Showing posts with label Kevin Trudeau bankruptcy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kevin Trudeau bankruptcy. Show all posts

Tuesday, September 03, 2013

Kevin Trudeau's opulent lifestyle in danger (maybe), while the Scamworld Express chugs along


Most of this post is taken from recent postings on Facebook by Yours Truly and a very close friend of Yours Truly named Armza Kimbo, whose blanket permission I have to re-post. So if you happen to be a member of those Facebook forums and have a feeling of deja vu, there's your explanation.
~CC

Times is tough* when a serial scammer can't continue to live the opulent lifestyle to which he has become accustomed. But that's what may be happening to Whirled fave Kevin Trudeau. Soon, he may not be able to spend any of his hard-scammed money for fine cee-gars and the other accoutrements of a successful billionaire way of life. He may even have to go out and get a real job somewhere. Well, maybe.

If all goes as scheduled on the docket, lawyers from the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) will be in a Chicago court house again tomorrow, 4 September 2013, at 9:15 AM Central Daylight Time or thereabouts, to present a motion before the court to keep Trudeau's personal expenditures under even tighter control than they presumably already are (Case 1:03-cv-03904, the Honorable Robert W. Gettleman presiding).

The FTC is doing what they can to put a damper on what is left of Katie's lifestyle while the court-appointed receiver picks and scratches and digs through his business entities and personal assets, all in the service of scaring up the funds to pay that $37.6 million fine imposed on Katie for deceiving people with his weight-loss book. Filed on August 30, 2013, Document 744 is a motion by the FTC, accompanied by an exhibit supporting the motion (Document 744-1).

The FTC wants a modification in the receivership agreement; they want to put more restrictions on Kevin's personal expenditures from the receivership assets. They don't want him spending money for a luxurious lifestyle when that money could (theoretically) be given to victims -- that is, the people who feel they have been scammed by his weight-loss book a few years ago. (Keep in mind that this has nothing to do with compensating the many people who say they have been scammed by Trudeau's huge, elaborate, Ponzi-like Global Information Network (GIN).)

Now, whether or not that money really will go to victims remains to be seen. At least some of it is going to the receiver, and a lot of it has already gone to lawyers. But earmarking the funds to compensate the vics is the way the FTC is presenting the case.

(Here's a little bit of recent history regarding the Trudeau court cases, just in case you haven't caught up over the past couple of months.)

Regarding Document 744 and several that came before it, the bottom line is that if the FTC has its way, their quarry is not only going to be compelled to live... gasp!... a middle-class lifestyle, which is quite a comedown for Katie, but that he's going to have to get a J-O-B to sustain it. As in: a real job, rather than an elevated position in Scamworld. What an insult.

But I look at it this way: even with that he will still be much better off, at least materially, than the majority of the world's people. As the late great Bob Marley (and later, the late great Peter Tosh) sang in "Stop That Train," a long-time favorite of mine:
Some livin' big, but the most is livin' small:
They just can't even find no food at all.

And I'm guessing that the FTC-recommended budget would also leave Katie measurably better off than many if not most of his most faithful fans and followers -- particularly those who spent their life savings to advance in GIN, hoping that someday they could be rich and successful like their fearless leader.

As you'll see if you read the August 30 court doc, the FTC doesn't object to Trudeau having an allowance for personal expenses, but, as indicated above, they think he should earn it through "future legitimate employment" instead of just sitting on his butt getting it from the receivership estate. This is from the FTC's motion:

As noted above, the FTC does not object to the Receiver allowing Trudeau money for 'ordinary and necessary' living expenses from salary he earns through future legitimate employment (much as a debtor can retain portions of his income in other contexts). Put differently, if Trudeau adds to the receivership estate through his employment, he can enjoy the portion of that addition necessary to pay his personal expenses. However, if Trudeau chooses not to contribute to the estate, then—exactly like people who elect not work in other situations—he will have to rely on friends and family to support him. But he cannot simply sit idle and receive a monthly dole from a fund that isn’t his.

As indicated in the budget that the receiver prepared for Trudeau (one of the exhibits in Document 744-1)), the FTC believes that Trudeau's "ordinary and necessary" monthly expenses should only be $4,676. Why, that wouldn't even pay for his customary monthly cigar bill, much less his personal chef, and the rent on that big McCastle. And then to add insult to injury, the FTC thinks he should either work at a legitimate job for the money, or else get help from family and friends, instead of having it handed to him from the receivership assets (which include but are not limited to GIN).

The FTC also thinks Katie's allowance should be the lesser of the "ordinary and necessary living expenses" and what he earns "legitimately." Beyond that, if he wants to continue living the really good life, he needs to get a little help from his friends. Now would be a really good time for some of those GIN Council brethren to step forward. Either that, or Katie is going to have to learn to smoke Swisher Sweets and start shopping at Walmart.

A Facebook friend of mine noted that Kevin probably has lots of rich pals who will gladly subsidize his ritzy lifestyle in exchange for being his bestie. "I think Kevin planned it all out in case the sh-t hit the fan, which it did," my friend wrote. "He'll be fine. Unfortunately GIN members will continue to fail."

Good points. And yet, Kevin's folks had to put their home up just to raise his bond so he could go to Canada back in July. You'd think that some of his affluent besties would have stepped forward then to keep him from having to turn to his sweet middle-class folks. Because no matter what the story is behind that bond, you gotta admit that it looks pretty bad for a successful billionaire to have his aging parents risk their home of more than 60 years so their son can go catch some fishies in Canada, or whatever the heck he was doing there.

At any rate, in case you're not already convinced, the latest docs are further evidence that the FTC and the receiver really are calling the shots -- at least for now. That is something that even the hysterical "GIN-is-doomed" sensationalists got right, though they've generally over-stated, over-simplified, or otherwise distorted the matter.

This does not necessarily mean GIN will go away. I think that there still is a real possibility that may happen, but the receivership agreement filed on August 7, 2013 also says the receiver has an obligation to keep Trudeau's business entities in operation as long as they are legal and -- this is important -- profitable (see Item 12 on page 11). What it does mean is that the FTC and receiver are going to do everything possible to squeeze every bit of money from Trudeau and his business entities -- including GIN. So far it appears that Kevin is NOT getting his way in this matter, no matter what he may be telling his followers, or what they may be telling each other. If you're still in GIN, keep that in mind and plan accordingly. Accept that GIN is not going to make you rich and that at some point you may simply need to cut your losses.

* * * * *
I also checked on the criminal case (Case # 1:10-cr-00886, United States of America v. Kevin Trudeau, the Honorable Ronald Guzman presiding), and there is little new information that is publicly available. No doubt both sides are busily preparing for the trial, which as far as I know is still scheduled to begin on November 4, 2013. According to the docket, the pre-trial conference is set to October 15, 2013 at 10:30 AM, and pre-trial motions are due by Friday, September 6. That is the case for which there is a possibility of a life prison sentence, but I seriously doubt that will come to pass -- and frankly, as much as I dislike KT and his scams, I don't think that would be justice. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if some more paper shuffling resulted in the trial being canceled or at least continued. You just never know what will happen.

During a discussion about these matters on one of the Facebook forums, someone asked why there was even a possibility that Kevin would not get a life sentence. A better question might be: Why is there a possibility, however remote, that he will be thrown in prison for life? Frankly, I am still not clear on that myself. Kevin Trudeau is without doubt a lifelong scammer (and GIN is without a doubt a scam, in my opinion), and in a perfect world he would be forbidden from scamming for the rest of his life. Even so, it still boggles my mind that he could be caged for life, when scam gurus such as James Arthur Ray served less than two years for cooking three people to death in his phony sweat lodge in Sedona, Arizona in 2009. (Moreover, caging scammers doesn't stop them from scamming; as reported here and elsewhere last year, James Ray was pushing Your Wish Is Your Command while he was still in prison!)

And let's not even get into the vile acts of some of KT's former compadres, who may not have been charged with anything formally, but around whom some pretty nasty allegations continually swirl (Loony Coldwell, anyone)?

That said, I realize that the FTC has laid its case out very carefully and methodically, and what I think, or what Trudeau's fans think, really doesn't matter at the end of the day. Although KT's fans don't agree with the whole premise of the case, the FTC has been pretty thorough. And, as noted on this Whirled before, the government actually used a specific formula to determine the potential punishment in the criminal case, should KT be found guilty by a jury of his peers. Originally the government recommended a range of 188-225 months in prison -- or between 15.66666666 and 18.75 years Document number 51, filed 04/12/13). Here are links to JPEGs of the individual pages of this document, which explains the government's reasoning:

Page 1: http://tinyurl.com/kaga78h
Page 2: http://tinyurl.com/ldpgfcz
Page 3: http://tinyurl.com/lxt6p7w
Page 4: http://tinyurl.com/mzrulek
Page 5: http://tinyurl.com/n8449ua
Page 6: http://tinyurl.com/m4sr7ma

At some point after that April 2013 filing, Judge Guzman ruled that the Court could impose a maximum sentence of life. To tell the truth, I have still not read the actual ruling, which presumably contains an explanation for this increase. Maybe I just overlooked it in all of my PACER retrievals and document perusals. But I know that there are some transcripts that, although entered on the docket, are not yet viewable through PACER.

However, the potential life sentence has been mentioned several times, including in this document from the civil case (see page 2, paragraph 2). So it still could happen, although as I have said, I don't think it will.

By the way, unless documents have been filed in the past few days but just not uploaded to PACER yet, it appears that the most recent Kevin Trudeau bankruptcy case, filed on April 22 of this year, is really dead. Although it was terminated on June 3, 2013 due to failure to file documents, the docket listed August 30, 2013 as the deadline for objecting to the discharge. August 30 has come and gone, and no new docket entries have been made since July 3 (that was trustee Phillip D. Levey's request to be discharged from any further duties as trustee.)

It seems clear to me that the government has Trudeau firmly in their grip for now, and I have no doubt that individual investigators and attorneys who have been on this case for years and years -- long before GIN existed -- will do everything in their power to secure the maximum punishment for KT's life of fraud and scams. But ultimately, I suppose, it will be up to the jury (and the judge, to a certain extent). Also keep in mind that Trudeau still has a lot of fans and supporters. Some of them think he can do no wrong, and some aren't convinced of his infallibility, but all will still choose him over the government any day. And if he does still have friends in Scamworld, presumably they might be able to raise some money for him too, through entities that are beyond the scope of the FTC, the receivership, and the courts.

So don't count Kevin Trudeau out of the game yet.

Scamworld and the larger problem
Another Facebook friend, Julie Daniel, re-posted a link to the now-classic May 2012 Verge video on Scamworld, featuring my blogging colleague Salty Droid as one of the fighters against the scams and scammers. The accompanying Verge online article by Joseph Flatley is very good too, and really drives the point home.

Some of the comments on Salty Droid's recent post re Chump U are pretty eye-opening as well. A person using the name InTheKnow is sharing some great insight into how leads are bought and sold and bought and sold repeatedly in Scamworld among the pros. We all know this goes on but this person seems to have experience in the boiler rooms, and goes into some detail about how leads are rated in order to determine how much they are worth.

(It occurred to me that Trudeau made one of his big mistakes by trying to pull kind of the same thing on a smaller scale with amateurs, i.e. GIN members, who for the most part were not used to dealing with this stuff on any scale, and for whom just a very few solid leads could have made a significant difference in their GIN business. People paid good money for questionable or bad leads, and matters were made worse by the fact that in many cases people paid for leads that were never even delivered.)

Another person using the name K. Chang is sharing insights on the Trump post and other recent Salty posts about the investigations of various scammers/scams and the revolving door/corruption of some of the regulatory agencies, including the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

And my pal Tom Banjo, who probably knows more than he cares to know about Donald Trump's real estate and other operations, has some excellent comments as well. I urge you to read the post and the comments. Here's that link again.

It is all rather depressing and once again provides perspective on the enormity of the problem. And of course it lends more validity to my favorite mantra re GIN: No neat and tidy endings.

But that doesn't mean we should ever, ever give up in the efforts to educate ourselves and others about these scams, and do what we can to fight them. We may not be able to stop the Scamworld train, but we might be able to prevent some people from hopping on board for a journey to nowhere fast.

PS ~ Speaking of Loony Coldwell, Bernie has done it again on this hilarious -- and insightful -- GINtruth.com post about Loony's hubris.

* Re "Times is tough": in case you are wondering, that was a deliberate grammatical error.

Update, 5 September 2013: The FTC apparently presented its case before the court yesterday, September 4. From the civil case docket:

MINUTE entry before Honorable Robert W. Gettleman: Motion hearing held on 9/4/2013 regarding motion 744 to modify the Receivership order. Response is due by 9/12/2013. Reply is due by 9/16/2013. Mailed notice (gds) (Entered:09/04/2013)
As you can see, a response to the FTC's motion to modify the Receivership order is due a week from today, and a reply to the response is due four days later, on September 16, 2013. So despite what some had predicted, yesterday was apparently no big deal, just court business as usual, and more than likely Kevin is still smoking his expensive cigars and living a relatively luxurious life, perhaps with a little help from his friends. (Are y'all getting bored with this yet? :-))

There is nothing new on the criminal case either since that 8/08/13 transcript was entered on the docket on August 26. However, that transcript is still not available through PACER.

Also, I checked the docket, and Kimball Anderson, Katherine Rohlf, and Thomas Kirsch of Winston & Strawn LLP are still listed as the attorneys on both the civil and criminal case. So it appears that Katie's present flock of attorneys have not abandoned him yet.


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Monday, July 08, 2013

Kevin Trudeau: Gone fishing? Or something...

Click to enlarge.

Apparently the buzz about Kevin Trudeau going to Canada for a GIN Adventures fishing trip was not quite accurate, so I have updated this post accordingly.
~ CC, 12 July, 2013

Which successful, happy billionaire, recently finding himself in a bit of a legal bind, was apparently unable to post a mere $209,000 bond, and allowed his aged and unabashedly middle-class parents to put up their modest home -- a home in which they have lived for 60 years -- just so he could go to Canada for...who knows what?
 
By now many people who have been following serial scammer Kevin Trudeau's legal woes know that his parents put their Massachusetts home up late last month to secure a bond in Trudeau's ongoing criminal contempt case [case number 1:10-cr-00886, the Hon. Ronald A. Guzman presiding], which is related to his civil case with the Federal Trade Commission [case number 1:03-CV-03904, the Hon. Robert Gettleman presiding]. Trudeau had previously been ordered to surrender his US passport to the court (he has an Italian passport too, but claimed that he left it in a biometric safe in Zurich). Well, he was given his passport back so he could travel to Canada, even though he had previously been ordered to stay in the Chicago area until his cases are resolved.

But The Great White North was calling, and the courts said, "Okay, bud, you can go, but you have to put up that bond." Or something to that effect. I can't access all of the documents yet, but I did access the Forfeiture Agreement, aka document #69 on the criminal case docket.

This isn't the first time Katie had his passport snatched away, and then requested permission to go to Canada. It happened in February 2010 too, during that whole email-the-judge debacle. That time, Katie was told he could not go to Canada and he had to stay in his room. Or in the Chicago area, anyway. There was talk of throwing him in jail for thirty days for contempt for that email campaign. But that sentence was vacated, and his passport was duly returned.

So why is Kevin in Canada now, apart from the fact that the court allowed him to go? The initial buzz was that he went on another GIN Adventures fishing trip, similar to others he has led, and for which he charges participants his usual exorbitant price for the privilege of hanging with him for a few days. Others, however, said that  the GIN Adventure trips are always in August, suggesting that perhaps that was not why Katie went to Canada.But if you think I'm going to let a perfectly good snark op get away from me, you have another think coming. Anyway, here's the PDF of the GIN Report featuring his 2012 trip.

If you peruse that report you'll know that a GIN-ventures excursion isn't just any fishing trip, no-siree. This is a chance of a lifetime for a few lucky GIN brothers (there don't seem to be any GIN sisters in evidence). Said one enthusiastic sucker...um...participant named Mike B, regarding the 2012 fishing adventure:

The Initial GIN Adventure...was a huge success! While the expected benefits of great fishing, great hosts, great location, and great weather were all certainly experienced, the trip went light years beyond that. The added benefits of it being an exclusive GIN event with fantastic, supportive, lively, warm GIN hosts, and fun loving and adventurous fishermen -- proved again that there is no club like the Global Information Network! And the fact that there were no phones or computers made it possible to connect completely with all in attendance, and to be present to the wonderful experience of fishing and masterminding together. I would strongly recommend GIN adventures to each and every member. I know that I will never be the same person after attending. Experience for yourself, the staggering life experience, at one of the next GIN adventures. You'll be glad you did. I personally cannot wait to go back, and do not plan on ever missing a future GIN Adventure.

Naturally, the various contingents are fiercely divided over the matter of the bond -- that is, if the conversations on Facebook and YouTube are any indication. Most of the anti-KT folks are saying that Trudeau was heartless and crass, or at least highly irresponsible and hypocritical, for "making" his parents do this, or asking them to do it, or allowing them to do it, or whatever the case may be, particularly since he is supposed to be so well off. Admittedly, though, none of us is really privy to the Trudeau family dynamics, so we do not know all of the details.

On the other side of the fray we have Kevin's defenders, who say the home is not at risk because Kevin will certainly -- no doubt about it! -- keep his commitment to return and face the music, just like he keeps all of his commitments. And besides, they contend, the whole FTC case is unjust, and is a clear example of judicial tyranny. Some have argued that we shouldn't assume that Kevin coerced or even asked his folks to put up their home; maybe, say the KT fans, the elder Trudeaus volunteered. Maybe they insisted.

Of course these defenders overlook the fact that...pardon me for stating the painfully obvious... a successful billionaire type like Kevin shouldn't have to depend upon his presumably much less wealthy parents to bail him out. And while I'll grant that not all of the issues with the government are black-and-white or a clear-cut case of good versus evil -- with the government being good and KT being evil -- it is not a clear-cut case the other way either. Kevin isn't the good one fighting the evil government. But he doesn't let a little thing like that get in the way of his continued dramatic misrepresentation of his entire struggle -- which he has been perpetrating for years, with his followers just eating it up.

The big question, for those of us who are concerned about the well being of two sweet old people, is this: Are Mr. and Mrs. Trudeau really in danger of losing their home because of their youngest son's misdeeds? Maybe, maybe not. My pal Tim suggested a few possible scenarios:  
  • Kevin's parents, who are getting on in years, were preparing to move into a condo or perhaps even an assisted living facility anyway. If they own the home free and clear [which according to the information on the Forfeiture Agreement they absolutely do... at least on paper ~ CC], the facility will lien the house and spend the money until they reach the maximum value or the elder Trudeaus pass away. So this could be a good way to set aside money for beneficiaries.  
  • Mr and Mrs T have been benefiting from KT's scams well enough to be involved now in the bad end of it.  [I don't want to believe that, though. They look like such nice folks. ~CC]
  • KT knows the FTC is ready to give up and settle so he has no reason to run away; the millions spent on lawyers is already spent anyway.  
  • All of this was done to bolster his bankruptcy case before August 30, which is the deadline for protesting the discharge of the case. The whole point of the bankruptcy was to convince the courts that KT has no money to pay the big ($37.6 million) fine that the FTC says he owes them. Maybe it will help his case if he can convince them that he doesn't even have enough money to post a paltry $209,000 bond, having to resort instead to allowing his folks to risk their home.
  • KT really is broke again and this was his last option... but it is a pretty big deal to do this just to go fishing in Canada [or whatever he is/was doing there ~CC], so it seems unlikely.  
Of course it could be that Katie is tired of fighting and he wanted just one more fishing trip with the boys -- another op to fish with them, get drunk with them, and pick their pockets -- before surrendering to whatever the FTC and the courts have in store for him. Maybe it's sort of the equivalent of letting your folks give you some money so you can go on a really neat trip before buckling down and starting college.

(There's also the remote possibility that his parents didn't understand what they were signing, but you would think that the courts would have their legal ducks in a row on that matter.)

But Kevin seems to have a contingency plan no matter what happens. Remember, he already has big plans to write a big heroic epic book if he gets thrown in the slammer. I may have mentioned that on this post. Anyway, I'm sure that everything is perfectly fine, and that the only reason Mommy and Daddy put up their home is that Kevin accidentally left his moneys in his biometric safe in Zurich, along with his Italian passport.

It does appear that Katie's folks have been striving to protect him for decades -- or at least his mom has, assuming that the now-famous 1991 letter to a judge, begging for leniency for Kevin, was really written by Mrs. Trudeau. Some speculate that Kevin wrote the letter himself, or had his mom write it. I've shared it before, but here's that link again -- the link to Page 1, anyway, and you can follow the arrows to read the rest.

And this raises another issue about the roles that parents and other loved ones play in enabling scammers and crooks. Most of us -- me included -- have a tendency to err on the side of compassion for loved ones who may be innocent bystanders or collateral damage, and who are "guilty" themselves of nothing more than unconditional love and loyalty for the wrongdoer in their life. But sometimes you just have to ask how much this unconditional love and loyalty have contributed, however unwittingly, to that person's wrongdoing. There are several books on this subject; one that seems useful is The Sociopath Next Door, by Martha Stout, PhD.

Katie's defenders say that at least he is taking care of his parents, pointing to something learned from the recent deposition of Kevin's former financial guy, Michael Dow. I wrote about that here (scroll down to "The Dow deposition"). One of the FTC's lawyers, Mr. Mora, asked Michael Dow questions about Kevin's lavish property in Ojai, California. In the depo, Mr. Mora asked about some of the expenses related to the California property, and Mr. Dow said they included, "The monthly mortgage, a landscaping service, care for Mr. Trudeau's parents." Mr. Mora asked if the parents resided in the California home and Mr. Dow stuttered around and said he honestly did not know.

But Kevin's parents live in Massachusetts, not California. I don't know why the "care" he was allegedly providing for his elders would be listed as an expense against the Ojai house, but I've never claimed to be a bookkeeping expert. However, as my friend Tim also observed, "The Ojai house looks like a nice way to funnel money around. If they look more closely there might be checks from KT for expenses like roofers, gardeners, etc., and some of those people might be based in Massachusetts."

After his mission in Canada is completed, will Kevin somehow manage to slip the surly bonds of US judicial oversight and disappear somewhere overseas, perhaps even somewhere beyond the reach of extradition laws? If so, one can only hope that he is the good and dutiful son that his fans would like to believe he is, and that he'll at least find a way to make sure the bond is covered so his dear old parents won't lose their home. If so, the fans will applaud him for being a hero and looking out for his folks even while fighting tyrants, and they will mourn the fact that he had to leave his beloved United States to get away from the tyranny.

Whether he flees or comes back, there will be no neat and tidy endings (where have we heard that before? Oh, that's right: here!). For one thing, unless it gets cancelled, it appears that GIN will be holding a summer conference in Zurich on July 26-28, just as the judges are deciding Katie's fate (supposedly they are due to make a decision on July 26. At least that's when the hearings are currently expected to resume, and Kevin is required to be in court for that).



If/when Katie comes back from Canada, perhaps the courts will give him his passport back later this month so he can go to Zurich. For such tyrannical types, they sure have been letting him get away with an awful lot of stuff that would have probably landed most of us under the slammer.

Update, 12 July 2013: According to this piece in the Chicago Tribune, Kevin went to Canada for a "seminar-planning" session.
The legal consequences for Trudeau appear to be building. Just last week he nearly missed a seminar-planning session in Canada because prosecutors asked Guzman to force him to turn in his passports — he has dual U.S.-Italian citizenship — and post a bond.


At the hearing, Trudeau's attorneys sought to convince Guzman that their client had significant ties to Illinois and didn't pose a risk to flee. The seminars and speeches were his only way of eking out a living, they said...


...Ultimately, Trudeau was allowed to go to Winnipeg after his parents agreed to post their longtime Massachusetts home as collateral for his $200,000-plus bond. The judge ordered that Trudeau turn over his Italian passport in spite of earlier claims that it was locked in a biometric safe in Zurich that could be opened only with his fingerprint ID. On the scheduled day of the trip, the passport suddenly turned up.

So there you have it. For now.


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Wednesday, July 03, 2013

Kevin Trudeau: Rumors, lies, and SNAG support

IMPORTANT NOTICE/UPDATE, 4 July 2013: When I'm wrong about something I feel obligated to correct it as soon as possible, and I was wrong about one point regarding the recent court happenings with Kevin Trudeau. It turns out that one of the rumors Lenny Coldwell was spreading -- regarding the terms of a secured bond set in Trudeau's criminal case -- was not a rumor but was true. I was unable until today to retrieve a document stating that Kevin's parents put their Massachusetts home up to secure the bond. So I will make corrections in the text below to reflect this point. Corrections will be in this pretty red color.
 
As many of y'all may know, serial scammer Kevin Trudeau spent some time in court last week (and part of this week) for hearings on both his civil and criminal cases. Despite the crowing of his loudest detractors, who salivate over the prospect of Kevin being stuck in a tiny cell with some imaginary jailhouse rapist named Bubba, KT remains un-jailed. Reportedly there will be some actual judge-ly decisions made by the end of this month... but then, we've heard that before.

But there's a little bit of news anyway. For instance, while conferring with my seekrit pal PACER.gov for information about the most recent goings-on in court, I was made privy to an interesting little tidbit about Trudeau's April 2013 bankruptcy. Seems that this bankruptcy case has already been terminated -- as of June 3, 2013 -- due to failure to file required documents. I hadn't heard anything about this on the forums of those who are supposedly keeping the rest of the waiting world informed about Trudeau's cases, so it was news to me that the bankruptcy action was discharged a month ago.

The deadline for objecting to the discharge is August 30, 2013. Knowing the way Kevin and his legal team roll, this could be just another delay tactic, one of hundreds they've employed over the years that this case has dragged on. As a friend of mine observed, "This gives them until August to delay and maybe make a deal, and failing that they protest and refile and delay another 4 months. This is making 20 lawyers very rich."

I think that sounds about right.

Meanwhile, Loony Lenny Coldwell, former b.f.f./business partner/faux-physician for Trudeau, and now KT's daftest detractor, has been spreading rumors [okay, not just rumors ~CC] on Facebook about the latest court happenings. Earlier this week, Loony stated that Kevin's aged parents were willing to put their home on the line for their youngest boy. Or, as Loony put it:

Abe here is what happened: His Parents had to put up their house as bond for Trudeau. The judges (both) told him that he has to hand over his US and Italian Passport asap and that he will not get the passports back. The final ruling is set for the 26th of July.

Trudeau had to put up a secured bond of $209,000. [If you have read this far, you already know that I later found out that his parents had indeed put their Massachusetts home up for the bond.] He also temporarily got his US passport back so that he could go to Canada. Reportedly he's going there for a fishing trip with his buddies, but I don't know if that's true, and if so, I don't know if it's just a private trip with him and the Morters and a few others, or if it's the one where he charges a bunch of people several thousand dollars for the privilege of accompanying him. Here are pics from a previous fishing trip in 2011.

Anyway. Loony's followers were properly outraged about the prospect of the elder Trudeaus possibly losing their home if their little Katie flew the coop. I would have suggested caution before outrage, and would have advised that the outraged ones do a little research before flying off the handle, but I have been blocked from the forums where this was discussed, because both Loony and Abe are afraid of me for some reason.

Kevin's brother Bob, who is very protective of his folks, was particularly upset by Loony's "news."
Click to enlarge.

I thought my caution was well founded when I found out that Bob had spoken to his parents, and they told him the rumor was not true. Privately Bob has told me that he thinks even Kevin wouldn't deliberately do anything to hurt his folks. He said that Kevin doesn't own the house and couldn't put it up without their consent, but he knows that Kevin wouldn't do that to their dad anyway, even if he could. At any rate, Bob tried to set things straight on Loony's page.


Unfortunately, this is one time Lenny was right. And when I say "unfortunately," I don't mean it's unfortunate that Lenny was right about something. Even someone like Lenny can't be wrong about everything. And I don't have a problem admitting when I'm wrong about something, even if it means Lenny was right. I just mean that it is unfortunate that the elder Trudeaus' well being is contingent upon their younger son's doing the right thing.

While I was on PACER.gov I found a document that was filed on July 1, regarding Kevin Trudeau's criminal contempt case with Judge Ronald Guzman [case number 1:10-cr-00886]. This document told me most of what I needed to know: that Trudeau's previous plea of not guilty has been accepted by the court, and that, as I noted above, a secured bond was set in the amount of $209,000. Trudeau was given his US passport, which he had previously surrendered, for travel to Canada. (As noted on a previous post, he claims he left his Italian passport in a biometric safe in Zurich, so he couldn't surrender it to the court.) He has to surrender the US passport again upon his return to the US -- if he returns, that is. And given the bit about his parents' home... we have to hope that he does return.



I also downloaded the docket for this criminal case, and saw that several other documents were also filed on July 1. But when I tried to view them PACER indignantly told me that I do not have permission to do so. The docs PACER coyly mentioned but refused to let me see were listed on the docket as "Pre-trial Bail Report," "Bond," and "Order setting conditions of release." In other words, the deets of the bond are hidden from public view for now, or at least they were as of July 2. Note: Document Number 69 -- the Forfeiture Agreement (regarding Kevin's parents' home) -- was not even listed then, but is now, and is now available for viewing. When I checked, however, the other three documents were still not publicly viewable. Here is page 1 of the docket as I saw it when I first wrote this post:


I looked for the latest documents on the civil case too [1:03-CV-03904 with Judge Robert Gettleman], and retrieved a 27-page document that had also been filed on July 1. The document contains the June 25 opinion of one Mary O'Connor, ASA. Ms. O'Connor was engaged by Trudeau's law firm to provide expert witness testimony related to the question of whether Trudeau's various companies contain sufficient assets to pay the $37.6 million FTC fine. There are pages of figures, including a balance sheet for all of KT's companies as of June 24, 2013. As Ms. O'Connor explained, however, it is only relevant to the companies and not to Kevin's and/or his wife Natalie's personal assets. She wrote, "...we were not provided with information regarding the personal ability of the Trudeaus to pay this amount and therefore, we have no opinion related to the probability that this receivable could be collected."

There really isn't a whole lot of new information in the document, as much of Ms. O'Connor's report was based upon testimony and data previously supplied by Michael Dow, the former financial guy for Natural Cures and some of True-dough's other companies. I wrote about that depo on this post (scroll down to "The Dow deposition"). At any rate, the main point of Ms. O'Connor's report and the attached documentation seems to be to demonstrate that the FTC is not going to be able to get the moneys for that big fine from KT's companies.

In related news, self-described GIN destroyer (and Coldwell protege) Abe Husein posted a video yesterday. He says he is taking a break for now from the constant updates about GIN and KT, due to the fact that his mission to bring GIN to its knees is accomplished, according to him. I think we've heard that "Mission Accomplished" thing before...

But I digress. Abe opened the video with that dramatic tale of Kevin putting his parents' home at risk in order to get his passport. He made a big deal about how inconsiderate and heartless Kevin is. (By the way, he has since announced that he is going to be doing more media interviews and that he is going to expose some of the other scammers in GIN. So... maybe mission not-so-much accomplished after all.)

* * * * *

So that's pretty much the latest on the KT court cases (are you getting bored with them yet?). But before I go, I want to share some comic relief in the form of a couple of impassioned blog posts defending Kevin Trudeau. These are noteworthy in that they provide yet more evidence that Kevin has clearly captured the SNAG (Sensitive New Age Guy/Gal) market, as well as the more secular selfish-help/hustledork wannabe market. Today's featured SNAG True-doughnut is named Etienne Charlatan... I mean, Etienne Charland... and he has a web site and blog called Spiritual Self Transformation.

Etienne, a native of Quebec, is a New-Wage dilettante, a self-described "Emotional Architect" who offers all sorts of services, including something called "Force of Life training." He seems to be obsessed with certain themes, most notably, sexual polarity. He has kind of a gay cowboy vibe going on too, not that there's anything wrong with that. And his professional dilettante creds are truly impressive:
  • Member of the Enlightened Entrepreneur Club
  • Master Alchemist
  • CEO Space Graduate
  • Reiki Master
  • Computer Science Diploma
Etienne, as I indicated above, is quite the defender of KT. At the time he first published this post about Katie's legal woes, he thought that his hero had actually been thrown in jail. Apparently Etienne had misread the headlines that merely indicated that the Feds want to throw Kevin in jail. Later Etienne corrected part of the post but not all of it, a few sentences read as if KT really is behind bars.

After writing that first post, Etienne apparently did a little more ruminating on KT's troubles, and managed to mostly convince himself that Trudeau is really A-Okay and a truly enlightened soul, as indicated in a follow-up post. He does acknowledge that there have been complaints about Trudeau's bidness practices, but apparently talked himself out of believing that those gripes were valid.
Then, there are a bunch of complaints about credit card overcharges and problems with refunds from those purchasing from his TV advertisements. Unless these are all made up to damage his reputation (which would be unlikely, unless someone can show me evidence of it?), that’s definitely not acceptable.

Edit: As Paul pointed out in his comment, it’s too easy to buy online public opinion. For $300 a month, you can get someone to work full-time in writing reviews and complaints.
Uh-huh. I am sure that every complaint and criticism about True-dough has been bought and paid for by the "They" who "don't want you to know" the truth about anything. I'm sure all of the hundreds of consumer complaints, and all of the scathing reviews of Trudeau's books on Amazon, and all of those critical blogs, are bought and paid for by Katie's enemies. Etienne, dude, you are beginning to sound a little bit like Loony Coldwell.

Etienne concludes his blog post with a rundown on the "polarity readings" of Kevin Trudeau, as well as "readings" of such New-Wage huckster notables as Secret stars Bob Proctor and John Assaraf. Scientist Bob has been a fairly frequent snarget on this Whirled (and I know some icky things about his "polarities" that I am not yet at liberty to write about), and I have even mentioned John Asshataraf a few times as well. On this post, for instance.

* * * * *
And so it goes. Rain may be falling on GIN and KT, but the sky has not yet fallen and may not fall. Kevin Trudeau still has plenty of friends and fans, and they don't show any signs of giving up on him. GIN may end, but Katie will go on. The faux-hero prognosticators, who claim to be fighting on behalf of those who feel they've been screwed by KT, have been proven incorrect time and time and time again. They long for that neat and tidy ending that, as I've said so many times before, will probably never come. But shhh! Don't tell Loony and his pals. It will be our little secret.


More True-dough on this Whirled:
* * * * *
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