GIN is dead! Long live GIN!

Just because serial scammer Kevin Trudeau has been convicted of criminal contempt and is currently in custody pending sentencing (scheduled for February 6, 2014 -- his birthday), that doesn't mean the story is over. ("No neat and tidy endings," remember?) A rash of post-trial motions will no doubt show up around mid-December (they're due by December 17), with replies due on January 3. Lots can happen between now and February 6, is what I'm saying.

As for what is arguably Trudeau's biggest and most elaborate scam to date, the Global Information Network (GIN), there's been a lot of buzz about that in the past week. Some who have made GIN's demise their life's mission are crowing because GIN is finally dead, thanks to announcements made to the GIN staff last week by the court-appointed receiver, Robb Evans & Associates.

Before we go any further with that, here is a link to the newest court documents filed by the receiver: Document 790 and exhibits, filed November 15. (Exception: 790-2 (89 pages of photocopied/scanned financial exhibits) is not included because I could not get it to load properly. But the docs I am sharing should give you a very good idea of the receiver's activities.)

Basically Document 790 is a summary of the receiver's activities between August 7, 2013 -- the day they took over Trudeau's business entities -- and September 30. It's also a bill, and a hefty one, which of course has fueled a whole new round of invectives from the Loony-tic fringes, which we'll get to in a while.

The big news regarding GIN is that, provided the court approves the receiver's recommendations (which will presumably be presented before Judge Robert Gettleman at the upcoming civil case hearing on November 21), the affiliate program is being $hit-canned. That's the MLM scheme, the legality of which the receiver had been questioning for months, and I have been questioning for years. And that has apparently caused quite the uproar: celebration and self-congratulations from the "GIN Destroyer" contingent, and shock and outrage from some of the remaining GINfolk at all levels.

Although almost nobody got rich from the GIN affiliate scheme except a few at the very tip-top of the pyramid (Kevin, his lovely estranged bride Nataliya, Neo-stinker Mark Scamilton, and a guy named Brian Baschnagel who apparently downlined a lot of French folk), lots of people did have downlines and were making some income. Not being the successful elite billionaires that GIN had promised them they could be, some were actually counting on that extra income to help make ends meet. And no doubt lots of folks were able to get and keep their downlines by promising people that they could eventually become a rich elite by selling GIN memberships. So there's that unicorn dream down the toilet. No wonder people are pissed off. Add that to all of GIN's other broken promises (see Bernie's GINtruth.com site for documentation), and you can see that there may be a few...um... problems keeping GIN alive.

Nevertheless the GIN leadership is putting a positive spin on the changes, as indicated in this email from last week. And some remaining members -- including some with whom I am friendly -- are trying to keep the faith.

Here's that email:

November 15, 2013

GLOBAL INFORMATION NETWORK ANNOUNCEMENT

Dear Valued Members and Affiliates,

In order to improve your membership experience, solidify GIN’s future stability, as well as improve our operational and financial feasibility, we would like to inform you of some of the exciting developments that are underway. These improvements will be implemented in the near future and are designed to build on our strong foundation as we prepare for an exciting 2014!

First, this year’s Family Reunion event was a tremendous success. We welcomed dozens of newly inducted Level V and Level VI Members, joining the ranks of some of our most highly trained and decorated Members. And, we are excited to inform you that we will be holding GIN's next Major Leadership Event in early 2014. The details will be released in the coming weeks. We look forward to seeing you at this event!

As many of you may know, GIN has been under recent and close scrutiny. We at GIN Headquarters are sensitive to the uncertainties and inconveniences this may have caused. Please know that necessary changes will pave the way for many new and exciting club enhancements as outlined below.

Operational Enhancements
As evidenced at our recent Family Reunion event in Washington, D.C., several key members of the GIN Staff and the GIN Advisory Boards guided the organization through many of the recent transitions that GIN is undergoing. The dedication, perseverance, and leadership of these individuals through these times of change have provided our organization the transitional foundation needed to carry GIN to its next phase of growth and development. We would like to thank each and every one of these individuals for their incredible hard work and dedication through this phase of GIN’s lifecycle.

Moving forward, GIN is pleased and excited to announce that the appointed Receiver has named a new Chief Operating Officer (COO). It is with great pleasure and optimism that we welcome Jeffrey Devine as the organization’s new COO. Jeff’s background and expertise in association management, organizational governance, and convention management, along with his tenure within the Global Information Network will help align GIN’s new business operations model with our future Member initiatives. We are confident that he will prove to be a leading partner alongside the GIN leadership. Please join us in congratulating and supporting Jeff in his new role!

Affiliate Program
In recent weeks GIN has undergone an Affiliate Program evaluation regarding the program’s offerings. As a result of that evaluation, and with the advice of legal counsel, it has been determined that some immediate transitions will be necessary. However, we will continue to review replacement programs, including those listed below, now and in the future.

These transitions will secure the best possible future for our club, as well as provide legal stability as we set the new direction for growth. With future enhancements to come, the Affiliate Program as you know it will conclude as of November 30, 2013. For those of you receiving commissions, your last payment from the Affiliate Program will be in December 2013 for commissions earned during the month of November 2013. Any modifications to the Affiliate Program will not affect or change the number persons recorded in your personal business organization or the current recognition pin level. In addition, Affiliates will continue to have access to the website.

Member Rewards
Updates that take the place of the current Affiliate Program will include a new program called Member Rewards, the initial details of which will be announced in December. This program is designed to allow you easier methods to invite your network of family, friends, and colleagues to join the many expanding benefits of GIN membership.

Member Rewards will offer promotions for recruiting that will pay out in various ways when you introduce a new Member into GIN. Some of these may include:

Earning Credits for recruiting new members into GIN
Earning Credits when someone in your organization upgrades
Earning Credits to attend Member Events
Frequent Recruiting promotions and discounts
Enhanced Recognition programming

Increased Education
Introduction to a new event format was made at Family Reunion in October. Members and Affiliates enjoyed the offering of a diverse education program. It consisted of Breakout Sessions never before offered at our Major Events. The Breakout Sessions focused on education topics to which GIN Members will begin to have greater access in 2014.

Beginning immediately, GIN Headquarters will continue to embrace and partner with the membership via the Advisory Boards to guide the new direction of GIN. Some of these new enhancements under consideration and in the works include:

An expansive new multi-track educational curriculum
A dynamic certification curriculum
New online training portals
An increase in live training seminars and events
Advanced Level Trainings
Additions to the Online Library
The impressive new Member2Member program

Member Engagement
Additionally, we are looking at adding new programs for Members to participate in during the Major Events and throughout the year. One of the member engagement programs is the new Volunteer Corps. There will also be opportunities for Members to get involved in the future direction of the organization via specific committees. The committees will serve as important contributors to the strength and effectiveness of the organization. This will allow the current leaders of GIN greater influence and may be supported by a new apprentice program. The apprentice program will groom new Members to be our future leaders as we continue to grow and will provide a field mentor to ensure a successful membership journey for new Members.

A Bright Future
GIN is a club that has touched the lives of many people. We continuously receive many testimonials and stories about the incredible benefits of being a part of GIN. We recognize the strength of the networking within the club, the success of the business partnerships that have been formed, and the life-long friendships that have been made. This organization is held together by the incredible and unbreakable bonds and relationships within the GIN community.

GIN has recently undergone changes that we have never faced in the past. However, we are optimistic that with our new leadership alignments, future membership benefits, and a continued sense of community, we will together as ONE, arrive in 2014 bigger, better and stronger than ever before!

As our GIN training has taught us, no matter the challenges we face, the future and foundation of GIN is about more than any one person. More than one purpose...it is a community bound together by a belief system committed to improving the lives and experiences of the family Members it serves.

May this serve as a call to action to drive forward and build a palace upon our current GIN foundation. We appreciate your continued loyalty and commitment to the organization as we move forward together.

Sincerely,

GIN Headquarters

Of course, some people still don't get it and are now (or once again) accusing the receiver of fraud and deceit for continuing to run a fraudulent organization. They still don't understand that the receiver was under a legal obligation (per court order, which is on public record) to keep GIN running until and unless they could prove that it was illegal. Also, my understanding is that any decision the receiver makes has to be confirmed by the court -- Judge Gettleman, in this case, as this is part of the civil case. (It is possible that the court has already granted the receiver permission to take the actions regarding GIN, and I just haven't seen the documents yet. I am keeping an eye out for them.)

As I noted above and have explained previously on this very blog and on various Facebook forums, months ago the receiver raised the question about the legitimacy of GIN's affiliate program. Their question was based upon their doubts about whether or not there was a real "product" for sale. Some of us could have told them years ago that paid membership in a scammy scheme run by Kevin Trudeau is not a real product, but courts don't tend to listen to bloggers. Anyway, they apparently finally decided that the MLM does not offer a real product so they are apparently recommending that the MLM portion be shut down.

But some resentful little lunatics just won't let up on the receiver. Here's Katie's ex-b.f.f. and former alt-health front man, Mocktor Loony Coldwell:

Coldwell has been ragging on the receiver for months. Here's something from this past September, in case you missed it. As for those "800 GIN members" Loony claims have contacted him in the past few days, we know how fast and loose Loony plays with numbers. And regarding Loony's claim that the GIN web site contains "false, deceptive, outdated information," my friend Gina pointed out, "This is funny coming from him, considering he Photoshops GIN pictures for his website, so it looks like he has followers."

Pot meet kettle... again. Coldwell accuses GIN web site of containing
deceptive info, when his own Facebook cover photo was Photoshopped
using a GIN event to make it appear he has many more followers than he does.

Not to mention all of the other false and deceptive content on Loony's web sites and his Facebook rants.

Anyhow, just in case you do not feel like plowing through the legal documents I linked to above, the passage to which Loony is referring, re the GIN web sites, is this:

Case: 1:03-cv-03904 Document #: 790 Filed: 11/15/13 from Pages 4-5 of 11 PageID #:14193-94:

11. Mindful of the Court’s direction in the Receivership Order that the Receiver may only continue and conduct the business of any of the Trudeau Entities to the extent it is possible to operate such business legally, the Receiver has continued to review the legality of such businesses and has commenced tailoring the Trudeau Entities’ operations accordingly. For example, the Receiver has begun the process of causing the Trudeau Entities to remove false and misleading claims from its websites. As reflected in its First Report, the Receiver is continuing to work on a marketing plan that can be operated lawfully. As provided by the Receivership Order, if the Receiver determines that a Trudeau Entity cannot be operated legally, the Receiver will promptly notify the Court and parties and seek the Court’s permission to terminate the entity’s respective operations.

No matter how you spin it, though, the news about the GIN affiliate program very probably coming to an end is significant indeed. I'm not trying to downplay that at all.

Not surprisingly, some are spinning this development as the result of grass-roots efforts initiated by a single disgruntled ex-GIN member. I continue to believe that it would have happened with or without those efforts because for better or worse, the government and courts were on this case for years. And the seeds of GIN's demise were actually planted during the now well-documented planning sessions between Kevin Trudeau and his asset protection attorney, Marc Lane, back in 2007 and 2008, before GIN was even launched.

This doesn't take away from the satisfaction that many may feel about GIN in its original form going away, though as indicated above, GIN is apparently not dead yet. I actually do feel bad for those who lost thousands or perhaps even hundreds of thousands in this scheme. I know of some who spent far more than $100,000 in GIN. Some haven't come to the forefront because they would rather just forget it and put it all behind them.

I also understand the desires of some to keep GIN alive under new terms, and I do not wish them ill; there are GIN defenders and KT fans whom I like and respect. I just think that they are pursuing a pipe dream at this point... but in my view, they always were.

One point seems certain: These latest developments may provide the true litmus test for the legitimacy of the claims, by some defenders, that (1) the real value of GIN is in "the training," not in the get-rich promises; and (2) most people who joined GIN and stayed did so for the "training" and not for the promises of (eventual) wealth.

Meanwhile... this just in, and I will have more info as soon as I can sort through all of the new docs that were just filed in the civil case today (November 18, 2013) --- Ohio GIN member Perry Kiraly and friends have now officially "intervened" in the case and their motions are now on the docket. Among other things, they filed a preliminary injunction against the receiver to prevent liquidation of GIN's assets. This could get interesting. Or maybe not...the court could decide right off that the FTC made a strong enough case that GIN was/is a Trudeau-owned entity that Perry and gang's case will be moot. Anyway, for those of you on Facebook, the court documents in question are currently available on the publicly viewable GIN Network Truth page.

Update 19 November, 2013: Here is a link to the entire group of documents on Scribd.com. It doesn't take a fine legal mind to speculate that Perry et al. are probably fighting an uphill battle, particularly since the lawyers they retained, Daniel and Timothy Shimko, seem to have had some challenges of their own (as indicated in Document 792 and 795). And then there is the matter of Perry's own past troubles, as previously noted on this blog (scroll down to, "And in other news...").

Still more legal threats from Loony...
Loony Coldwell is apparently continuing his pattern of using the promise of "class action lawsuits" to lure people to his daft and chronically under-attended events. He first did it in May-June 2012 for his South Carolina exploitation fest (where he first "edified" Abe, and where he and former GIN marketing principal Peter Wink rolled out their new Longevity/Youngevity MLM affiliate scam). Of course, nothing came of that class action suit -- an outcome I accurately predicted on my first Loony post --  but Loony was able to get plenty of people to send him their personal info for his own use.

More recently Loony has been blathering about another "class action law suit" against GIN et al. (and possibly the receiver). He was boasting a while back that the law firm of Merritt Webb had agreed to take it on (here's another September 2013 post containing some info about that). But nothing has come of that that I know of.

Now it appears that Loony is targeting Jeff Devine, the newly appointed COO of GIN, with his impotent threats. This is from Sunday, November 17.

One noteworthy point is that apparently, if you go as a guest of Abe's, Loony's $200 wingding in Panama City, Florida this December will be free (except for travel and hotel and meals and intoxicants). My pal Tim speculates:

Tim Donohoe The seminar is now free, makes me think less than 5 paying members want to go. It will be the 3 lackeys who go for free, and maybe 4 others who would be willing to pay. This could turn into a 3 figure weekend for Loony and Wink. I bet they will fight over the $200 they make.

As for Abe, he will apparently not be satisfied until and unless GIN is completely dead. And he is earnestly recruiting people into Loony and Wink's IMBS-ing U web.

Meanwhile, in the wake of the latest announcements, master copywriter Wink has issued this all-caps directive on the Facebooks...

ATTENTION GIN MEMBERS AND AFFILIATES!

NOW THAT GIN TOOK AWAY ALL YOUR COMMISSIONS AND NO LONGER HAS AN AFFILIATE PROGRAM --- BE SURE TO GET REFUNDS FROM THE GIN STORE ON ALL USELESS AFFILIATE TOOLS, CDS, DVDS, AND EVERYTHING ELSE!

CALL YOUR BANK AND ASK THEM TO ISSUE A CHARGEBACK.

Once again, here's Tim:

What Wink really doesn't understand is how transparent he is and how little respect people have for him. This is an obvious ploy to position himself as an anti GIN crusader in front of a small group who got ripped off by Gin and Wink. He goal is to get people to forget that he was a big part of the scam for which he is advocating the charge back. Once he gets the most gullible members on his side, he can pitch the IMBSingU plan to them.

So, it's bidness as usual: More GIN scavengers, "carrion" on a proud Scamworld tradition.

The big question now is this: Will GIN be totally shut down or will it go on, like Celine Dion's heart in the Titanic theme song? If the latter, can GIN truly thrive without Katie? Will it become a ho-hum Generic Information Network, brimming with hustledorks and B-listers and Scamworld wannabes... or will the members actually be able to sustain it and restore it to its rightful place in Scamworld? Stay tuned.

The story is not yet over.


Related posts about GIN scavengers:

• Another GIN scavenger: "carrion" on a proud Scamworld tradition (former KTRN Radio guy Matt DuBiel's newest schemes)
  http://cosmicconnie.blogspot.com/2013/10/another-gin-scavenger-carrion-on-proud.html
• Meet the new scam, same as the old scam, Part 1 (IBMS Master's Society): http://cosmicconnie.blogspot.com/2013/01/meet-new-scam-same-as-old-scam-part-1.html
• Why Kevin Trudeau's GIN lost its soul: http://cosmicconnie.blogspot.com/2013/10/why-kevin-trudeaus-gin-lost-its-soul.html
• Trudeau still caged, vultures still circle, and Wink seizes the moment, blabs to press, and pimps for Loony Coldwell (again):
  http://cosmicconnie.blogspot.com/2013/10/trudeau-still-caged-while-wink-seizes_27.html

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Kevin Trudeau found guilty of criminal contempt

After less than 45 minutes of deliberation in a Federal courtroom in Chicago today, a six-man, six-woman jury found serial scammer Kevin Trudeau guilty of criminal contempt for misleading claims he made on infomercials about his book, The Weight Loss Cure "They" Don't Want You To Know About. He was ordered taken into custody immediately, and his bond revoked. There's no word at the moment on the sentence, which Judge Ronald Guzman will decide.

UPDATE:
Case: 1:10-cr-00886 Document #: 144 Filed: 11/12/13:

Jury trial held. Jury deliberation. Jury returns verdict of guilty. Jury trial ends. Post-trial motions to be filed by 12/3/2013. Response due 12/17/2013. Reply due 1/3/2014. Sentencing set for 2/6/2014 at 10:30 a.m. It is hereby ordered that defendant’s bond is revoked and he is taken into custody by the U.S. Marshal. It is further ordered that defendant may keep his contact lenses.

February 6 is Trudeau's birthday. The court must have a perverse sense of humor. Though his bond is revoked for now, there's still no telling if he will stay "in custody" from now until his sentencing next year. We'll just have to see.

From what I have seen, the prosecution made a strong case about Trudeau's lies and the fact that he lied because of greed. (Those are the same things I've been saying on my blog for years, but of course that had no legal weight.) From what I saw, based on a few media reports, the defense presented a not-so-strong case and they made a few goofs. Pissing the judge off this past Friday was not such a good move.

Even so, I thought until this afternoon that it could go either way, and I even thought there was at least a slim chance of acquittal. Of course I was ambivalent about that because even though I don't think Katie belongs in a cage, he is, after all, a lifelong scammer. I wonder how cognizant the jury was of that potential life sentence. If they were aware of it and they handed down the guilty verdict anyway, then they were, after all, doing exactly as they were instructed to do -- that is, reach their verdict without consideration for the potential punishment.

So sometimes the system works the way it is "supposed" to work, on paper. Even so, throwing Trudeau in a cage for an extended period or for life doesn't feel like justice.

But this isn't the end of the story. Kevin being the "Appeals King," as his brother Bob describes him, there will surely be an appeal. And as noted, we don't yet know what sort of sentence Judge Guzman will impose.

If you think that I'm getting ready to pop open a bottle of Shampagne (I can't drink the real stuff, but Fre Brut is really a very good nonalcoholic bubbly), you haven't been reading my more recent blog posts and Facebook comments very carefully. I think that in the wake of this verdict, and looking at the bigger picture, we should all be asking some serious questions.

For instance: Who really "won" today, apart from a cadre of lawyers? Consumers? If so, which consumers? Those who actually got screwed out of hundreds or thousands of dollars because of Trudeau's manipulative, deceptive, aggressive sales tactics? Will they ever get any of their money back because of today's verdict? (There's still the matter of that $37.6 million civil judgment, but that money, if it is ever collected, will presumably only go to purchasers of the weight-loss book, not to anyone else who may have invested hundreds or thousands of dollars in, say, Trudeau's biggest scam to date, the Global Information Network (GIN).)

On the one hand there's one less scammer on active duty -- for now -- but again, that could change. And on the other hand... it's that old game of Whack-a-Mole. Hundreds of scams and scammers are still active in Scamworld, including some that were until fairly recently under Trudeau's wing. Kevin Trudeau, through GIN, provided a huge platform for some hucksters who never would have achieved success remotely approaching the scale they reached without Trudeau's influence. Though some of these people are in my informed opinion far worse than he, they may never see a criminal charge or a conviction, much less any jail time. So there's that. And some of those scoundrels who are no longer his buds will no doubt be drinking themselves into oblivion tonight, celebrating "their" victory. (I hope the cops are out tonight on the streets of Mount Pleasant, watching for erratic driving.)

And then there's the fact that for the most part Federal prisons are horrible places -- hell holes, as a commenter to this blog recently reminded us. I don't wish prison on any scammer except the violent and destructive types -- reckless killers, sex predators, and the like. I realize this puts me at odds with some of my fellow critics and scambusters, but there you are.

Moreover, if Trudeau spends any time in prison at all, he will increase his martyr creds a hundredfold, which may spur a whole new Free KT movement. He has already promised that if he gets thrown in the clink, he will write the book to end all books about government tyranny. In addition, prison doesn't seem to be much of a deterrent to crime, for those who are intent on being criminals. It wasn't a deterrent for Kevin the first time he was in the joint.

So once again... no neat and tidy endings. But I bet there are going to be some serious hangovers tomorrow.


Early news reports:

• Chicago Tribune (article by Jason Meisner, who has been doing an excellent job covering this story)
  http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-closing-arguments-heard-today-in-tv-pitchmans-case-20131112,0,2063993.story
• Eureka Times-Standard (AP story by Michael Tarm; many of the media outlets are picking up some variant of this one) http://www.times-standard.com/nationandworldnews/ci_24507932/tv-pitchman-kevin-trudeau-guilty-contempt
• ABC7 Chicago
  http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/local/chicago_news&id=9323042
• Chicago Sun-Times (article by Kim Janssen): http://oakbrook.suntimes.com/crime/trudeau_convicted-OBD-11122013:article

Update 13 November, 2013: Loony gets his bonds confused, GIN scavengers/predators still circle, and Katie's fans, despite their tears, remain optimistic.
As soon after yesterday's verdict as he could get to a camera, self proclaimed "GIN Destroyer" Abe Husein made a video about Trudeau's conviction. That's only to be expected, since Abe has been providing regular updates. However, the vid contained the inaccurate claim that the home of Trudeau's parents had been taken away by the court. Several people responded with great concern, ragging on Trudeau for making his parents lose their home. 
 
I wondered where Abe got this misinformation; surely it wasn't from the court or the legitimate media. But I needn't have wondered; someone shared this screen shot of a post from Loony Coldwell.


Apparently Loony read the order from Judge Guzman (I'd shared it earlier that day, and I quoted it above), which mentioned that Trudeau's bond had been revoked -- and the Loonmeister automatically conflated the bond revocation with the $200,000 security bond that had been issued on a couple of occasions this year (July and October) when Katie was allowed to travel outside the jurisdiction. I blogged about it both times, emphasizing the fact that it seemed kind of shoddy for a self-proclaimed successful billionaire to let his sweet elderly middle-class parents possibly risk their home. However, on both occasions he did come back and face the judicial music, so their home is apparently safe. But facts have never stopped Loony from spewing half-cocked conclusions or outright lies on Facebook, and Abe from picking it up and spreading it to the minions.

Loony also said that Trudeau's $2 million dollar bond" was taken away. The $2 million was a performance bond that Trudeau consented to put up several years ago in the event that he violated the FTC orders again. (In fact, the civil court was recently debating about whether or not to pay the court-appointed receiver from the funds in that account.)

So again, wrong bond, Loony.

Here's Bernie at GINtruth. com with commentary about Loony's lies and the GIN warriors' "crimbly Christmas." Bernie also provides good links to the highlights in the news media stories about yesterday's verdict.


And as you can imagine, in the wake of Trudeau's conviction and his being taken into custody, the scavengers are circling more than ever. Or perhaps "predators" would be a better description. Here's Loony flogging his upcoming IMBS-ing U Master's Society event, set to take place in Panama City, Florida in December. You can "Lean [sic] more in one weekend than you could ever learn from the Gin losers in 3 years!"
 
I don't know about you, but I'm "leaning" towards not ever believing anything that lunatic writes or says. But I've been leaning that way ever since before he started calling me an AIDS-infected, cancer-ridden ex-prostitute. He is not exactly a bastion of credibility.

Finally, we have this missive from a fan of Trudeau. Many were devastated by yesterday's verdict, and I intend to be gentle with them for the most part. But this one, shared by my Facebook friend Roger just a while ago, takes the cake.


Sabbatical... is that what the kids are calling it these days?

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Kevin Trudeau criminal trial winds up with Katie's lawyers pissing off the judge...but all is not lost for Katie fans

All righty, then! I'm finally back with a brief update on serial scammer Kevin Trudeau's criminal trial. After providing some background information about the case on this post, and then some info and commentary about the first real day of the trial on this one, I took a brief break from all of it for a few days.

Friday, November 8 wrapped up the first week of the trial. Court let out early-ish, adjourned to Tuesday, November 12 (Monday the 11th is the Veterans Day holiday). Despite what I saw as a snarkworthy beginning to the trial when Trudeau's attorney brought up that cheesy-moon free-speech analogy in his opening arguments, it apparently hasn't all been going bad for Trudeau, at least according to some courtroom observers and a couple of court documents. The presiding judge, Ronald Guzman, seems to be making a considerable effort to ensure that the government meets its burden of proof. I can't be entirely certain at this point, but right now it doesn't seem as if this case is going to be a slam-dunk for the prosecution. On the other hand, it's probably not yet time for the Katie supporters to succumb to irrational exuberance.

On Thursday, November 7, registered dietician Melissa Dobbins testified on behalf of the prosecution, although she did not offer an opinion about the safety or efficacy of the weight-loss plan Katie described in the book whose infomercials are at the heart of this trial. Also on November 6 and 7, more documents were filed as the defense continued to try to modify the prosecution's proposed supplemental jury instructions. Here you go.

I don't know if the defense was a tad unorganized, or if it is normal for instructions to continue to be modified as a trial progresses and new issues come up.


At any rate, Friday, November 8 was an interesting day, according to courtroom observers and various media reports. The prosecution rested its case after only an hour of testimony; I'll have more about that when I get the info. And then the show was pretty much over for the day, much to the surprise of the court, apparently (and to the relief of the jurors, according to one observer). But Katie's lawyers made a little goof, and reportedly things got a bit exciting as a result. Law360 reports that Katie's lead counsel, Thomas Kirsch (the same one who made the cheesy-moon statement in his opening argument) was angrily rebuked by Judge Guzman for not notifying the court far enough in advance that they were not going to call Trudeau -- or any other defense witnesses, for that matter -- to the stand. In fact they said that Kevin will not be testifying at all. The judge said the defense was wasting the jury's time, according to that report.

Kirsch explained that he didn’t know Thursday whether Trudeau would testify — which he told the court at the time — but discussed it with his client and made the decision an hour after court let out.

“You said you didn’t know, and then an hour later you knew? That’s just not right,” Judge Guzman told Kirsch. "I understand your primary responsibility is to your client, but you owe something to the system and you have not lived up to that responsibility with your conduct here, I'll tell you that."

I am no legal expert by any means, but I am pretty sure that it is not a good thing to piss off a judge.

And I wonder why the defense has apparently chosen not to call any witnesses. I can see why they'd want to keep Katie off of the stand, since lately he's had little to say in court except, "Fifth Amendment!" But what about that whole long list of other potential witnesses that I shared the other day? (See "Criminal Case Document number 133, filed 11/04/13".) Did the defense decide that witnesses are unnecessary because they are convinced they've already won the jury over... or because they can't find a witness who would actually be able to turn the tide in Katie's favor without fibbing a little bit, which I understand is a very serious offense in court? Or are the only available witnesses New-Age ninnies and starry-eyed fans whose credibility is questionable at best? Heck if I know. You may discuss among yourselves and get back to me.


Despite the apparent glitches in the defense, they seem to be holding their own, and Judge Guzman appears to be making an effort to clarify that the government has a rather large burden of proof to meet. He signed an order on Friday the 8th that could be construed as favorable to the defense, in that His Honor acknowledges seemingly contradictory case precedents, and notes that certain points that were ruled as unambiguous in a civil context are not so unambiguous in a criminal context. In other words, the government's case might not be as strong as some have thought. His order is related to and in response to another doc filed by Katie's attorneys on the 8th, a proposed jury instruction regarding theory of the defense. Both are here.

At this point the Trudeau fans, at least the ones whose comments I've seen, are feeling quite optimistic. On the other side, I haven't heard anything from the most entertaining detractors yet; I think they're preoccupied with other Matters of Consequence, such as Major Motion Pictures, or ranting about jealous AIDS-infected prostitutes. As for me, I'm on the fence. I want justice but I cannot fully define it. I firmly believe that Kevin Trudeau is a lifelong con artist, but I still don't think he belongs in a cage, and if he is found guilty in this criminal contempt trial he could end up imprisoned for the rest of his life.

There's also the fact that if he is acquitted, there will almost certainly be lunatic rants from the "GIN Destroyer" contingent, which at the very least will make for some more entertaining blog posts and Photoshop efforts. So on the pro-acquittal side, there's that to consider.

But on a serious note: It could still go either way. I heard that closing arguments are expected on Tuesday the 12th, and a verdict could be rendered soon after. Or not. You never know what might happen during these crazy courtroom hijinks. At any rate, right now it appears that the trial may not last as long as the two to three weeks originally projected.

More soon, so stay with me.

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Whirled snippets to take your mind off of the Kevin Trudeau trial (for a while)

Hey, kiddos, remember when this blog was about something besides serial scammer Kevin Trudeau's court cases? Remember when it lived up to its description of being a Whirling, swirling ocean of snark chum, devoted to a wide range of New-Wage/selfish-help/McSpirituality topics and hustledorks? I've said this before, but fear I may have alienated some of my loyal followers when I started obsessing so much over Katie. I need to remedy that, at least in some small way, in order to let my original fan base know I've not forgotten them.

Don't worry. I'm still going to keep you updated on the court doings. Just like I did here.

And here.

I'll have more in the next day or so about the latest court doings, links to the news media stories, and prolly some gratuitous snarks about some of Katie's supporters (though I would be surprised if he didn't have people rooting for him in court, and it actually gives me some satisfaction to acknowledge that to this day he has a far larger and more loyal fan base than some of his loathsome ex-b.f.f.s who are trying desperately to fill his shoes). 

But for now... oh, my, there are so many other topics tugging at my sleeve, just begging for attention, that I cannot ignore them any more. So take a brief break from the court watching (but be sure to check in on GIN Network Truth if you're on Facebook), and have a few snippets.

We don't need another Hero...
Oh, Good Goddess. Just when you thought it was safe to go back to the book store, along comes Secret creator Rhonda Byrne with yet another insipid tome. Following 2010's The Power and last year's The Magic, the new book, due out November 19, is called, simply, Hero.

I can't wait to see the names of the twelve living "heroes" Rhonda picked to showcase this time. She did such a stellar job of hero-picking for The Secret. It really doesn't matter what she writes, though. Everything she publishes becomes a bestseller. That is one of the things that makes me worry for the future of the human race.

Hype'oponopono
Speaking of new books... it's been a while since I've visited New-Wage/McSpirituality guru and star of The Secret Joe Vitale, long a favorite snarget on this Whirled. (Actually he's a buddy of Kevin Trudeau too, or was -- as noted here and here and here -- though he has pretty much stayed mum about Kevin's more recent troubles.) Why, a little over six years ago I even sponsored a Hawaiian Week (which turned out to be considerably longer than a week) on this blog. This was in honor of the release of Joe's book, Zero Limits, a tribute to a modernized "proprietary" form of a native Hawaiian conflict resolution practice called Ho'oponopono. Responding to a request from a misguided publicist who'd been hired by Joe's publisher, I read and wrote an actual review of Zero Limits on my blog, in a two-part post published on July 9 and July 10, 2007.

About a year and a half before Zero Limits hit the market, Joe started getting people all excited about Ho'oponopono -- and ultimately about Zero Limits -- by spreading an apocryphal tale of Ho'oponopono-based miracle cures in a Hawaiian hospital for the criminally insane. Here's that story. It was copied and pasted and published and republished and peated and repeated countless times by countless starry-eyed believers, all over the Interwebs. Few people seemed to question whether the story was real or not.

And here is the more credible Whirled version. (Several people wrote to me asking if my story was real. It is as real as you want it to be.)

Now Joe has thrown together a new book to further exploit Ho'oponopono. (Or perhaps Joe'oponopono would be a better word.) The new work is called, At Zero: The Final Secrets to "Zero Limits" -- The Quest for Miracles Through Ho'oponopono (Wiley, October 2013).

So far Joe's new book has one review on Amazon. I would say that it is not a favorable one.

Ho'oponopono is a great tool for forgiveness. This book gets two stars because of the power of ho'oponopono. However, the book is at least 50% padding (unedited interviews, letters, etc), 30% marketing for other programs, and 20% stories of how other people have horribly wronged the author and how he used ho'oponopono to get over it.

It was disappointing to read the author basically recant the unbelievable story of Dr. Ihaleakela Hew Len's miraculous healing at the Hawaiian hospital for the criminally insane. Vitale uses the opportunity to take shots at ABC news and mass media being big downers. But it seems that the entire internet sensation of how and why ho'oponopono gained notoriety was based on admitted (in this book) half-truths.

As with most of Vitale's works, you'll have to endure endless marketing pitches for Miracles Coaching (with the registered trademark EVERYWHERE), awakening courses, and stories about meeting celebrities... and how horribly wronged he has been by friends, attorneys, and anyone else who questioned the validity of ho'oponopono.

I personally believe in the power of the practice. Ho'oponopono is very powerful in letting go of what you believe to be true so that you can experience something else. However, I wish I had passed on this overpriced more-of-the-same from Joe Vitale.

Yep, that pretty much sounds like Joe's formula for cobbling together a book. It didn't used to be that way, back in the day when I knew him, but his more recent efforts have pretty much complied with the formula that the reader described above. I'm amused but not particularly surprised that he would seem to disclaim the story about Dr. Hew Len curing those loonies. Oops, I mean those criminally insane people. And for a such a bastion of positivity, Joe does seem to spend an awful lot of time whining about how many people wronged him. Take it all with a huge amount of salt. Or better yet, just don't take it.

Rumors of my illness, jealousy, and abysmal taste in "men" have been greatly exaggerated

I guess it all does come back around to Katie after all, via his vile little ex-b.f.f., Mocktor Loony Coldwell. Although the Loonmeister has blocked me from seeing any of his rants on Facebook, others can see them and they take screen shots.

For those of you who are new here or just need a recap: A little over a year ago, apparently enraged because I had blogged a few months previously about him (here is the link to my first post about him, in case you haven't already read it), Loony began spreading blatant lies about me, mostly on Abe Husein's main Facebook page. I found his rants more amusing than outrageous, because they were such flagrant falsehoods. Other people were indignant on my behalf and reported him to Facebook. I was rather enjoying how he hung himself, though, and I have screen shots of everything.

Among other lunatic claims, he said his "research team" had learned that I was being paid by Big Pharma and/or the medical profession to discredit natural "healers" such as himself. Now, at least that would have been a somewhat logical lie -- although it is a lie nonetheless -- but, in an apparent attempt to make me seem even less credible, he also said I am a former prostitute who infected the guy who supposedly told him about me with "a bad STD." I've heard credible buzz about why he is so obsessed with prosties but he's definitely barking up the wrong tree with me. He said he had videos about me and would start publishing them soon (this was over a year ago). Later he came out and said I have AIDS. All of these are of course lies. And even his loyal fans (yes, he does have people who are blind or stupid enough to be fans) don't believe those lies.

He had been pretty quiet for a while, and then yesterday, on a thread on Abe's wall, Coldwell said I have cancer, which apparently developed because I am jealous of Loony and his peeps (see screen shot above). Of course as usual he doesn't come out and mention my name (the better to slither out of a potential lawsuit), but most of us snapped to his meaning because of the context. Everything in that rant is of course a lie, though perhaps wishful thinking on Loony's part. It's remarkable how a so-called "compassionate healer" who "really cares about people" can get such apparent glee from the prospect of anyone contracting the very disease he claims to be on a mission to cure.

In that same rant he claimed that I had asked Kevin Trudeau's former marketing guy Peter Wink for a date with him (Coldwell), and that because Loony rebuffed me, this is why I went on a "hate rampage" against him and Peter. Wow... more wishful thinking on Loony's part? Shudder, shudder.

My pal Bernie at GINtruth.com has already blogged about it, complete with screen shot. Heeere's Bernie!

As I 'splained in my comment to Bernie's post, and have mentioned here and on other forums as well, the truth about my correspondence with Peter, regarding Loony, is more mundane. These communications always centered around Peter’s attempts to get me to stop writing critical blog posts about Loony. Peter tried very earnestly, ultimately to no avail, to convince me that Coldwell is a very nice guy who really, really cares about people. At one point Peter wrote an email to me proposing that if I would stop writing blog posts about Coldwell and would take down the ones I had written, then Peter would approach Coldwell and ask him if he MIGHT stop spreading lies that I am an AIDS-infected former prostitute. I do not make deals with the devil, so… no deal.

Besides, even if I were in the dating market -- which I'm not, and haven't been for more years than the former Bernd Klein has even been in the USA -- I have always had a tendency to want to stick to my own species. I'm just funny that way.

* * * * *

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Kevin Trudeau criminal contempt trial: off to a cheesy start?

Note: For background on Kevin Trudeau's criminal contempt trial (and a little bit of background about the civil trial), and links to important court documents, please see this blog post, which was originally published on Sunday, November 3 and was updated on November 4 and 5.

In order to keep any one post from getting too long and unwieldy, I'm opting for a series of shorter posts. For those of you who are on Facebook, I have also been sharing these documents on the publicly viewable forum, GIN Network Truth.
~CC

Well, serial scammer Kevin Trudeau's criminal trial finally got underway on Tuesday, November 5 (it took all day Monday, November 4 and part of Tuesday to assemble the jury). While the transcripts and complete documentation are not yet available on PACER.gov, a few docs were filed on November 4 and 5. For instance, there's Document number 136, an actual order from trial judge Ronald A. Guzman. This one makes things look not so good at the moment for Kevin. Apparently Judge Guzman is leaning towards disallowing the Natural Cures book and infomercial to be admitted into evidence. For several reasons, Trudeau's lawyers had requested that these be admissible.

Yet at the end of the order Judge Guzman seems to leave it open. So if I am reading this order correctly, it seems that he is inclined to disagree with Katie's lawyers about the relevance of the evidence, but he is implying that he MAY still allow it at some point if he can be convinced that it is relevant. Here is a link to the document, which summarizes the reasons Katie's lawyers wanted NC to be admissible, and the reasons Judge Guzman seems to be disagreeing for the most part. Maybe you can figure out what the order is really saying.

Meanwhile, the mainstream media have finally started reporting on this trial too -- at least the Chicago media (though the story also caught the attention of Reuters). For instance, there's this on the Chicago Sun-Times.com site. The piece briefly summarizes the opening arguments, noting that prosecutor Marc Krickbaum flatly states that Trudeau "lied -- he chose to make his book sound way better than it was, and he did that for one reason: to sell more books." (By the way, just as a reminder: At issue in the case is whether or not Trudeau lied in his infomercial about the contents of the book -- not about whether he lied in the book about how easy the weight-loss diet was or about anything else.)

One of Trudeau's attorneys had a rather...um... cheesy comeback to Krickbaum's opening, according to the news story.

But defending Trudeau, attorney Thomas Kirsch said the claims Trudeau made in the ads were legitimate “statements of opinion” that were repeated in the book.

He accused the government of confusing required parts of Trudeau’s plan with optional steps, and said the ads included disclaimers and a money-back guarantee, agreeing that whether the plan worked was irrelevant.

“In America, we can write whatever we want in a book,” he said, adding, “if [Trudeau] wanted to write a book saying the moon was made of cheese, he could do that.”

Really, Thomas Kirsch? You're resorting to that old saw about the moon and cheese? In your opening arguments?!? That argument stinks like Pont l’Eveque, and it's deja pee-yew all over again. As a matter of fact the cheesy-moon argument was my opening quotation in my first big blog post about GIN (though not my first one about Katie), back in December 2009. I was quoting Kevin's statement, as reported by a blogger named Mitch Lipka. Said Kevin, back then:

"I have free rein. I can sell whatever I want because I'm protected by the First Amendment. I can sell a book that says the moon is made of cheese, and it should be protected by the First Amendment."

Apart from the point that commercial speech does not enjoy the same First Amendment protections as regular speech -- and false or misleading commercial speech has pretty much zero protection -- the whole moon-and-cheese example seems like a dreadfully weak argument and actually kinda makes Kevin look worse. People who are searching for serious advice about something as important as weight loss and health shouldn't have to sort through lies and half truths and silly opinions. Maybe Kirsch's statement was taken out of context, but I don't think it should have been there in the first place, for Kirsch basically seems to be saying that his client is prolly a liar and his book is prolly a lie, but the First Amendment protects all of those lies.

Moreover, it appears that Kirsch was wrong about the government confusing the "required" and the "optional" part of what really seems to be a convoluted diet regimen, and is far from a "cure." Even if you take away the "optional" parts of Kevin's version of the hCG diet, it still seems like it's anything but "easy." Here is the permalink to a discussion, on the above-mentioned GIN Network Truth group, in which my friend Julie Daniel patiently explains the FTC's case, quoting directly from various documents and from Kevin's actual book, The Weight Loss Cure "They" Don't Want You To Know About.

The first infomercial about which the FTC complains was produced on or around December 23, 2006 and was followed by two other infomercials in January and July of 2007. In these infomercials, Mr. Trudeau is "interviewed" about the Weight Loss Book, as well as several other items that he is promoting. The FTC's motion for rule to show cause focuses on repeated references in the infomercials to the purported fact that the diet described in the Weight Loss Book is "easy," and that consumers will be able to eat whatever they want after completing the four-phase program. Throughout Mr. Trudeau's infomercials, he repeatedly states that the diet is "Very easy to do ... you don't have to go to a clinic to do it. You can do it at home.... I can attest, it was the easiest, simplest, most effective thing I've ever done.... The diet was `the easiest method known on planet Earth.'"

Mr. Trudeau also repeats throughout the infomercials that after the four phase protocol is completed, "you're done with the protocol, eat whatever you want and you don't gain the weight back." Referring to his own experience after purportedly having taken the "cure," Mr. Trudeau states in a dialog with the supposed interviewer, "I've been off the program now ... guess what I can eat? Anything." [Interviewer] "Nothing is restricted?" [Mr. Trudeau] "Oh, let's see, I had mashed potatoes and gravy, the mashed potatoes were real mashed potatoes loaded with cream and butter, gravy loaded with fat. I had a big prime rib marbled with fat. For dessert I had a big hot fudge sundae with real ice cream, real hot fudge, real nuts and real whipped cream." He further states that "you'll keep the weight off forever. You'll never have to diet again."

And there's this, from the Appendix of the book:

Things you MUST do:

• Take ThreeLac as directed
• Drink one-half to one gallon of pure water with coral calcium daily
• Drink Wu Long tea as directed
• Walk one hour each day outside
• Do colonics as directed
• Eat two organic apples per day
• Eat organic grapefruits
• Eat breakfast
• Eat six times per day
• Finish dinner three and one-half hours before bed
• Do a colon cleanse
• Take organic extra virgin coconut oil
• Drink organic raw apple cider vinegar Take Eleotin as directed
• Use Callahan techniques as needed
• Eat a salad with lunch and dinner
• Take probiotics daily
• Take krill oil (Omega-3s) daily
• Take a whole food supplement daily
• Drink Yerba Mate tea daily
• Drink chamomile tea daily
• Take saunas as often as possible
• Take Acetyl-L Carnitine daily
• Take digestive enzymes with meals
• Look at and repeat the phrase "I weigh ___," using your ideal weight and look at pictures of you with your ideal body many times throughout the day
• Use stevia, organic agave nectar, organic raw honey, or organic raw sugarcane for sweeteners
• Get personalized individual care from a licensed healthcare practitioner who does not use drugs and surgery

And that's just for Phase 1 of the diet; there's are long obsessive lists of stuff you must and must not do during subsequent phases. As noted, Julie patiently copied and pasted all of it into the forum discussion mentioned above.

Finally...

CONCLUSION
As discussed above, Mr. Trudeau has violated this court's order. He has misrepresented the content of his book by stating in his infomercials that his diet protocol was "easy" and that it allowed dieters to "eat whatever they want," and he has misled thousands of consumers. For these reasons, the court holds Mr. Trudeau in contempt. By separate order, the court will set a hearing to determine the appropriate remedy in light of this opinion.

Overall I think the prosecution has a pretty strong case. But as I've said before, I don't agree with the potential punishment should Katie be found guilty. I don't think he belongs in a cage for fifteen or eighteen years or for life. Even so, and contrary to what some die-hard Trudeau supporters are saying, this case is not, not, NOT simply about the government stomping on Trudeau's poor little oppressed, repressed head for saying that a diet is easy.

Needless to say, I was not in the court room and haven't seen a transcript of the proceedings -- so again, I don't know the entire context of those opening statements. But right now, it appears to me that Team Trudeau is not off to a strong start. Perhaps their secret weapon is the new lawyer on board, Carolyn Pelling Gurland. Surely Ms. Gurland will be able to come up with something better than that old cheesy-moon argument.

More Chicago news media coverage of the Kevin Trudeau criminal contempt trial:

• http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news%2Flocal%2Fchicago_news&id=9314933
• http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-trial-of-tv-pitchman-kevin-trudeau-begins-20131105,0,6234627.story

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Kevin Trudeau: The trial of the century...or the week...or maybe just another trial

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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