Kevin Trudeau

Kevin Trudeau Has Learned Nothing

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Does anyone remember Kevin Trudeau? He’s been in prison for the last six years, so you may have forgotten about him.

Kevin Trudeau used to be called the “infomercial king” because he did a bunch of wildly successful infomercials selling “natural cures.” Between the natural cures and the weight loss cures he peddled, he made millions off unsuspecting consumers.

But Kevin Trudeau was a special kind of criminal. He was a repeat offender who didn’t learn anything from his many legal troubles..

He did time in the early1990s for credit card fraud. The FTC went after Trudeau in 1998 for false and misleading information in the infomercials, and he had to pay a $500,000 fine. Then in 2003 they went after him for violating the order in the 1998 case when he made claims that Coral Calcium Supreme cured cancer. In 2004, he had to pay a $2 million fine related to this violation.

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Kevin Trudeau Is On His Way to Prison!

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kevin-trudeau-goes-to-prisonHabitual criminal Kevin Trudeau is ending up exactly where he belongs…. in prison! Trudeau has a lengthy history of legal problems. He spent 2 years in prison in the 1990s for credit card fraud. In 1996 he settled charges that he was operating an illegal pyramid scheme called Nutrition for Life. In 1998, Trudeau was fined $500,000 for making false claims in infomercials.

Then came Trudeau’s book The Weight Loss Cure ‘They’ Don’t Want You to Know About. The problem was that he misled consumers with his infomercials, making them think his weight loss book would show them an easy weight loss method which allowed them to eat whatever they wanted when they were done. But the diet was not simple. It required colonics performed by a licensed practitioner and injection of a human growth hormone, and it never really ended. Dieters really couldn’t eat whatever they wanted, because the book said they should only eat organic food and avoid brand name foods, fast food, and meals at chain restaurants.

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Kevin Trudeau Bankruptcy Filing

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Serial charlatan Kevin Trudeau is up to his old tricks. Despite being caught by regulators violating consumer protection laws many times… despite being fined and sanctioned multiple times…. despite repeated violations of injunctions and orders….. Kevin Trudeau continuously invents new ways to avoid the long arm of the law.

Kevin Trudeau just filed for bankruptcy protection. And wouldn’t you know it, his lawyers say that the bankruptcy filing means the government can’t enforce an order that he pay a $37 million fine and that sanctions for non-payment cannot occur.

From a previous article about the Kevin Trudeau shenanigans:

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Internet Marketing and Multi-Level Marketing: Same Scam, Different Name

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Recently I have been digging into the Salty Droid (you can’t make money online) archives. Salty Droid is an attorney in Chicago who writes about scammers who pitch their wares on the internet. I’ve been aware of the site for a while. But little did I know that Salty Droid has been covering a number of scammers that I’ve had my eye on for a while: Chris Brogan, Kevin Trudeau, Alexis Neely, Sean Stephenson, Mindy Kniss, Darren Rowse, Stephen Pierce, and Yanik Silver. We also have a mutual interest in assholes like Mark Shurtleff and  Crystal Cox.

But what struck me today as I was perusing the archives of Salty Droid is how similar “internet marketing” and “multi-level marketing” are. They take a product which is either non-existent or has very little interest to actual consumers (i.e. third party purchasers, rather than the pushers/distributors themselves) and build a “business” around convincing others to push the same “product.”

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Kevin Trudeau and the First Amendment

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Kevin Trudeau is a charlatan with a colorful history of interaction with the authorities. Over and over, he has been found misleading consumers via infomercials (his main method of self-promotion), but now he would have you believe that he’s just a victim of the man who is trying to take away his First Amendment right to free speech.

In the early 1990s, Trudeau pleaded guilty to larceny and did time for stealing money via consumers’ credit cards. In 1996, Trudeau had legal troubles relating to his participation in Nutrition For Life, a multi-level marketing company that was accused of being a pyramid scheme.

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