crowd, or used CGI like they do in the movies sometimes.) Just saying.

A reliable source let me know that Troy McClain and Chris McGarahan have been making serious efforts to get Inner Circle and upper level members back into the GIN fold; in other words, they're trying to woo back the big spenders. As you may recall, Inner Circle members paid either $50k or $75k for that dubious privilege, with the promise that they would receive a percentage of the GIN proceeds and other perks. Some of these people's GIN "investments" were six figures (one former Inner Circle member and Founding Member insists GIN owes him a million dollars). When GIN nearly collapsed due to Katie's legal troubles, those folks were out all of that money, and reportedly many quit. Now Troy and Chris are trying to woo them back, with the promise that GIN will make it a point to get them the moneys owed to them asap.
 
Word is that some of these people asked that their "initiation" and monthly fees be waived for the appropriate amount of time in lieu of as much of the money owed as was applicable and GIN said no. Now, it's possible that something in the court order forbade such an arrangement (after all, GIN is beholden to the receiver and the court for the first year under the new ownership), but whether or not that is the case, it sounds pretty sleazy to me.

Troy and Chris are also reportedly pandering to the Christian demographic to get them to join or re-join GIN, and some who know Chris find this disgusting, saying that he is about as far from being a Christian as anyone they know.

At any rate GIN seems poised to grow, and may very possibly restore the MLM program at some point, though it was discontinued last November (2013). They haven't removed mentions of it from their online legal documents. For that matter, they haven't removed the statement that GIN is a multi-level foundation based in Nevis. Maybe they just need to finish updating their web site.

The moral of the story, once again, is that in Scamworld there are no neat and tidy endings. But I bet you knew I was going to say that.

That's it for now, but rest assured that I'll be back soon with more.