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Will Kevin Trudeau be caged again or ultimately set free?
That will be determined by a jury and a judge
at his criminal contempt trial, which got underway
on Monday, November 4, 2013.
(The document pictured above is a statement of the charge,
for which he faces a potential prison sentence.) |
As I write this it is Sunday night, November 3,
and tomorrow morning, November 4, at 9:00 AM Central Standard
Time, serial scammer Kevin Trudeau's criminal contempt trial will
get underway. [United States District Court, Northern District of
Illinois, Case # 1:10−cr−00886−1, Honorable Ronald A.
Guzman presiding.] I've been yammering about this thing for
months, here and on Facebook, trying to make sense of it all and
to help others make sense of it as well.
There's actually been precious little about the criminal case in
the mainstream media so far; for the past couple of months the
journos -- with the notable exceptions of Kansas City, Missouri's Ryan Kath (KSHB-TV), and the crew at ABC News -- have mostly been concerned about Katie getting jailed,
and un-jailed, and re-jailed, and re-un-jailed, and so forth.
(Ryan Kath and ABC did more extensive investigative stories about
Trudeau's big Ponzi-like monstrosity, the Global Information
Network (GIN).)
All of the in-and-out-of-the-joint action has been in regard to
the related civil case [same court as above, Case #
1:03−cv−03904, the Honorable Robert W. Gettleman presiding].
The plaintiffs and the court have been holding jail -- or coercive incarceration, as they like to call it -- over Katie's head as the
court-appointed receiver has struggled to find his hidden assets,
while he has continued, on the one hand, to thumb his nose at all of them by
going shopping for pricey stuff; and on the
other hand, to whine and plead abject poverty, particularly when he's
clad in orange and standing humble before the judge.
I've made no secret of my opinion that even though I think that
Trudeau is a lifelong scammer and GIN is a scam (something I've
been harping about since late 2009), I still don't think he
belongs in prison, particularly not for fifteen to eighteen years
or longer. That is one point on which some of my allies and I may
respectfully disagree.
Some people thought this case would never actually get to trial
(I was one of them, for a while), but it looks like it really is.
For real.
Just to recap: Trudeau is going to trial for criminal contempt
for violating court orders he'd previously signed. The
prosecution says that even though he'd promised not to do so, he willfully misrepresented, in infomercials,
the contents of his book, The Weight Loss Cure "They" Don't Want You
To Know About. His supporters
say his First Amendment rights are being violated, and that he is
being nailed just for claiming a diet is easy. But it's really
about so much more than that. I think that both the FTC in the
civil case, and the U.S. Attorney's office in the related but
more recently initiated criminal case (the one that's going to
trial tomorrow) have made a very strong case against Katie. I
just don't agree with the proposed punishment.
Trudeau has plenty of detractors, of course, but he also still has
plenty of loyal supporters, and some have recently said that they
were called upon by Katie's lawyers during the pre-trial
conference stage to provide testimonials about Trudeau's goodness
and heroic qualities, as well as about the ease and efficacy of
the hCG weight-loss regimen that is at the heart of the criminal
contempt trial. The problem there is that the prosecution has
been trying to do everything possible to keep such testimonials
out of the trial, because they claim that such things will derail
the proceedings and cause a sideshow trial that will only confuse
the jury.
But Katie's lawyers continue to insist that these testimonials
are relevant, as are other pieces of evidence that they say the
prosecution is unfairly trying to suppress.
The main aspect I've found a little troubling about the criminal
case is the potential long prison sentence, and the fact that
even though the jury will decide guilt or innocence, the judge
will decide the sentence. And the prosecution wants to prevent
the jury from considering the potential sentence when rendering
their verdict. It appears that they are doing everything they can
to avoid a prosecutor's worst nightmare: jury nullification.
Over the past couple of months I've shared quite a few of the
court documents that are publicly available via PACER.gov. I've
downloaded thousands of pages and have shared many documents from
both the civil and the criminal case on the publicly viewable
Facebook forum GIN Network Truth, and also on Scribd.com, with
links to the latter in various blog posts on this Whirled.
However, for the benefit of those who haven't yet seen all of the
docs or who just want to review them and don't want to go hunting
all over the place, I'm providing a handy list of links. Each
link below -- with the exception of the civil and criminal
dockets -- is a PDF that is actually several documents in one. I
often combine documents so there won't be so many different links
to follow.
Some relevant court documents for
your review
Court documents don't tell the whole story, of course,
but as I've noted before, they give a more complete picture than
you'll find on revenge-driven amateur videos or even on sight and
sound bites generated by the mainstream media. These are some of
the most important recent documents, beginning with the pre-trial
motions filed early in September. The ones not included are
simply one-page minute entries making note of a proceeding but
giving no details beyond that.
- Criminal case docket as of 11-03-13
This is the complete criminal case docket, as of
November 3, 2013 (the most updated version as of my most
recent visit to PACER). The dockets of both the civil and
the criminal case give a good encapsulated history of the
proceedings. (NOTE: You cannot follow the embedded links
and get to the individual documents unless you have a
PACER account and are signed in.) This docket was
initiated in October 2010 and is now 11 pages long,
having generated more than 1,100 ages of court
documents.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/181221048/Trudeau-criminal-case-docket-as-of-11-03-13-pdf
- Criminal case, pre-trial motions,
Documents 82 through 91, filed on September 6, 2013.
These include the proposed jury instructions.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/180368274/Trudeau-Criminal-case-Documents-82-through-91-09-06-13-pdf
- Criminal case, responses to pre-trial
motions, Documents 93 through 95, filed on September 23,
2013.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/181217149/Trudeau-Criminal-case-Documents-93-through-95-responses-to-pre-trial-motions-09-23-13-pdf
- Criminal case, Documents 97 through
106
More pre-trial activity, filed between September 30
and October 11, 2013.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/181217677/Trudeau-Criminal-case-Documents-97-thru-106-09-30-13-thru-10-11-13-pdf
- Criminal case Documents 109 through
125
Still more pre-trial activity: documents filed
between October 22 and November 1, 2013.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/181218504/Trudeau-Criminal-case-Documents-109-thru-125-10-22-thru-11-01-13-pdf
- Criminal case Documents 127
through 132, filed on November 3, 2013. These were filed after I signed out of PACER on November 3 and originally published this post. They include numerous important documents,
such as the government's revised jury instructions,
government witness and exhibit lists, and Kevin's
lawyers' ongoing attempts to argue that the evidence the
government is saying is irrelevant is in fact extremely
relevant, and central to the case.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/181463886/Trudeau-criminal-case-Documents-127-through-132-11-03-13-pdf
- Criminal Case Document
number 133, filed 11/04/13:
This came in after I posted the group of
documents linked to above. Rather than uploading to
Scribd right now, I'll just copy and paste from the
document itself, since it's a short one.
DEFENDANT KEVIN TRUDEAU’S WITNESS
LIST
Defendant Kevin Trudeau hereby discloses the following
witnesses who he may call during the upcoming criminal
contempt trial that is currently scheduled to begin on
November 4, 2013. Trudeau reserves the right to add
further witnesses to this list before trial and as trial
proceeds. In addition, Trudeau incorporates by reference
all witnesses on the government’s trial witness list.
1. Donald Barrett
2. Ron Braver
3. Rob Curan
4. Heather Hippsley
5. Daniel Hurtado
6. Laureen Kapin
7. Dorothy Cornelius Kiraly
8. Marc Lane
9. Jim Leto
10. Jackie Lyon
11. Dru Martin
12. Michael Mora
13. David O’Toole
14. Suneil Sant
15. Michael Sciucco
16. Loretta Wilson
17. Tina Wilson
18. Business Records Custodian From At Least The
Following:
a. United States District Court for the Northern
District of New York
b. United States District Court for the Northern
District of Illinois
c. Alliance Publishing Group
d. Federal Trade Commission
e. ITV Global Inc. and Affiliated Companies
f. Jenner & Block LLP
g. The Law Firm of Marc J. Lane P.C.
h. Alliance Publishing Group, Inc.
i. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition
j. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society
k. Buffalo News
l. MSNBC
Those are some pretty interesting names. The
list includes some of Kevin's past lawyers and associates (Marc
Lane was his asset-shuffling co-conspirator... I mean... his
asset protection professional). Suneil "Neil" Sant is a
long-time buddy of Trudeau's and former financial officer at some
of his companies. He's been part of the court cases for years.
And Alliance Publishing Group is actually one of Kevin's
companies, formed to disguise the fact that his books were
self-published and that the most of the money from book sales was
going into his piggy bank.
I wonder if Dorothy Cornelius Kiraly is related to Perry Kiraly,
the GIN member who is currently orchestrating the "let's
take back GIN campaign I discussed here previously (I first
mentioned it here; scroll down to "And in other news..."). Also, I noticed that Donald
Barrett is at the top of the list.
Barrett was head of ITV Direct, the company that produced the
infomercials at the heart of this criminal case (and the civil
case as well). Donald Barrett is a scammer in his own right and I
still need to tell that part of the Trudeau story. I have just
the person to help me tell it too: my friend Julie, who worked
for ITV back in the day.
From civil to criminal in ten easy
years...
You may still be wondering how a civil case morphed into a
criminal case. It's a long, long story -- more than 14,000 pages
long, to be exact. I don't pretend to understand it all myself.
But once again the court documents tell the story better than I
can.
- Civil case Docket as of 10-31-13
This is the complete docket of the civil case, as of
October 31, 2013 (the most updated version as of my most
recent visit to PACER). This is the case involving the
$37.6 million dollar fine from the Federal Trade
Commission (FTC)). Again, note that you cannot follow the
embedded links and get to the individual documents unless
you have a PACER account and are signed in. This docket
was initiated in June 2003 and is now 61 pages long,
having generated more than 14,000 pages of court
documents.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/181221903/Trudeau-civil-case-docket-as-of-10-31-13-pdf
- Older documents from the civil case:
the history of that big fine
While I have downloaded and shared
many hundreds of pages of court documents, there's no way
I can download and share every page that has been
generated in this case, which, as noted above, has
dragged on for longer than a decade. However, there's one
small group of older documents I downloaded and combined
the other day, because they provide some historical
perspective for the benefit of those who are wondering
how the FTC fine got to be so large ($37.6 million-plus).
I combined a 2010 order from Judge Robert Gettleman
(Document 336) with some relevant 2009 documents that
show how the FTC calculated the $37.6 million fine. Although these are, as I mentioned, are older docs, they are enlightening
nevertheless. Here's that link:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/181222940/Trudeau-Civil-Case-Documents-OLD-docs-336-04-16-10-and-267-and-269-11-13-09-pdf
One point of interest is that these older docs show some
correspondence from Trudeau's asset protection lawyer Marc Lane,
who was earnestly giving his word that he and Trudeau would
cooperate with the FTC and the courts... at the VERY SAME TIME
that (as we now know, based upon more recent court documents) he
and Trudeau were diligently planning the asset shuffling as they
prepared for the launch of GIN.
I also noticed this interesting snippet from the Chicago
Tribune:
Although the court record is massive, it
establishes very little about Trudeau's finances or the
book's performance, and the author is pleading poverty.
"I've been pretty much wiped out," he said in an
interview last week. 'Their intent is to bury me."
Sounds like yesterday's news, right? Not quite. It was
from an article dated September 14, 2009. Yes, boys and girls, at
the very time that Katie was preparing to launch GIN -- AND using
his lavishly wealthy lifestyle as a big selling point for GIN --
he was pleading poverty to the courts. Someone call the
waaaahhhhmbulance! And that was more than four years ago. The
more things change...
I remember the ad copy that appeared on the (now
defunct) official Your Wish Is Your Command site, and
still can be seen on countless poorly designed affiliate sites (as well as eBay stores where the seller is desperately
trying to unload YWIYC for
pennies on the dollar, and on certain snarky graphics on this Whirled)...
Once I finally learned the right information
from the Brotherhood, billionaires, the politically
elite, captains of industry and the members of the
Illuminati, Freemasons, The Skull and Bones and other
secret societies, I cracked the success code.
And now I live an exciting, fun and free life filled with
financial wealth and happiness.
Here are some other things I achieved and accumulated
ONLY when I learned and put these secrets to work...
- My companies have done BILLIONS of dollars in sales.
- I have owned TV networks, publishing and manufacturing
companies and other corporations in many countries - all
over the world.
- My associated companies have employed well over 3000
people.
- I attained the status of "New York Times #1
bestselling author" AND sold over 50 million copies
in over 18 countries.
- I have lived in multi-million dollar homes all across
America and on 3 continents.
- I have owned super luxury cars including Rolls Royces,
Ferraris, Bentleys, and various Mercedes Benz cars.
- Collected millions of dollars in luxury jewelry.
- I have traveled first class everywhere in private jets
and limos and stayed in the most expensive hotel suites.
- I've had servants including a butler, private chef,
chauffer [sic] and bodyguard.
- I have wined and dined in the finest restaurants and
enjoyed the most expensive wine and champagne.
- I have associated with some of the richest most
powerful people in the world including Presidents and
Prime Ministers, Generals, business
tycoons, and the world's most famous Hollywood
celebrities.
- I have dated some of the most beautiful sexy women in
the world and now am outrageously happily married to a
stunning woman who is well traveled, well educated and
one of the nicest people you could ever meet. I am
enjoying an amazingly satisfying romantic loving
relationship beyond my wildest dreams!
- I also have unreal almost super human health. I
virtually NEVER get sick!
There's no question that you can have everything you
want. You can attract any amount of money! You can meet
your soul mate and have the relationship of your dreams!
You can live in a beautiful home in an affluent
community! You can drive the car of your dreams! You can
wear expensive, stylish, designer clothes!
And most important of all...
YOU CAN BE TRULY HAPPY!
And so on, and so forth. This copy was being
generated and distributed at the same time Katie was telling the
courts and anyone else who would listen that he was just a poor
boy because the mean old FTC was wiping him out. As I said, the
more things change...
Context is so important, and the lawyers on both sides in the
criminal trial are trying to keep the entire context from the
jury. That's their job. But we who are not directly involved in
this case have the luxury of context. If you look at all of the
information that has been made available so far you can easily
see that the government isn't a knight in shining armor here.
From where I sit, however, all of this information --
particularly the info in the court docs -- also makes Katie look
even more sleazy and smarmy and deceptive than even I have been
portraying him in my years of blogging about him. No, I still do
not think he belongs in a cage for the rest of his life, but that
context thing is definitely a two-edged sword.
At any rate, this should be a busy couple of weeks
for Katie. The trial is expected to last two to three weeks, and
Katie is also due back in court for another civil case hearing on
November 21. I'll do my best to keep you updated. And within the
next couple of days I might even finally publish a PACER tutorial
so you can go hunt and gather documents for yourself, if you feel
so inclined.
PS ~ Let's make this a real
conversation.
I believe that most people who are well-informed
and are totally honest with themselves know that the issues at
stake here are not all black and white. I do not see the
government as the force of unequivocal good fighting the force of
pure evil (Kevin), but neither do I see Kevin as the troubled
hero fighting the big evil Goliath government on behalf of free
people everywhere. One point I do want to make here is that the
real evils committed by government in other areas do NOT excuse
or exonerate Trudeau or other similar scammers, and I believe
that those arguments are often used as red herrings, to distract
people from the real issues. Even so, just with the saga of Kevin
versus the government, I believe that there are enough gray areas
here that reasonable people can disagree.
Accordingly, I really would like to hear from all of you --
whether you're pro or con Trudeau and/or GIN, or just on the
fence. I've read hundreds of comments and have participated in
scads of discussions on Facebook, but believe it or not, not
everybody is on Facebook (in fact I've heard numerous times that
Trudeau himself has advised people to stay off of Facebook
because it's a waste of time). Even if you just copy and paste
some of your own comments from Facebook or other conversations to
the comments section here (why reinvent the wheel?), I'd like to
have a variety of opinions represented here. You can be anonymous
if you wish, or use your own name or a pseudonym.
Just be patient, because, due to spammers and true evil doers, I
have my blogs settings so that all comments do have to be
approved -- and I can only do that if I'm signed in to Blogger.
So more than likely your comment will not show up right away. But
I will publish pretty much anything, no matter how critical it is
of me or what you think my "agenda" is. I do generally
draw the line at excessive obscenities, what I see as potentially
actionable content, or obvious spam. Beyond that, just about
anything goes. And even though I may snark about Trudeau and GIN,
I'll treat you with more respect than you may have encountered on
the forums of some of the so-called "GIN destroyers."
* * * * *
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