Shutdown, schmutdown: Kevin Trudeau case still provides plenty of entertainment

Kevin Trudeau may not be so lucky, if the government has its way.
Shutdown or not, the cases against him seem to be proceeding.

The shutdown of the U.S. government is making many people furious, and rightly so, but for many folks, particularly those of us who have been following serial scammer Kevin Trudeau's courtroom dramas, the governmental glitch offers plenty of entertainment bang for the buck (or for the government's lack of bucks, as the case may be).

But before we get to the entertainment part, let's recap the recent developments with the civil and criminal court cases. First off, as noted on this Whirled yesterday, the FTC has petitioned the court for an indefinite delay in the next (civil case) hearing for Katie. This is a change from their earlier granted motion to move the October 1 hearing to October 4 [see update below, though]. As they wrote on Document 761, filed October 1, 2013:

As the Court is aware, on September 30, 2013, appropriations to the FTC lapsed. The FTC does not know when Congress will restore funding. Without appropriations, FTC attorneys are legally prohibited from working except in limited circumstances. Accordingly, the FTC requests that the Court reset the proceeding scheduled for Friday, October 4 to three days after the Commission resumes operation, or to the earliest available time thereafter.

So that means that in the matter involving that hefty $37.6 million FTC fine -- the matter which brought all of his assets under receivership -- Kevin is free for now, though not off the hook, unless Judge Gettleman decides otherwise. (And at this point, nothing would surprise me, although Judge Gettleman seems to have been growing sterner with Katie in recent hearings.) The second part of Document 761 is the part where it looks as if the FTC lawyers are throwing their hands up in despair, or at the very least giving themselves an out should the case collapse:

Over the past year, the FTC has done everything it reasonably could to move this proceeding forward as rapidly as possible, because moving quickly best serves consumers interests. As we have argued before, significant redress becomes less likely as more time elapses. Accordingly, the FTC is disappointed that it must seek this relief, and the FTC respectfully requests that the Court reset the next proceeding to three days after the Commission resumes operation, or to the earliest available time thereafter.

Translation: "We've done everything we can do to help the consumers, but OTHER people keep these delays going, so what's a girl to do?"

Now, the entertaining part is that even though I haven't yet seen any official statement from Katie, some of his followers, having heard the news of the indefinite postponement, are high-fiving it on Facebook and saying, "Yessssss! This is it! We won!" Some are dead certain that Katie will even show up for the GIN Family Reunion in Washington D.C. later this month (it's scheduled for October 18-20). If so, there may be that hero's welcome after all -- the Return of the King scenario I envisioned others envisioning on this recent blog post. 

And this comes as no surprise whatsoever, but some are even saying that Katie used the power of his mighty mind to shut down the government, and that he can do it whenever he wants to.


It won't be the first time that true believers have ascribed supernatural or magical powers to their hero/idol. I expect we'll see more of the same re Katie as time goes by and delays continue. He will somehow manage to milk each seemingly good turn of fortune for all it's worth, putting his own spin on it and pandering to the true believers. Even if he remains silent, there's plenty of adulation to go around, and the believers themselves will fill in the gaps.

That's what people do, particularly when one of their heroes is in obvious trouble.

But the wrench in the works, which I've mentioned here a few times previously, is that no matter what happens with the civil case, which is far from over anyway, there's still that criminal contempt case. Though anything could conceivably happen to delay or even vacate that case, at this point it appears to be going forth as scheduled (as also noted here yesterday). A status hearing was held on September 30, and another one is set for October 10. And the government shutdown does not seem to be affecting any of it.

Indeed, as this September 30 Reuters article indicates, it's pretty much going to be business as usual in many of the courts across our great land, including (for now, at least) in the Northern District of Illinois, where Trudeau's criminal as well as civil case is being heard.

Thomas Bruton, the court clerk for the Northern District of Illinois in Chicago, said officials there would not make any determination regarding essential staff until they know for certain that the shutdown will last more than two weeks.

The Reuters piece goes on to say...

The memo from the courts' central administrative office said judges should not prioritize between criminal and civil cases. During a shutdown, courts would eschew non-essential expenses, such as training, purchasing equipment and supplies and paying for travel.
While judges would continue to hear cases, the Justice Department said it would ask to postpone appearances in civil and bankruptcy cases as long as it did not compromise the safety of human life or the protection of property under the terms of the Anti-Deficiency Act.
The courts' administrative office instructed judges to "be sympathetic" to such requests. In the event that a judge orders a government attorney to appear, the Justice Department said it would comply and provide the minimum staffing needed to do so.
Criminal cases would continue to be heard without delay or interruption, the Justice Department said.

So there's that. The point to remember is that the plaintiff in the civil case is the FTC. The criminal case, however, is being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney's office.

But wait, there's more! That is, there's more entertainment to be squeezed out of this latest turn of events. With the civil case on hold indefinitely for now, it appears as if some of the anti-GIN contingent have jumped on the "Kevin Trudeau is old news" bandwagon with Kevin's ex-marketing guy Peter Wink. Over the past few months Peter has vacillated between mouthing off about the scandalous scandals that may be going on behind the scenes with the KT court cases, and declaring that KT is old news and not important any more. In between these outbursts he's mostly silent (and, I imagine, seething). Now it seems that his fellow Supreme Founder of the IBMS Master's Society scam, Loony Coldwell, has also taken up the call, as have the Supreme Founders' little bruppet (brother/puppet), Abe Husein.

Whatever happened to those lawsuits Loony was talking about just last week? If GIN didn't get shut down at the September 26 hearing, and if Katie didn't get thrown in jail, why, Loony was going to sic his entire legal team at Merritt Webb on to the court-appointed receiver, the receiver's attorney, the FTC, and possibly the judge. But this week he has uttered not a peep about it, just a comment that Katie is unimportant in the big picture (see pics below).

My take on the seeming turnaround is that since the very latest developments make it more apparent that -- AHEM! -- there will be no neat and tidy endings, Loony and his bruppet have changed their tune about the significance of the court cases in order to save face. But they and some of the toadies say KT is ruined thanks to Abe, anyway. (There's even a funny comment on one of Salty Droid's old blog posts. I don't think the guy was being sarcastic, either.)

Below is a Facebook exchange that started yesterday and has continued today. Hmmm. It looks like that Kalea person is cruising for a good blocking... the fate of so many before her. Maybe it's because, as my friend Tim likes to say, truth is like Kryptonite for Loony and his pals. But what do they need with truth? Truth is boring, when it comes right down to it. They have more exciting things on their plate, such as an upcoming "Hollywood movie," with Abe as the script consultant and possibly as assistant screenwriter. As I've noted before, if it even gets into production, much less release, it may not be at all truthful, but it should be rollicking good entertainment. (Click on pics to enlarge.)

There's even greater entertainment afoot. Abe hinted at it in his opening salvo in the exchange above, and numerous others have mentioned it too. They're saying that the US government shutdown isn't even real -- that it's a New World Order scam, and is the first step towards enslaving the citizenry. A few examples...

And then there's this.

Break out the tinfoil hats, kids!

So if this gummit shutdown has you worried because you're an employee on forced furlough and you have a family to support and a mortgage to pay... or because you're not getting desperately needed benefits or services... or even because you just had your long-awaited, all-planned-out-and-paid-for family vacation blown all to hell -- yeah, that's right, the vacation where you were going to take the kids to the Smithsonian or one of the national parks for the experience of a lifetime... stop that worrying. All of you! Right this instant. The government may not be functioning, but as long as the Interwebz continue to function, there will be plenty of entertainment. Look for the gold, Dear Ones. Look for the gold.

Update: This just in...notwithstanding the government shutdown and the FTC's expression of seeming despair on October 1, the agency appears to be going ahead with the civil case. The status hearing that was continued from September 26 to October 1, and then changed to October 4, and then moved again due to uncertainty regarding the government shutdown, is now set for Wednesday, October 16 at 1:30 PM.

Update 4 October, 2013: More court documents came in today. Blair Zanzig, the attorney for the court-appointed receiver, Robb Evans and Associates, has issued a statement about why coercive sanctions -- jail, in other words -- is the only way to get Trudeau to FINALLY come clean about his finances. This is Document 764 with five exhibits,filed on 10-04-13. 

The exhibits are as noteworthy as the statement, and they include Katie explaining that he is just a hard-working boy who, for the past ten years, has worked his a$$ off and didn't have time to bother his head with finances. He spent his time traveling and researching and speaking and writing copy and writing books and doing his radio show and oh, so many other things that had nothing -- nothing! -- to do with keeping track of where all his money is. He had Neil Sant and Marc Lane and Michael Dow to do all of that boring stuff.

The US government shutdown is still hampering the case, of course, and if the government shutdown is not resolved, there could be further delays. I'm thinking that Judge Gettleman could probably choose to incarcerate Trudeau now, as it seems he has heard more than enough evidence to incarcerate him for violating the terms of the court's recent orders. But according to two other documents, 763 and 765, also filed on 10-04-13, Trudeau has until 10-11-13 to reply both to the receiver's statement and the FTC's previous statement (Document 759 and exhibit, filed 09/30/13) regarding the need for coercive sanctions.

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Kevin Trudeau: FTC still calling for jail, while court hearing is postponed due to government shutdown

Happy October, y'all! September was a busy month on this Whirled because it was an active month in the courts for serial scammer Kevin Trudeau and his nemesis, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The civil hearing that took place on September 26, and for which Trudeau's loudest and looniest detractors held out such high hopes, was originally continued to today, October 1. The Loony was not happy about that, no-siree.

But subsequently the FTC lawyers, with the blessings of Katie's lawyers, filed an emergency motion to move the hearing to later in the week, due to the looming government shutdown. Without government funding, the FTC lawyers prolly wouldn't be able to show up for the hearing, said they. Accordingly said hearing was rescheduled for Friday, October 4. I guess they're optimistic that the government will be back in operation. If not, they can always reschedule. They seem to be good at that.

Anyway, a flurry of new court documents appeared on September 30. There are three docs for the criminal case [1:10-cr-00886, Judge Ronald A. Guzmán presiding]. They are mostly about the pre-trial motions, which are still being argued back and forth endlessly, in preparation for the November 4 trial. And there was one doc for the civil case [1:03-cv-03904, Judge Robert Gettleman presiding], with a long exhibit attached. Here's a link to the civil document.

The main document is "FTC’S STATEMENT REGARDING THE NEED FOR COERCIVE SANCTIONS" -- in other words, a recap of why the FTC thinks Katie needs to be thrown back in jail again unless one of three "precise purge conditions" can be met:

1) He fully complies with this Court’s June 2, 2010 order (DE372);
(2) He establishes that he has no present ability to comply with the Court’s
June 2, 2010 order beyond what he has already done; or
(3) He establishes that continued incarceration will not have a coercive effect.

By and large this is more of the same old same-old that we've heard and read recently, but there's newer info too, including a summary of additional recent violations of the receivership order. According to the FTC, Trudeau has violated recent orders at least five times, which they recap in a footnote on page 1:

As discussed further below, these five instances include: (1) failing to disclose the Australian account; (2) spending and transferring assets from that account; (3) destroying documents; (4) failing to disclose an offshore gaming account; and (5) lying to the Receiver, as the Receiver’s reports document. There are additional instances of noncooperation that the Receiver has asked the FTC not to raise because, in the Receiver’s view, doing so would impair the Receiver’s ability to recover certain assets.

Lying to the receiver? That alone is enough to get Katie thrown back in a cage, according to the terms of the receivership agreement as I understand them. (By the way, In case you don't know about that Aussie account, here's the scoop.)

If you've been reading some of the other recent court docs you'll recognize some of the items from the exhibit as well, but there are new items there too. It's all pretty interesting.

Perhaps because the FTC is following Katie's advice to "look for the gold" in everything, the issue of Trudeau's gold purchases has appeared numerous times in the court docs over the past year or so (including in his ex-marketing guy Peter Wink's declaration to the FTC). And there's more in this latest doc about Katie's purchases over the past few years from Peter Ragnar's Golden Lyin'... I mean Golden LION Mint. In another footnote on page 1 of the main doc the FTC declares:

As discussed further below, Trudeau purportedly could not remember any details regarding significant new evidence the Receiver discovered indicating that Trudeau acquired additional gold bars (beyond the ten already known) and gold coins between 2008 and 2011, see infra at 6, except to say that he thought his wife had them.

Oddly enough, Ragnar has reportedly distanced himself recently from both Golden Lion Mint and Roaring Lion Publishing (perhaps leaving his bidness partner and Lion etc. co-founder Tony Balistreri dangling in the wind)? By the way, here's a Ripoff Report complaint about Golden Lion Mint, dated April 28, 2013. Quite a contrast from "Health Ranger" Mike Adams' glowing review back in December 2008. Seems like lots of Scamworlders have gold fever, including, of course, Loony Coldwell.

I really do need to finish that blog post about Peter Ragnar, whose real name is Peter Lundell, and who has a very iffy past, like so many players in Scamworld. Ragnar certainly benefited from GIN, even after the sh-t started really hitting the fan. He is still being sought by various pro-GIN folks as well as some anti-GIN (but pro-Scamworld) factions. Here's one of numerous recent examples of two robbin' Peters flim-flamming in tandem...



Ragnar is still waxing profound on Facebook and doing various webinars in conjunction with other hucksters, and in my opinion not being held accountable for his part in the huge GIN scam.

But I digress. One point that the FTC is trying to make is that the receiver's investigation will exhaust all of the available resources if allowed to continue much longer. They apparently think that jailing KT may hurry things up. (Cue laugh track.)

Says the FTC in its statement:

Simply put, there is no realistic probability that the Receiver will locate the bulk of Trudeau’s assets without his cooperation, and there is zero probability that Trudeau will ever cooperate voluntarily....

The continuation of the current collection plan has drained significant public resources in a fruitless attempt to collect Trudeau’s assets. Worse yet, without coercive incarceration, the costs of the Receivership almost certainly will outstrip the assets ultimately collected. Thus, the choice at this point is stark: either incarcerate Trudeau for however long it takes to coerce him to turn over all the assets he controls, or continue depleting the assets available to Trudeau’s victims. In the event that the Court chooses the latter, the FTC will of course follow any order of the Court, but it cannot continue wasting public funds chasing down the avalanche of Trudeau’s lies and deception. Unfortunately, absent coercive incarceration, there is nothing further the FTC reasonably can do to help Trudeau’s victims.

So the FTC has given themselves an out, anyway. In another footnote they declare:

There is nothing Trudeau can do to further the goals of the Receivership outside of prison that he cannot do from within prison. However, the FTC requests that any coercive incarceration order provide the Receiver with access to Trudeau in the event that the Receiver needs Trudeau to execute documents or make phone calls under the Receiver’s supervision.

The subtext is that Trudeau can lie and deceive from jail just as easily as he can lie and deceive anywhere else. I guess the FTC is still holding out some hope (or is pretending they are holding out hope) that he can be "scared straight," but that hasn't worked out too well so far.

What all of this jail talk is accomplishing is increasing his martyr/hero creds, and he still has a passionate and fairly large fan base. We visited some of them here the other day. An apparently larger group of the faithful are enthusiastically planning a GIN cruise on their own to replace the January 2014 GIN Leadership cruise, which the court-appointed receiver has postponed indefinitely. They even started a Facebook group to plan it. (I bet they end up getting better rates than they got with the Katie cruises, and they'll see (or not) how he was ripping them off.) One person on the group wrote:

This up coming cruise will be a great event for all of us.
We are doing this because a great man taught us how to dream big and how to look for the gold in everyone and everything. Most of all how to believe in our abilities to do for self. ( If it is to be it is up to me.) (if you can do it I can do it.)

For some odd reason I was invited to join that group, but out of respect for their privacy I will not attempt to link to the group here and will not name it or any of the parties who are planning the cruise. Actually I think it's a good thing that they're planning for life without Katie, and I told 'em so. They deserve a good party after all they've been through. I don't think it's a good thing that they're still doing it all in His Holy Name, but so many people are still in denial. At least there is better and more objective information for them when they're ready for it, and they know where to find it. They know that they won't find that more objective info on Loony Coldwell's Facebook rants or his little brother Abe's YouTubes.

By the by, on the September 30 civil document I linked to above, I didn't see a mention of the FTC's concern that the receiver is possibly running an illegal operation by keeping GIN open. Closing GIN may not be a top priority right now for the FTC, despite what was reportedly brought up in court during the September 18 hearing that ended up with Katie being incarcerated overnight, and despite what Loony (and his little bro) have been mouthing off about.

Notwithstanding the forced joy of the alt-GIN cruise planners, once again it doesn't look real good for Katie at the moment, but you never know what might happen between now and October 4. And there's no guarantee right now that the hearing will happen even then, what with that gummit shutdown. And so the saga continues, with the Cosmic mantra once again playing in the background...

No. Neat. And. Tidy. Endings.

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