Wednesday, May 15, 2013

James Arthur Ray: short-timer

Click to enlarge. Also follow link in
second sentence of first paragraph for more information.

Somebody call the waaaaaaambulance! Poor convicted killer James Arthur Ray,
aka Inmate 267823, needs your help. As reported by my fake robot pal Salty Droid today, Death Ray is in in a terrible fix. Writes Salty:
Now that his saggy guru ass is only a few months from semi-freedom :: it seems the comeback plans have begun. He’s starting small of course :: with destitution … and then maybe he’ll work his way back up to Harmonic {I stole your} Wealth™.
Here's the problem. Although his absolute maximum release date is October 24 of this year, word is that James will be prolly actually be released on July 12. Now, you would think that would be a good thing in James' perspective, especially seeing as how he was given such a short sentence in the first place -- less than two years, actually -- for the deaths of three lovely people who will still be dead even after he is no longer forced to wear the orange.

But things aren't as rosy as they seem, because, oh my, he is destitute -- destitute, I tell you! -- and doesn't have a suitable place to stay during the 110 days that he must remain in Arizona, according to the terms of his parole. Apparently Salty got hold of an email that James' brother Jon sent out to special people. Wrote Jon, in part:

The alternative to us NOT being able to find him lodging, would be that he would have to stay in a “group home” (or halfway house) with other recently released prisoners. Although we all hope that newly released prisoners come into society with the intentions of leading a reformed life, the reality is that these halfway homes tend to be full of drugs, theft, and violence. James is simply hoping for a place to have solitude, and a location that he can begin to re-acclimate to life as we all know.
Once again… I apologize in sending out this straight to the point e-mail; however, I have simply exhausted my and James’ resources (me being 1200 miles away) and now am counting on the universe to guide someone to the right resource to help us in this desperate situation.

Oh, the horror, the horror! As Salty writes, Death Ray's "righteous self may be forced to slum it up in some halfway house with dirty drug using crooks who have never even been on the Today Show." To me this is nothing more than an indication that Ray hasn't been humbled at all by his experiences. He's still playing the elitist role, fancying himself above everyone else. This despite the fact that before he went to prison, his family told ABC that James was actually looking forward to the opportunity to help his fellow prisoners.

But for now, Ray plans to offer his brand of positive thinking to his fellow inmates as he begins his two year stint in prison, his family said.

"
He was in good spirits and said this would give him the opportunity to help people in prison that need it," Ray's brother Jon told the AP.

It's something Ray's core group of loyalists say they have no doubt he'll do.


"Wherever James goes," [James Ray loyalist David] McCall said, "he always does good."
I guess his helpfulness and desire to do good do not extend to people who, like he, have just been released from cages and may very well be making sincere efforts to get their own lives back in order. But I am thinking that maybe they are better off without his help.

Anyway, Salty decided to write to Jon, who as he notes was on the bus with
Colleen Conaway the day she died, about this email. Jon whined about how the death lodge tragedy had also devastated poor James, adding that anyone who thinks differently obviously has an "agenda and vendetta to carry the hatred and pain for as long as they can." Jon also wrote, "Although my brother still lives in human form, he has died many internal deaths since this unfortunate accident." Says Salty:
How many “internal deaths” does it take to equal one actual death? I’m no expert in death math :: but I’m thinking it takes many more than many.

In the spirit of unhelpfulness, Salty placed an ad on Craigslist on behalf of Death Ray, which, alas, was flagged for removal. But you can read it on his post. It's darkly hilarious.

Whether he has to slum it in a halfway house or not, it looks as if James Arthur Ray will be getting out of the joint on July 12, thirteen days before the fourth anniversary of Colleen's death in San Diego. Salty is still trying to help her family find a measure of justice for her death. And the families of Kirby Brown, James Shore, and Liz Neuman continue to deal with the pain and emptiness. James' early release is just another way of rubbing their faces in it.

Meanwhile, many of the rest of us are taking bets on which Scamworld scumbag will be the first to help James pick up where he left off. Will it be Kevin Trudeau (provided he doesn't end up in prison himself)? Bob Proctor? Joe Vitale? Or... horrors... will he be forced to cast his lot with C-List scammers like the Supreme Founders of the IBMS Master's Society scam? (That's a fate worse than a halfway house, in my book. But hey, it could happen. After all, as Peter once wrote in a comment on my blog, "...James Ray is not a bad guy. Maybe he just pushed the envelope a little hard and tragedy struck. I feel awful for the deceased, those who were hurt and the families who were affected...")

Or will James Arthur Ray be a pariah even in Scamworld?


What do y'all think?

Whatever happens, it is up to those of us who care about the victims and their loved ones to never let the world forget the damage that James Arthur Ray has done. I think he is yet another one of many Scamworld leopards who has not and will not change his spots. Whether or not he ever does another "extreme" event such as a phony sweat lodge, he is a sociopath and, in the opinions of many who have experienced him up close and personal, a dangerous man.


* * * * *
Now more than ever, your donation is needed
to help keep this Whirled spinning.
Click here to donate via PayPal or debit/credit card.
If that link doesn't work, send PayPal payment directly to

scrivener66@hotmail.com
or to
cosmic.connie@juno.com
If PayPal, be sure to specify that your contribution is a gift. Thank you!

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Kevin Trudeau: Countdown to court date (or not)


[Note: This post has been updated since it was first published. See huge red sub-head  below, dated 15 May. ~ CC]

Oh, my goodness, look at the calendar, Dear Ones. It's May 14, and one week from today, on May 21 at 10:00 AM, one of this blog's most favorite snargets for more than four years -- that would be serial scammer Kevin Trudeau -- is scheduled to appear in court in Illinois for an evidentiary hearing regarding his longstanding civil case (Number 1:03-cv-03904, United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division, the Honorable Robert W. Gettleman presiding). The hearing is related to the FTC's motion to hold Trudeau in contempt.

Will Kevin indeed show up in person in Illinois, despite the fact that reportedly he is currently living in Switzerland? Will the hearing take place via Skype or some other videoconferencing method? Or will his lawyers manage to get yet another eleventh-hour delay?

I am not sure but I'm thinking he won't show up and it will be NBD (see the bit about KT's bankruptcy, later on in this post). As of today, here is the latest document filed in this case, filed yesterday, May 13, 2013. It is a status update of third-party corporations, as well as a request by GIN lawyers to participate in the status conference by phone. It looks like the Court is scheduled to take a depo from True-dough on May 18. And that's a Saturday, and courts usually aren't open on Saturdays. But telephones and the Interwebz are. Anyway, here's the doc (as usual, click on images to enlarge):



You can draw your own conclusions, if any, from that. At any rate, the main reason I am posting today is to remind you that there is a way you can keep reasonably current with the goings-on too. I've discussed this on various Facebook forums and have mentioned it on this blog too, but now is as good a time as any to mention it again.

The reason I mention this is that, as you may or may not know, but probably do know by now if you've been following this blog or certain other "hater" blogs or Facebook discussion groups,
Not-Doctor Loony Coldwell has been acting as if he is the sole keeper of this information. Loony is one of Kevin Trudeau's former b.f.f.s and was once a highly paid speaker for Trudeau's scammy, Ponzi-like Global Information Network (GIN). For more than six months he has been all over his Facebook page and his tawdry blog, boasting about having access to the court documents concerning the above-cited case. His protege Abe Husein has also been boasting, and has shared snippets of screen shots and commentary of some of the docs on his own Facebook page. According to recent comments from both Lenny and Abe, Kevin Trudeau will very likely be arrested on May 21, or some time in June at the latest. And they really, really, really, really mean it this time. Really!

For those who don't want to wait for Abe's screen shots or little Lenny's coy hints about the seekrit stuff he knows, there's good news: If you are in the US you can go to PACER.gov site and register.
http://www.pacer.gov/

Costs for documents are quite reasonable: 10 cents per page, with a maximum of $3.00 for any one document. After you have registered or logged in, just go to the PACER case locator, which you can get to from the home page.

Remember: The case for which Abe and Lenny have been sharing all of those documents since last year is a civil case. Again, the case number is 1:03-cv-03904, in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division, Judge Robert Gettleman presiding. On some documents the case number is formatted like this: 03-C-3904. Sometimes the site is a little confusing. But you should be able to find your way around it after a fashion.

And remember that this is just one of the current cases against Kevin Trudeau. There is a related criminal contempt case as well with Judge Guzman, Case Number 1:10-cr-0086 (
here again is a link to a June 2011 document from that case).

There is also a more recently initiated bankruptcy case, Case Number 13-764, filed on April 22, 2013, in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Illinois. I wrote about it on April 24.

In fact that whole bankruptcy thing may render most of the other scheduled court hearings moot. After all,
according to the notification of bankruptcy filing document, which was filed on April 23, "The bankruptcy filing invokes an automatic stay...which precludes any creditor or any other party from initiating or continuing further legal proceedings against the defendant." The document I shared above only relates to "the narrow exception to the automatic stay as ordered by this court." So there's that to consider.

There is no telling how many other parties have sued or tried to sue KT over the past 20 years or more, but I don't have the time to go searching for all of that.

There is a lot of legal mumbo-jumbo in these documents, and a lot of it is very boring to non-lawyers and maybe even to most lawyers. I don't even pretend to understand most of it. But the docs are there for those who are interested and want to peruse them.

When I searched for info on the civil case a couple of weeks ago, I took a screen shot of my search result (I have deleted user ID, of course). If your result looks similar it shows you are on the right track (don't be confused by the notation that the case was closed in 2004. It is ongoing.). Happy searching!
Update 15 May 2013: The Three Stooges and Document 666
Some time after I signed off PACER yesterday, a couple more documents became available regarding Kevin Trudeau's civil case with the FTC. One was just a notification of filing, and the other one, Document 666 (ahem) on the very long docket for this case, answered some of the questions I asked above -- well, sort of.

Lenny Coldwell and Abe Husein got hold of that document, and in short order Lenny had posted it on his blog (along with some of the other recent documents). Abe posted a snippet of a screen shot that confirmed that Kevin Trudeau is required to be present at the hearing on May 21, 2013.

But the document doesn't actually say Kevin has to be physically present in the courtroom. Is that just understood? Anyway, here again are screen shots (remember to click on the pics in order to enlarge them enough to make them readable):





Anyway. Maybe I'm just being narcissistic again, but it seems that my publication of this blog post yesterday caused a little bit of a stir from the third stooge... I mean, self-proclaimed hero... of the anti-GIN movement, Peter Wink, who has been mostly silent about the KT/GIN saga recently. Apparently he felt it necessary to post an update on Facebook today, on the IMBS-ing U Master Baiter's scam page.



Peter responded to a remark that someone apparently made about this (I am not able to see all comments, so I can't post a screen shot, but someone copied and pasted this for me):
...there is nobody else online that knows what's happening in this case in real time. Everyone else is days behind and not even getting the facts correct. I have not seen one thing online with any semblance of real accuracy. Just a bunch of loosely gathered public data from PACERS [sic] that does not give any foundation or order to things. To understand this case, you have to be involved in it and know all the players. The meat of the story is not posted publicly. This is why everything I post, though little, has always proven accurate. All based on objective facts. I'm not into rants, raves and opinions. KT is on his ninth live [sic], that's a fact right now. Yesterday's final court order tells the story. I know the background of why it came about --- nobody else online does. The judge has constricted options to wrap things up one way or another. KT is now in a no-win as he pushed things too far. You will see this over the next few weeks as his case come to a conclusion. If GIN owes you money, I'd collect it if I were you --- if nothing else, as a precaution. Hugs brother.
So there! Neener, neener, neener. Actually I have never claimed to know what all of the court docs are about and have never claimed that I think they tell the entire story. In fact I've come out and said that I don't understand most of it. My purpose in posting the information about the documents, and the link to PACER, is so people who are interested can find the information on their own, without relying on lunatics like Lenny to spoon feed them the information. But as for Peter saying that everything he posts has always proven accurate -- um, I don't think so. After all, he was one of those who, along with Lenny, was saying that Trudeau would be arrested on October 30 of last year. And that's just one of many times he has missed the mark. So my advice would be to not consider Peter to be an unimpeachable source.

At any rate, the first thing I thought upon reading these comments from Peter was that he seems to be subtly, or not so subtly, distancing himself from Lenny and Abe -- who have been making brash statements and predictions online for many months now -- by making it clear that only he, Peter, is the credible source, because he is the only one making public statements who is also legally involved with the FTC case.

Are you paying attention, Lenny and Abe? Do you know how close you may be to being thrown under the bus by Peter? (Here's another hint, Lenny. You know how Peter was with Kevin's gold and the FTC.)

There's been a lot of speculation about whether Peter made some kind of deal with the FTC in order to avoid prosecution himself. Honestly, I don't know. But I do know that he threw Kevin under the bus last October,
and it's all on paper as Document # 517 in the FTC's civil case against Kevin Trudeau.

I noticed also that in this latest statement on the IBMS Facebook page, Peter is once again painting himself as the hero who dared to tell the truth about Kevin. He does say he is sorry he ever went to work for the crook -- as if he had no idea when he went to work for him that KT was a crook. Uh-huh. I know I have mentioned this here before, but for the benefit of those who don't know... well, I happen to recall that last year Peter blithely told me, in a Facebook conversation that has long since been deleted, that he has known Kevin since the 1990s and had predicted everything that happened with GIN. He said Kevin hadn't changed. Though I didn't take screen shots I did have the presence of mind to copy and paste parts of this conversation, which took place on July 18-19 of last year on one of the publicly viewable Facebook pages.
Peter Wink: Hi Everyone. While Connie Schmidt and I do not always agree, there are some things we are totally aligned on. Read her blog "Whirled Musings." She is one of the best bloggers online whether you agree with her or not. Funny as heck too!
Whirled Musings
cosmicconnie.blogspot.com

Connie Schmidt: Thanks, Peter. At least we agree about KT now!

Peter Wink: My opinion is the same from day one. I've been around him off and on since the 90s. Same guy same predictability. Everything went as predicted.

Connie Schmidt: You still think he [KT] is the sweetest, most sincere guy around, and that anybody would want to work with him? Just trying to understand.
[And in the context of this comment, I cited this blog post I'd written, quoting him:
http://cosmicconnie.blogspot.com/2010/04/conversations-with-peter-wink-part-2.html ~ CC]

Peter Wink: I will explain all this to you when we do our follow up interview. Personally I'm happier where I'm at. Learned a lot. Did a lot. I was smart enough to set myself up for this a year ago. Reporting to Kevin Trudeau directly had its good points. The reality is that I've changed a lot over the past three years and have very public ambitions. Therefore, to publicly comment about my former superior (employment wise) or any of his followers would have no reward for me. Unfortunately I believe the whole house of cards will absolutely come down soon, so getting out and doing bigger things was the right recipe. I just hope all the members and affiliates do not lose everything they have. I also hate to see all my former co-workers unemployed, which seems inevitable as most of them know nothing about the financial realities which were scary at best. When this all crashes I have a great opportunity for all the former members anyway.
As I've also noted, we never did our follow-up interview. But I'm not losing any sleep over it. By the way, I believe that "great opportunity" Peter mentioned at the end of his comment was, at that time, the 90forLife MLM Livinity/Youngevity flopportunity in which Peter and Lenny were passionately involved (but Lenny probably isn't any more, after making misogynistic remarks about Barb Pitcock of Livinity). However, Peter and Lenny may have been planning the IBMS Master's Society scam even back then, so I don't know for sure.

But back to the present. On his update for the IBMS page, Peter also claims to be weary of the whole GIN saga, but is apparently he is not weary enough to keep it off of the IMBS-ing U Master Baiter's page. He seems to be blatantly using the drama as a lure for people who are interested in the KT/GIN situation.

To me the main question, and one that will probably never be answered to anyone's satisfaction, is just how much of a part Peter played in the GIN scam, knowing it was a scam. There's a hint in some of the screen shots Bernie shared
in a January blog post on GINtruth.com. And more recently... like just now... Bernie shared this. No offense intended to real snakes, I'm sure!

More True-dough on this Whirled:
* * * * *
Now more than ever, your donation is needed
to help keep this Whirled spinning.
Click here to donate via PayPal or debit/credit card.
If that link doesn't work, send PayPal payment directly to

scrivener66@hotmail.com
or to
cosmic.connie@juno.com
If PayPal, be sure to specify that your contribution is a gift. Thank you!

    Thursday, May 09, 2013

    Smaug alert! The hoarder of Hungryneck Boulevard


    Above is a picture of Not-Doctor Loony Coldwell in his home (which, for the record, is NOT on Hungryneck Boulevard; that's his mailbox address, which is a matter of public record). In this picture he appears to be showing off his worldly treasure to Peter Wink: his gold coins, his currency, his watches, and his horsey statue. For some reason Peter chose to share this on his own public photo album on Facebook, as one of his profile photos, no less. Since this was posted on January 6, 2013*, just before the launch of Lenny and Peter's IBMS Master's Society scam, I'm thinking that maybe Peter was thinking this might somehow be good publicity for the scam. ("I am rich as sh-t, and you can too!")

    A Facebook friend of mine noted that there appears to be not much more than $10k worth of loot in that picture. Another friend who has seen lots of "gold and silver porn" videos -- that is, vids of people showing off their gold and silver stashes -- says that most of those videos make Lenny's loot look like peanuts. Of course, Lenny could always say that this represents a small portion of his hoard, which is too large to fit into one picture. But whether Lenny has ten thousand or ten million or more, the picture is as ludicrous as Loony Coldwell himself, and, as my friend noted, the fact that he actually staged the picture, and Peter posted it, is hilarious. I wonder whose idea it was. I guess since Winkwell are now joined at the hip, that doesn't really matter.

    At any rate, in a way this seems like history repeating itself. Apparently, people like to show Peter their gold. Peter's ex-boss Kevin Trudeau did the same thing some time back,
    and as many of us know, that ended up in a statement to the FTC. Could Lenny be next? You never know.

    As my guy Ron said when he saw the Lenny photo: "Guard it closely,
    Smaug. Bilbo and the Dwarves are on the way!"


    * Originally I wrote that the pic of Lenny and his gold was taken on January 6, 2013, but that is probably not correct. After all, it was in mid-December 2012 that Lenny was bragging to Bernie O'Mahony at GINtruth.com about having shown his loot to Peter. As I noted on my post of 21 December, 2012, Lenny had started threatening Bernie when he realized Bernie was really turning his critical eye on Lenny instead of keeping it on Kevin Trudeau and GIN. Lenny told Bernie he was going to financially ruin critical bloggers such as Salty Droid and me; here is part of his message to Bernie:

    And by the way I have hundreds of thousands of testimonials and thank you letters emails and video testimonials and what do these losers have??? I am rich like shit and everybody that gets in my way will be paying legally the price... believe me it will finish everybody involved financially I dont care about money -- just ask Peter how much cash I showed him in my house. I deal with numbers that you cannot even fathom...
    So it is very possible that the loot pic was taken in December or earlier. However, the timing of the posting on Peter's Facebook page makes me think it may have something to do with publicizing the IBMS Master Baiter's scam as well as to serve notice to critics.

    * * * * *
    Now more than ever, your donation is needed
    to help keep this Whirled spinning.
    Click here to donate via PayPal or debit/credit card.
    If that link doesn't work, send PayPal payment directly to

    scrivener66@hotmail.com
    or to
    cosmic.connie@juno.com
    If PayPal, be sure to specify that your contribution is a gift. Thank you!

    Tuesday, May 07, 2013

    Kevin Trudeau + Mark Hamilton = GIN with a twist of Neo-stink

    As usual... click on pic to enlarge.
    Same with other pics in this post.

    Well, Dear Ones, it's May 7, and two weeks from today, on May 21 at 10:00 AM, one of this blog's long-time favorite snargets, serial scammer Kevin Trudeau, is scheduled to appear in court in Illinois for a hearing regarding his longstanding civil case (Number 03-CV-03904, United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division, the Honorable Robert W. Gettleman presiding)
    .

    Supposedly Trudeau has to be there in person, though reportedly he is now living the high life in Zurich, Switzerland. While one of his ex-b.f.f.s, Mocktor Leonard Coldwell, along with the bad mocktor's young protege, Abe Husein, are crowing that May 21 will probably be the day of Kevin's long-awaited arrest ("June at the latest!" barks Lenny Coldwell)... I'm not so sure. I still think there is a possibility that his lawyers could get him another continuance, despite current evidence that the powers-that-be have run out of patience with him. Continuance or no, his legal team has apparently also been trying to persuade the Court to come to Kevin in Zurich, or to just agree to do it all via Skype or something, as people in the twenty-first century have been known to do on occasion.

    At any rate, I don't expect to see KT in an orange jumpsuit any time soon -- not even for his related criminal contempt case (
    0-CR-000886, assigned to Judge Ronald A. Guzman) -- although the thought of his former compadre the mocktor rockin' the orange seems like justice to me. Not that I expect that to happen either.

    Anyway. With all of the buzz on Facebook and some of the blogs over the past several months -- indeed, over the past year -- about KT's troubles, and the possible downfall of what is arguably his biggest scam of all,
    the Global Information Network (GIN), people have mostly been pointing the finger of blame where it mostly belongs: at Kevin Mark Trudeau (who incidentally, as you may know, also recently filed for bankruptcy). But I think there is far too little attention being paid to someone whom I suspect is pretty much Kevin's equal partner in deception, and has been from the pre-GIN days: one Mark Hamilton, aka Wallace Ward Jr., aka Mark Scamilton (his Whirled moniker), current head of the Neo-tech/Neothink/NovaTech/Novus Tek/Nouveau Tech/Society of Secrets scampire. Hamilton is also head of the Neos' political party, TheTwelve Visions Party, or TVP.

    For years, True-dough and Scamilton have been trading mail lists, and have run numerous schemes and scams individually and together. I have no doubt that KT got a lot of inspiration for the seekrit-society aspect of GIN from Scamilton. And many people believe that Scamilton is one of the very few, besides True-dough himself, who have actually made millions in GIN. Both men have done so on the backs of thousands of suckered hopefuls, most of whom have spent far more money than they will ever, ever, ever earn in GIN.

    Nearly a year before the first real rumbles of discontent came from within GIN, thanks in part to the aforementioned Abe Husein (I do believe in giving credit where it is due), I had connected at least a few of the GIN/Neo-stink dots here on this Whirled. In these two August 2011 posts, particularly in Part 1, I take my time getting to the point, as I am wont to do, but even so, I think the posts contain some good background info and links. Here are those links again, for the benefit of those who haven't seen them or simply want to revisit:


    Oh, and there's a little bit about Neo-tech in this interim post from August 24, 2011:
    http://cosmicconnie.blogspot.com/2011/08/calling-all-lazy-men-lets-build-pyramid.html

    As I said above, I believe there has been far too little attention paid to Neo-stink and Scamilton in discussions about GIN, at least outside of certain private Facebook forums. I can only hope that the Feds, as well as the TV journalists who have been poking around these issues over the past six months or more, are at least marginally aware of the Neo-stink/GIN connection -- and I trust they will dig or have dug much deeper than I am capable of doing, and will act or report accordingly, as appropriate.

    According to something Abe wrote on Facebook many months ago,
    the Emmy Award winning investigative reporter Ryan Kath, who did the fine but all too short piece about GIN for KSHB-TV, the Kansas City MO NBC affiliate, had told Abe that the investigative crew was very interested in Mark Hamilton as well as KT. Abe, who had set that whole ball in motion (apparently under the direction and guidance of Peter Wink, or so Peter hinted to me), noted that he was puzzled because he really hadn't said anything to Ryan about Hamilton.

    But I had. So maybe I planted a seed. Maybe not. I don't know.

    At any rate, although the story
    and followup that aired on KSHB-TV did not mention Hamilton and Neo-think, it's good to know that Scamilton was/is on their radar, for whatever reason. And I can only hope that Scamilton and Neo-stink are also on the radar of the major news organization that is said to be airing an exposé on GIN/Trudeau later this month.

    This isn't new news by any means, but I am posting it as yet another reminder of the way the big sick machine works. As I noted in one of my August 2011 blog posts, Kevin met Scamilton's late daddy, Frank Wallace (the pen name for Wallace Ward Sr.) when the two of them were doing time in prison. I am sure that this was the beginning of a long friendship and scamming relationship.

    Some defenders of Neothink say the Neo-empire changed when Mark took over, and that it became more about greed and deception and moneymaking. Frank was the idealist, they say, or at least the ideologue. But good ol' Frank seems to have been quite the con artist himself, and he also went a little loony in his later years, what with that Zonpower stuff. Just follow those Whirled links I provided above, or go searching on your own. You will find plenty to keep you entertained.

    For starters, though, there's the graphic at the top of the page, which I screen shot from an 81-page June 2012 FTC document that many of you have already seen. And below is one of the old-school solicitation letters that "the desk of Mark Hamilton" apparently sent to the Neo-mailing lists, as well as to KT's Natural Cures and various infomercial response lists.



    Scamilton also used some of the Neo-stink newsletters to push GIN (I linked to this December 2009 piece in one of my earlier Neo-stink posts, but here it is again). In other words, Scamilton, who has quite the cultish following himself, played a huge part in getting his own followers to join GIN.

    There's another minor player in this, one who has already been caught with his hand in a cookie jar, and convicted and sentenced. His name is Steven Hinz, and apparently he's been involved in Neo-stink for many years, and has also been active in recruiting people for GIN. I mentioned him in a couple of my 2011 Neo-stink posts, and he showed up on one of my KT posts as well. Here's a video of Steven dancing on the January 2011 GIN Leadership Cruise:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yt688U2ygcU

    Steven's Facebook page, on which he hasn't really participated much for many months (no big surprise there, in light of recent developments) has numerous photos of Steven at various GIN events, including a series called "I love private planes!" -- snapped in June 2011 -- in which he is rather smugly sitting in the seat of someone's private jet, sporting a GIN event badge. He may have just climbed in there to pose; no word on whether he actually took the private jet to and from the event. But judging from the pics I've seen, he had the time of his life at several GIN events.

    Here is a snapshot of Steven flanked by two of his buddies at a December 2010 GIN event.


    Although the object poking between Steven's legs has not yet been identified, the other two dudes in the pic above are those fine German fellows, Mocktor Lenny Coldwell and Mocktor's twelve-years-younger half brother, Jens Anskohl, aka Nicholas Coldwell (
    for more on the Coldwell brothers' various enterprises, see here). No telling what kind of deals, if any, Steven and the Coldwells made at that late 2010 event, but apparently somewhere along the line, Lenny developed a soft spot for the Neos, and/or vice versa, because in May of 2011 he was a keynote speaker at a Twelve Visions Party conference.



    Maybe it was just a one-time deal and the Twelve Visions folks and Lenny parted friends (or not) after a one-night stand. I'm still waiting on more information about that. But I do know that this past February, Peter Wink solicited the Neo-stinkers, via Facebook (and no doubt via email blasts too, though I don't know for sure) to join his and Lenny's latest scam, the IBMS Master's Society (scroll down to "Neo-stinkers can join too!").




    Going a little further back in time, to that aforementioned June 2011 GIN event, here's Peter Wink and Steven with sh-t eating grins on their faces.



    But that was then, and this is now. One senses that Steven hasn't been doing much dancing and partying lately. In January, the FBI announced that Steven was sentenced to nine years in prison, and ordered to pay more than $500,000 in restitution, for his role in leading separate tax and mortgage fraud conspiracies.
    Here's the link to the press release. Apparently Steven and his partner were exploiting the Neo-mailing lists, maybe somewhat like Kevin has been doing, but apparently with less skill:

    According to court documents, Hinz promoted a scheme to defraud the United States by filing false federal income tax returns claiming large tax refunds using the so-called “OID process.” The OID process involved the preparation of fictitious IRS Forms 1099-OID, Original Issue Discount, falsely reporting that financial institutions, creditors, and other entities had withheld large amounts of federal income tax on behalf of the defendants and other taxpayers, with respect to non-existent income. Hinz and English recruited potential clients by promoting the OID scheme to investors in and employees of Hinz’s real estate business in Youngstown, Ohio, as well as to individuals they knew from organizations known at different times as NeoThink, NeoTech, and the Society of Secrets. English prepared or directed the preparation of the 1099-OID forms and prepared and electronically filed the tax returns. Based on these fictitious withholdings, at least 17 false tax returns for the year 2008 were filed with the IRS, claiming false refunds totaling over $3,000,000. Under the scheme, taxpayers recruited by Hinz were to pay 20 percent of their refunds to Hinz and English, split equally between them, sometimes referred to as commissions and sometimes labeled as “donations.”
    This isn't an indictment of the entire Neo-scampire, of course, and certainly not of all of its members. Just because one of their long-time members -- and trainers -- is a convicted criminal, this doesn't mean they all are. And I have no idea how many mailing lists Steven got hold of to run his scams, or whether or not he had the approval of the owners of those lists. Even so, I think this shows the type of person that these "secret societies" all too often attract.

    There are many more dots to connect, many more pieces of information about Neo-Stink and GIN. I've only done the most superficial work on this post and my previous ones for my usual reasons: because I'm basically lazy, distracted by other matters, and, since this is a hobby blog, I'm not getting paid to connect these dots. But I suspect that there's plenty more Neo-stink in the GIN mix than even I know about.

    Moreover, I haven't even delved into the GIN/Scientology connection (except superficially, on this post). I intend to have more on both Neo-stink/Scamilton and Scientology, not to mention on KT and GIN, fairly soon. But if not, perhaps this is enough to get your own investigative wheels turning. And I hope you will investigate. Further, I hope you'll comment on this blog and share your own experiences and opinions, for or against Neo-think etc. and/or GIN and/or Scientology.

    After all, we're all in this together. And despite the fact that I have never been in GIN or Neo-tech or Scientology, and therefore according to some I have no right to an opinion, I do care that people are being scammed and possibly brainwashed in order to line the pockets of scammers. And I find it utterly disgusting.

    PS ~ One of many pieces of evidence that Mark Scamilton is not the world's most honest marketer: Phony testimonials from Neo-Tech...
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5o_aHd1EkI
    PPS ~ A little comic relief: a Twelve Visions Party hip-hop offering: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NXlpRAugao&feature=share

    PPPS added 8 May 2013 ~ The Wikipedia entry on Mark Hamilton redirects to an entry on one of the publishing companies his daddy started, Integrated Management Associates. It's a short entry but has some interesting links, including links to an old blog (ca. 2005) by someone who knew Mark and his daddy. That blogger, Brett Peters, apparently had his own agenda -- selling people miracle vitamins based on nano-technology -- but he still has some interesting ruminations.

    PPPPS added 8 May 2013 ~ Oh, my goodness. Reading crap like this confesstimonial blog for Mark Hamilton really makes me despair for the human race again. Poor "James" is one of many who have apparently been fooled by the "you're very special" marketing that Neo-stink is apparently still doing. This is pathetic.

    Also, I've only mentioned this in passing in a previous Neo-stink post, but one of the things Mark Hamilton boasts about is being part owner of the famous (or infamous)
    Grand Canyon Skywalk, which has been the center of some controversies and troubling tribalpolitics in recent years. However, there seems to be no mention of Mark Hamilton's name in conjunction with the Skywalk, outside of Mark Hamilton's web sites. Even so, he apparently got some marketing mileage out of the thing, as this screen shot of a 2009 complaint on a spam-phone call complaint board indicates.








    PPPPPS added 4 June 2014 ~ Legal battles over the Skywalk continue; this is from January 2014. Thanks to my friend Julie Daniel for sharing this.
     
    More True-dough on this Whirled:
    * * * * *
    Now more than ever, your donation is needed
    to help keep this Whirled spinning.
    Click here to donate via PayPal or debit/credit card.
    If that link doesn't work, send PayPal payment directly to

    scrivener66@hotmail.com
    or to
    cosmic.connie@juno.com
    If PayPal, be sure to specify that your contribution is a gift. Thank you!

    Sunday, April 28, 2013

    Mocktor Loony Coldwell's private resort: The Road to Hellville?



    Dear Ones, I have wonderful news from the Palmetto State (that would be South Carolina): Mocktor Leonard "Loony" Coldwell, the former Bernd Klein, aka Bernd Witchner, may now have a new venue from which to peddle his pricey IBMS schemes, train his militia, and practice his hands-on healing. Yep, according to Loony, he has just procured 130-plus acres in South Carolina, near the Georgia border and one hour away from the Atlanta airport (see screen shot above and the two below). The property is slated to become the long-awaited IBMS Health Resort.

    But it's not just going to be a health resort. It's also going to be a town unto itself, if Loony has his way, and apparently Loony intends that it will actually be a sovereign nation unto itself. Writes he:

    We are working on Town-rights and will have our own elected Sheriff etc. The first step towards liberty and freedom. And NO restrictions on what kind of treatment we apply here!
     

     Loony's young protege Abe Husein is excited about it too.


    But before anyone else gets too excited one way or the other, perhaps a little perspective is in order. Leonard Coldwell has always been a little man with big dreams. Even a superficial online search of trademark info reveals that he has a string of failed/abandoned business ventures, both in Germany and the U.S. (And yes, I know I have mentioned this before more than once, but it seems fitting to mention it again.) Follow the link in the sentence above and you'll see several enterprises that ended up going nowhere. On most of these listings there are also links to the actual information on the United States Patent and Trademark Office web site.

    In any event, this latest development should come as no big surprise; after all, Coldwell claims to have had a chain of "clinics" in Germany years ago, and for years he has also talked of opening up a complementary-med health resort.
    Here's one of many sites in which the resort dream is mentioned.

    In 2000, Dr. Coldwell made the decision to invest his time, knowledge and experience in teaching and consulting to help make a better world for children and parents. Through his children's foundation, he is helping teachers, parents and children deal with stress and drugs in the local schools. Further, he is well into the planning stages for the world's largest most comprehensive health resort. His plan is to house every mainstream, alternative, holistic and integrated therapy system in one location so that patients will have access to state of the art healing arts and practices in a wellness setting unique to the world.
    That "children's foundation" referred to is Coldwell's Foundation for Crime and Drug Free Schools and Health for Children. It seems to be yet another defunct organization, and virtually the only mention of it that can be found online is in Loony's standard biography where he boasts about all of his miracle curing and his humanitarian accomplishments.

    But still. Could it be that despite the naysayers, Loony C is finally on his way to realizing his fine dream of opening up the most comprehensive health resort ever? Meh... anyone can post pics of real estate and talk about their big dreams, But even if he did actually buy this property here are a few things to keep in mind, for those who may want to research this matter further:

    1. It will almost certainly not be in his name. People who know him very well have told me that he never wants his name on any property transactions. That is most likely a privacy and tax-avoidance strategy. No doubt that is why he has that phony church (
    The Church of Inner Healing, registered in Nevada), that phony university (Wellness University LLC, registered in his wife's name), and who knows what else. He has also reportedly funneled a great deal of money through German friends who have set up bank accounts here and in Germany. (Meanwhile he crows about Kevin's "money laundry.") He may have even set up a whole separate company for this property transaction, if indeed there has been a transaction.
    2. Even if he sets up "Town-rights" and appoints a sheriff and declares the property "sovereign," it is still in the US and subject to US law. And if he gets reported for performing illegal "treatments" or hosting events where such "treatments" are performed -- or does anything else illegal or questionable -- he could end up with a swarm of Feds storming the compound. Worst case: It could actually result in a shoot-out, making Lenny the ultimate hero/martyr in the eyes of people who are still idiotic enough to worship him. The sad thing would be that innocents could be hurt or killed too.
    3. Regarding the IBMS training (not to be confused with
    Lenny and Peter Wink's IBMS Master's Society scam): I've heard from a few people who have gone through that training that it's overpriced and repetitious, and people are disappointed to learn that despite the big promises, they really can't make a living being an IBMS coach or practitioner. Apparently there is a very small number of licensed professionals -- maybe a chiro or two -- who integrate IBMS with their regular practice, but the only one who is really making money off this scam is Loony C himself. Perhaps he is pushing it again now because he needs money for a down payment on his South Carolina utopia.

    But... ugh. Think about it. Out there, no one can hear you scream...
     

    A friend of mine said that the prospect of an IBMS resort kind of reminded him of the late cereal magnate John W. Kellogg and his Battle Creek Sanitarium at the dawn of the 20th century (the novel and film The Road To Wellville were based on this). Another pal noted, "It just looks and sounds like the opening scene in a horror movie. "Where have the missing girls at Coldwell Health Resort gone... eeep eeep eeep..."
     

    But I suspect we should hold off on our "eeeps" for now. I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for the Loony C Health Resort to open any time soon.

    Update, 29 April 2013:
    Despite us naysayers and "hatters" (as Lenny's boy Abe likes to call us), the dream will not die! If you are looking for a job that will exploit your skills and labor in the service of building Lenny's dream for Lenny and maybe a few of his friends, look no further.


    So apparently the "healers" all have be alternative/holistic practitioners. So much for Lenny's original vision to include open-minded real doctors too -- but then again, he has never had a good working relationship with anyone in the real-doctoring biz. Right now his Screwtopia is shaping up to be just another New-Wage community/"healing center" -- only with militia potential, given Coldwell's obsession with guns and overthrowing the tyrannical gummit. But there will probably be plenty of love and light to go with all of those guns. After all, we have a New-Wage dilettante and fierce Lenny defender who knows how to do "aura combing" (I wonder if she does braiding too), so it prolly won't be all firearm fanaticism.

    In any case, as a friend of mine pointed out, Lenny's idea isn't all that new or original. My friend wrote, "Really funny how he says it's the world's only one stop holistic resort. He hasn't even broken ground on it, and it's not an original idea. The Raj, The Chopra Center, and Alive Resort in B.C. come to mind." Amen. So-called 'holistic' resorts have been around for years.

    As for those "new apartments and bungalows" for staff, my first thought upon reading that was, "Wow. Just like in Scientology compounds (and every other cult for that matter). The fearless leader and a few favorites live large. Everyone else, not so much.

    One thing that popped into my mind was Scientology's Sea Org and the other elite divisions of the Church of Scientology. I have read enough of the book,
    Beyond Belief, by Jenna Miscavige Hill, the niece of the current Scientology head, that Coldwell's call for warm bodies to build his community made me raise my eyebrows. Scientology works its Sea Org people and other "special" members -- even the very young kids -- like slaves, and most live in pretty scruffy quarters. Only a few top dogs get the cushy quarters and all of the amenities.

    Of course Lenny isn't nearly as smart as Elron Hubbard or even the current Scientology leaders -- or most other cult leaders, for that matter. But he still seems to have ambitions in those directions. And what's sad is that a few idiots and misguided souls may actually join him. It's truly a creepy prospect. All I can say, with all due apologies to Willie Nelson, is: "Parents, don't let your babies grow up to be Lennites..."

    Related: The Coldwell Revolution: Lunacy, Lechery, Sovereignty


    * * * * *
    Now more than ever, your donation is needed
    to help keep this Whirled spinning.
    Click here to donate via PayPal or debit/credit card.
    If that link doesn't work, send PayPal payment directly to

    scrivener66@hotmail.com
    or to
    cosmic.connie@juno.com
    If PayPal, be sure to specify that your contribution is a gift. Thank you!