From time to time I visit the official Facebook Fan Club Page of serial scammer Kevin Trudeau, aka KT, aka
Katie on this Whirled. It's at least a marginally reliable gauge
of what's going on in Katie's world as his official prison
release date of May 9, 2022 approaches (he's currently on a "home release" program overseen by the Bureau of Prisons). One point that has
stood out overwhelmingly for me whenever I peruse the page -- and
it's a point I've made here several times over the past few years
-- is that Trudeau is prepared to hit the ground running with new
or expanded scams once he's released, at least to the extent that he can get away with doing so as a newly released felon who presumably will
be on probation for a few years. But then again, as also noted
here numerous times, he never stopped hustling throughout his
incarceration.
Grin and Barrett
In July 2021 I published a post about Kevin's loyal water carriers begging for bucks on his
behalf. One claim made in the minions'
message -- which was most likely written by Kevin himself, or at
least heavily directed and edited by him -- was that Kevin is
more than capable of making zillions of dollars on his own. In
part, the message I cited in that post read:
Kevin could easily come out of prison and start an international company again. Mega successful people from all around the world are making multi-million dollar offers to Kevin. They all want Kevin full time and they want to be a business partner with Kevin.
Kevin is getting offers for large amounts of equity in companies, huge salaries, board positions, multi-million dollar cash advances and more to commit full time to their ventures.
The issue, explain the minions, is that as a
now-enlightened spiritual master (just call him GuruKev), Kevin
will be solely focused on humbly serving humanity ("Selfless
Service," no less!), and on lifting the collective vibration
of the planet. But he still needs to live, of course, and he
needs moneys to do it, and since he'll be too busy saving the
world to earn those moneys, he needs a bunch of people to fork
over (and over and over and over).
I originally shared that fan club post under the assumption that
more than likely most of it is hyperbole, as is the case with
anything remotely related to Kevin Trudeau's marketing efforts.
Then again, given the serious ethical lapses and scam-friendly
business practices of more than one billionaire or rich
corporation, maybe there are a bunch of 'em clamoring
for Katie. Be that as it may, at least one of his former
partners-in-grime, one Donald Barrett, infamous
infomercial producer, has actually issued a public invite to
Kevin in hopes, one can only assume, that the two of them can
pick up where they left off.
I saw Barrett's message on -- you guessed it -- the Facebook KT
fan page. It was a short and simple response to a February 21, 2022 post in
which the admins, clearly attempting to recruit more
"volunteers" to serve The Master, urged people to read
about what a sublimely splendid experience it is to
"work with Kevin":
Donald W. Barrett KT... Where are you? I can be anywhere anytime.
Like Kevin, whose infomercials Barrett used to
produce, Donald has had his share of troubles with some of the
alphabet agencies of the US government, most notably the Federal
Trade Commission (FTC) and the Food and Drug Administration
(FDA). The Feds took issue some years ago with his claims that a
frauduct he was peddling, Supreme Greens, could cure multiple
diseases, including arthritis and cancer. He was also nailed for
his participation in an infomercial for Trudeau's weight-loss
book -- the same matter that ultimately landed Kevin in prison.
And to top it off, he got in a spot of trouble with the IRS for
failing to report a fairly substantial amount of income from his
frauduct-pushing.
Unlike Trudeau, though, Barrett was able to avoid serious prison
time. From Salem News, October 7, 2011:
Yesterday, Barrett was given a year of probation by U.S. District Court Judge Richard Stearns. Three months will be spent in a halfway house, and three more on home confinement.
Barrett will also not have to pay the $3,000 fine prosecutors had sought.
It's not entirely clear why, since not only did Barrett's lawyers insist on filing their sentencing memorandum under seal, but U.S. District Court Judge Richard Stearns did not include any specific reasons for the decision in the written sentencing order.
In court, the judge cited only the family circumstances raised by Barrett's attorneys, and in his order listed an "inability to pay" as the reason for waiving the fine.
Barrett's attorneys, William Kettlewell and William Lovett, asked that their sentencing memorandum be sealed from public view because it contains "confidential personal and medical information" about a family member, and also asked the judge to impound the transcript of their sidebar discussion with the judge, according to the case docket.
It appears that there's another thing Barrett
has in common with KT: an "inability" to pay the fine
imposed for his misdeeds. And Barrett had it relatively easy: his
fine was only $3,000.00, as opposed to the nearly $40 million
that Trudeau had accrued. But if ya can't pay, ya can't pay.
This piece from Truth in Advertising, originally published in 2013 and updated in 2015, has
some info and commentary about both Trudeau and Barrett. While
the updating of the article was apparently incomplete -- contrary
to a claim in the last paragraph, Trudeau did, in fact, end up in
prison -- the core message is spot-on: you can't keep a bad ad
man down.
In any case, it seems that Donald Barrett is up and running with
a whole new string of hustles, at least if his Facebook page is a
reliable indicator. The Intro blurb on his Facebook page
describes him as, "Rated as America’s top marketing
consultant’s [sic]." When I looked on his page I saw that
he is only followed by 159 people at the moment, but I'm sure
there will be many, many more as people wake up to the
realization that he is, after all, America's top marketing
consultant's [sic].
These daze Barrett seems to be heavily involved in the cannabis
industry -- not that there's anything wrong with that -- but
apparently he's always looking for new business ops. And what
better partner to partner with than his old buddy Kevin Trudeau?
Who knows... if the two of them get together and start something
up again, maybe Barrett's next fine will be much greater than
$3,000.00, and he may actually be rewarded with some real prison
time. It's something to aspire to, anyway.
The banned plays on (but not on the KT
FB page)
I would gladly have attempted to answer Donald
Barrett's question about KT's whereabouts, at least to the best
of my ability. I would have told him that, as reported on this January 2022 Whirled post,
his last known location was in the home of long-time Trudeau
loyalist David Krueger, who lives in a near-northwest Chicago
suburb. (Trudeau may very well be somewhere else by now, since
one of his reported goals is to get back into luxurious
surroundings as soon as possible, but he was staying with Krueger
as of late 2021.)
But I couldn't write that on the KT Facebook fan
page, because it appears that I have finally been banned -- more
specifically, blocked from participating in any manner on that
page. I'd actually discovered my pariah status earlier this month
when I visited the page to see if there was a post about the February 2, 2022 death of longtime KT loyalist and
substantial financial supporter Ed Foreman.
Ed not only poured money into Kevin's coffers for years, but he
also contributed heavily to the myth of Kevin as a hero and
martyr, this
recap of Kevin's legal troubles being one example. He even caused a bit of a ruckus in court during the sentencing
phase of Kevin's criminal trial (and
had to be physically dragged out of the courtroom by federal
marshals, and was fined for his efforts). And he shamelessly
groveled at the feet of #NeverWasMyPresident Donald Trump just
before Trump took office, begging him (in vain, as it turned out) to commute
Kevin's prison sentence and pardon him.
But I didn’t see anything on the Facebook fan
page about old Ed. That didn't come as a complete surprise, since
I had heard from credible sources that Ed had issues with KT
being kind of a dickhead since being semi-released from federal
sleepaway camp. (I mentioned that in the above-cited January 2022 post as well.)
It’s possible that Ed finally saw the light towards the end of
his long life, and that he renounced his membership in the Kevin
Trudeau Inner Circle of Worship. If that was the case, it's very
possible that The Great Master forbade the minions from ever
uttering Ed's name again, or perhaps the omission was the
decision of the fan page admins, out of deference to their
Master. (If I'm wrong, tell me and I'll publish a correction.)
I am not blocked from seeing or sharing the posts on the KT fan
page, only from commenting or even responding — so no more of
my ha-ha emojis in response to one of their ludicrous posts that
everyone else on that forum takes as profound wisdom. For more
than two years, much to my surprise, the admins tolerated my
contributions, though a few comments were removed and my words
were almost always ignored by the faithful, who, I imagine,
considered me to be one of those “rats in your head” that Kevin used to warn
them about.
Apparently, however, my last contribution was the last straw. It
was a response to a January 31, 2022 post about
one of the Kevin Trudeau channels on Telegram. Telegram, as I've
previously mentioned, is the infamous social messaging app
preferred by right-wing extremists and a host of other unsavory characters in the eight or so years that it has been in existence.
Telegram's operational center is in Dubai, UAE, and the owners don’t do much if any moderation, so
it’s pretty much "anything goes." Of course, I'm sure
that the KT Telegram channels are all on the up-and-up.
At any rate, the post on the KT fan page requested that readers
ask Kevin anything, the idea being that he will choose a question
to answer on one of his future Telegram performances, which
apparently happen every Saturday. Always eager to constructively
participate in a conversation, I was the first person to post a
question, and it was a perfectly legitimate one, but I guess they
didn’t like it.
All I wanted to know was whether Kevin intends to continue
promoting the Global
Information Network, aka GIN, once he
is released from prison, or if he intends to start an entirely
new club… or if it all depends upon the willingness of the
current “official” GIN owners, the Morters and Blaine Athorn,
to do Kevin’s bidding. I think it’s a completely valid
question -- one that I've certainly asked here before -- and that it is something GIN members and prospective
members need to know, so they can make an informed decision
before throwing their money down the toilet.
My guess is that Kevin didn’t like that question. Or perhaps he
never even saw it, and the admins just finally got tired of me,
which is perfectly understandable because I can be very annoying.
Anyway, my question is gone from that forum and so, it seems, am
I. The admins are well within their rights to ban anyone they
want -- I'm not whining about "censorship" or
"First Amendment violations," because neither of these
applies -- and I'm surprised it took them so long to get rid of
me. But rest assured that I will continue to ask those
uncomfortable questions on this forum, and I will also provide
uncomfortable answers here, or highly informed speculation at the very least, whenever I receive credible
information.
Frauducts in store
It remains to be seen exactly how Kevin Trudeau
will exercise his considerable flim-flamming talents once he's
released back into the wild. His loyal water carrier Tonya
Canada, one of the founders of the fan club and an admin on the
fan club's Facebook page, assures us that he has big dreams and visions.
It has been such an honor to work with Kevin for over a year. We have email contact nearly every day. I often think how amazing it is that every day I am receiving positive energy from Kevin as he thinks about me as we are emailing back and forth about different assignments & questions.
I consider it a blessing to be one of his volunteer assistants and work directly with Kevin in his “Vision and Dream”. He is working on something HUGE and I am so thankful for my part and the ability to be of service.
Yeah, I have a pretty good idea what that
something HUGE might be. He wants to be the leader of a new Scientology-like cult; L. Ron Trudeau, anyone?
Meanwhile, Tonya and other proxies are carrying on his work for
him now -- again, under his direction -- and I wouldn't be
surprised if he was getting a hefty chunk of change from all of
their crapitalistic efforts, as well as from GIN. I have no idea
if any of that is a violation of the terms of his home release; I
guess that's up to the parole board to decide.
Indeed, when it comes to Kevin Trudeau and frauducts, it seems
that the more things change, the more they stay the same. The
"Kevin Trudeau Fan Club Store" is prominently featured on the KT Facebook fan page, and also
on the official Kevin Trudeau Fan Club web site, and seems as clear a sign as any that the Great Master
is benefiting from going back to his huckster roots. Some of
store's the offerings include:
- The Fibonacci Life Path Package -- "the ULTIMATE package from I Ching Systems that you can buy!" -- which you can get now for the low, low price of only $3,295.00, marked down from $3,395.00.
- The Kloud by Centropix -- "A Luxurious At-Home System For Molecular Activation" -- for only $4,990.00. It's part of the "Personal" product line in the KT shop, and one of the devices that "Kevin Trudeau uses to protect his personal energy space and his environment from external sources of stress and chaos." (The Kloud was "casually" mentioned in a worshipful post by a young huckster-in-training; see again this Whirled post (under the sub-head, "A dream come true for three lucky rubes"). If The Kloud is too rich for your blood, there's the Cocoon for only $3,690.00, or if you're a real cheapskate, you can slum around with the Bubble for a mere $890.00.
- Elk Antler Velvet Platinum -- Surely you can afford this, you tightwad. It's only $240.00 for one whole fl. oz., and it'll help you regain your youthful "go mode" -- your stamina, endurance, strength, and perhaps even your manly manliness, should that be something you're worried about.
But wait, there's more! Granted, I haven't
browsed through the entire store -- I can only take a little bit
at a time -- so maybe you can browse for me. If so, perhaps you
can tell me if Trudeau and gang are still peddling anything by a
crackpot named Alex Chiu, whose Immortality Rings and other bat-crap baubles Trudeau promoted in his first Natural Cures
book. I wrote about that a few years ago.
I am well aware that in essence there's really
nothing new about this store, other than perhaps its framework as
an adjunct of the Kevin Trudeau Fan Club; after all, Trudeau and
his various partners and supporters have been promoting these
very same types of frauducts and services for many years, through
Natural Cures, through GIN (via the GIN Store), and through books
and infomercials and newsletters and email blasts and every
possible way that a frauduct can be promoted. I've written about
some of these efforts over the years, e.g., on this July 2014 post (under
the sub-head, "Lamp unto my feet"). I highlight the KT Fan Club store offerings now
simply as a way of making (or belaboring, as the case may be) my
point that Kevin is up to his same old tricks.
I'll continue to monitor and write about the goings-on in the Kevin Trudeau
scampire to the extent that's it's possible for an
"outsider" to do so. But I
can't do it all myself. My lines of communication are always
open, should you have anything to add to the conversation. One
point is certain, and it's another one I've repeated ad
nauseam on this blog: No matter how he brands and re-brands
himself, it's a safe bet that Kevin Trudeau has been and always
will be all about the hustle.
