94. The Messenger (Kevin Trudeau)

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Speaker 3 This episode of Swindled may contain graphic descriptions or audio recordings of disturbing events which may not be suitable for all audiences. Listener discretion is advised.

Speaker 4 When Brian Gortz and his wife Cheryl Skegan purchased this 15-acre horse ranch in 2008, it was to realize a lifelong dream, but they quickly learned the legacy they bought was based upon a lie.

Speaker 1 Jean-Vieve de Montremer told her new neighbors in Fresno, California that she had grown up in a castle in France.

Speaker 1 She was a descendant of French nobility, educated at the finest European schools, where she had completed a PhD in genetics.

Speaker 1 Jean-Vieve intended to find a cure for cancer, but got sidetracked by her hobby, horse breeding, Frisian horses in particular. It was a tradition.

Speaker 1 Jean-Vieve des Montremer's family had been breeding horses for over a thousand years. That's actually what brought the French noblewoman to Fresno in the early 90s.
She and her husband, Dr.

Speaker 1 Michael Weilert, a pathologist, purchased a 15-acre ranch northeast of the city. where they housed over a million dollars worth of the rare and expensive breed.

Speaker 1 They also hosted lavish parties and events at the property to ingratiate themselves. Jean Vieve became highly regarded in the region's exclusive equestrian community.

Speaker 1 But unfortunately, sometime in 2003, she was diagnosed with leukemia. The chemotherapy took a toll on Jean-Vieve's body.

Speaker 1 She was rarely seen in public after that, and on the rare occasion when she did make an appearance, She was attached to an IV.

Speaker 1 By late 2007, Jean-Vieve de Montremer's heart was failing. The details are vague, but she required immediate open-heart surgery.
And it didn't work.

Speaker 1 Jean-Vieve fell into a coma, then died on November 30th, 2007.

Speaker 1 Her obituary called her the matriarch of the Frisian community. Gone but not forgotten.
The National Frisian Horse Show that year was dedicated to Jean-Vieve.

Speaker 1 The equestrian community was devastated. They didn't even get to say their goodbyes because there was no funeral.

Speaker 1 Jean-Vieve de Montremer's body was taken back to France, where her heart was removed and placed in the cathedral as part of an ancient family ritual.

Speaker 1 No one was more devastated than her widow, Dr. Michael Wylert.
He couldn't bear to tend to the horses without his beloved Jean-Vieve, so he put their 15-acre ranch up for sale. $2.3 million.

Speaker 1 Most prospective buyers balked at the price. Property values have been declining.
The economy was circling the drain. Dr.

Speaker 1 Weilert was asking for more than what the fair market dictated the ranch was worth. Sorry, Dr.
Weilert told them. Don't shoot the messenger.
The price was firm. It had been set by his wife's estate.

Speaker 1 There was nothing he could do.

Speaker 1 Dr. Weilert's ranch was finally sold in May 2009 to Dr.
Brian Gwartz, an anesthesiologist, and his wife Cheryl Skeegan, a corporate lawyer with a passion for horseback riding. Dr.

Speaker 1 Weilert personally gave the couple a tour of the property, during which there were moments when he would break down crying.

Speaker 1 When he showed us his property, he would point and say, every spot here is like a grave marker for the person who isn't here and designed all of this, Cheryl Skeegan told ABC News.

Speaker 1 How could Cheryl and Brian resist owning their own horse ranch designed by French nobility? It was a dream come true.

Speaker 1 But soon after moving in, they discovered severe structural problems in the barn and arena. It was estimated that it would cost $800,000 to fix.
Talk to my lawyer, Dr.

Speaker 1 Weilert told Cheryl Skeegan and Brian Gortz when they confronted him, apparently forgetting that Cheryl Skeegan was a lawyer. This could get interesting.

Speaker 1 And sure enough, while preparing a lawsuit against Dr. Michael Wilert, Cheryl did find something interesting.

Speaker 1 It was the deed to the property, signed by Jean-Vieve de Montremer, dated March 20th, 2008, almost four months after she had died. Aha, a forgery, Cheryl Skeegan thought.

Speaker 1 So she contacted the notary, who signed off on it. Oh no, that's not a forgery, the notary told Cheryl.
I watched Jean-Vieve de Montremer sign the deed to the property on March 20th, 2008.

Speaker 1 She came into my office.

Speaker 1 Jean-Vieve de Montremer was alive. Just unbelievable, unbelievable, Cheryl Skeegan told ABC News, but that's only the half of it.

Speaker 5 I think the most shocking thing

Speaker 5 was to find out that Genevieve de Montremer was not only not dead, but not Genevieve de Montromer.

Speaker 1 After more research, Cheryl Skeegan and the local media discovered that Jean-Vieve de Montremer was actually a woman named Genevieve Sanders. She was not of French nobility.

Speaker 1 She was the daughter of a farmer from Lindsay, California, where her stepmother was mayor.

Speaker 1 However, it's not totally fair to discount Genevieve Sanders' ties to royalty. In 1986, when she was 24 years old, Genevieve was crowned Central California's national raisin queen.

Speaker 1 But it wasn't until she moved to Fresno in the early 90s that she started lying about her history.

Speaker 1 Genevieve was a waitress, and she discovered that she received larger tips if she spoke to customers in a French accent.

Speaker 1 She started adopting it more and more until eventually, her ex-husband remembered, she was studying the language non-stop and reading French history.

Speaker 6 Talking at a restaurant to maybe get better tips became something that was a true character for her 24 hours a day, seven days a week. I did not see that coming.

Speaker 1 At first, I thought it was kind of funny. I thought it was kind of playful and I thought it was kind of intriguing to me, Gary Hoffman, a former psychology professor, told the Fresno Bee.

Speaker 1 But in the end, it was very much estranging, and I started to take it as a bit of a slap in the face because it struck me as just over the top.

Speaker 1 Gary Hoffman and Genevieve Sanders divorced soon after she legally changed her name. In 1991, Jean-Vieve de Montremer met Dr.
Michael Wylert in his laboratory where she worked.

Speaker 1 They were married by the end of the year. He had always known the truth about her.

Speaker 8 He stood in front of the front door with us and actually cried over his wife's death.

Speaker 5 We thought that we were dealing with this poor grieving widower who was his final standing citizen. We had no clue.

Speaker 1 All of this revelatory information was included in the lawsuit filed by Brian Gwartz and Cheryl Skegan, which accused Dr. Michael Weilert of hiding major issues with the property and defrauding them.

Speaker 1 by inflating the price above market value based on the French nobility connection, which wasn't even true.

Speaker 1 Weilert refused to settle. His defense argued that Gwartz and Skeegan purchased the property as is and should have inspected it more closely.
The case was heard by a jury in 2012.

Speaker 1 Dr. Weilert admitted on the stand that he faked his wife's death.
She didn't even have leukemia. Weilert said Genevieve suffered from depression and a fear of public places, and it was debilitating.

Speaker 1 He said she was, quote, very ill and her desire was to be dead. She wanted to be left alone.

Speaker 1 Genevieve Sanders did not testify. Instead, she was deposed at her house, in her bed, in a dimly lit room.
We had to use flashlights to read the documents, the plaintiff's lawyer said.

Speaker 14 Here begins videotape number one in the deposition of Genevieve de Montremar.

Speaker 1 She's been sedated, Doctor?

Speaker 17 Not to my knowledge.

Speaker 13 Did you ever work as a waitress?

Speaker 18 Okay.

Speaker 11 She said a yes.

Speaker 18 Okay.

Speaker 1 Answered, okay.

Speaker 19 Who are you?

Speaker 10 Jimmy Sanders.

Speaker 15 Tim Genevieve Sanders, your maiden name.

Speaker 1 During the deposition, Genevieve Sanders appears too weak to complete a sentence. The deposition was a failure.

Speaker 1 The plaintiff's attorneys wanted to reschedule, but were blocked by the court when the defense submitted a doctor's report that said, quote, a deposition might kill her.

Speaker 1 On October 25th, 2012, after an eight-week trial, the jury awarded Dr. Brian Gortz and Cheryl Skegan $1.5 million,

Speaker 1 consisting of $700,000 for the fraud charges and $850,000 in punitive damages. Dr.

Speaker 1 Weilert was also punished by the medical board, not only for the real estate fraud, but it had also been revealed that he was ordering his staff to create fake medical records.

Speaker 1 to obtain Xanax for his wife, who was supposedly dead at the time.

Speaker 8 As lab director at Community Regional Medical Center, he had technicians create fake patients so he could prescribe an average of 510 pills a month for more than two years until he finally admitted she was alive again.

Speaker 1 Unfortunately, it would take years for Cheryl Skegan and Brian Gortz to see any of that settlement money. Dr.
Michael Wilert declared bankruptcy.

Speaker 1 He only had about $155,000 in assets, and his old medical practice was fighting for a piece of it to pay for its own attorney fees.

Speaker 1 Luckily or unluckily as you'll soon see, Cheryl Skegan wasn't desperate for the money because in 2011 she settled a sexual harassment lawsuit against the founder of Hooked on Phonics.

Speaker 22 What is Hooked on Phonics? It's a program that helps teach children and adults how to read by teaching the sounds of the letters in the alphabet.

Speaker 22 All the lessons are set to music and that makes learning to read simple and fun.

Speaker 1 Hooked on Phonics, the at-home reading program that reached peak popularity in the early 90s. You remember? It had a catchy slogan.

Speaker 1 Hooked on Phonics, worked for me, and the easy to remember phone number. Call 1-800-A-B-C-D-E-F-G.

Speaker 1 Hooked on Phonics taught reading by associating sounds with letters and words.

Speaker 1 The original program consisted of nine packs of flashcards, five softcover workbooks, and eight 20-minute cassette tapes of spoken instruction backed by some chill, lo-fi beats.

Speaker 1 B,

Speaker 1 the

Speaker 1 ball.

Speaker 1 C,

Speaker 1 k,

Speaker 1 cat.

Speaker 1 The program was appropriate for new readers of all ages. An estimated 27 million adults in the U.S.
at the time could not read.

Speaker 1 One of Hooked on Phonic's main appeals was that those people could now learn to read at home at their own pace without the public embarrassment of a classroom setting.

Speaker 23 That's the success of Hooked on Phonics, and that's what makes it work. It takes all that shame, fear, embarrassment, and all that tension out of your life.

Speaker 23 The tension that involves when you're sitting with your wife, the woman that you love, and saying, help me, I'm stupid.

Speaker 1 Hooked on Phonics seemed like a decent enough idea, but it wasn't even original. Thousands of similar products were available then, but were usually marketed to school districts and teachers.

Speaker 1 On the other hand, Hooked on Phonics was sold directly to the consumer via a blitz of television and radio advertisements.

Speaker 1 In 1991, Gateway Educational Products, the makers of Hooked on Phonics, reportedly spent almost $44 million of its total $50 million in revenue on advertising.

Speaker 1 It became the largest advertiser on network radio, sponsoring programs like the Rush Limbaugh Show, whose audience was comprised entirely of illiterates, allegedly.

Speaker 26 For 46 lonely years, I had a secret.

Speaker 17 I could not read.

Speaker 24 But then, I ordered the reading cassettes, hooked on phonics, and taught myself how to read without any help or embarrassment.

Speaker 26 In fact, after learning one 18-minute cassette, I was able to read a 120-page book. So, if you or your child have a reading problem, order hooked on phonics and learn to read.

Speaker 24 I did call 100 ABCDEFG.

Speaker 1 Hooked on Phonics promised you the ability to read a 120-page book after learning one 18-minute cassette. A print ad read, quote, solves adult illiteracy in only weeks.
Money back guaranteed.

Speaker 1 By 1994, Gateway Educational had sold millions of the kids, which retailed for $179.95 each. The company generated $133 million.

Speaker 1 The founder wasn't surprised by its success. John Shanahan created Hooked on Phonics in the late 80s after seeing his son struggle with reading.

Speaker 1 John said his son would throw up in the mornings before school from the nervousness of having to read aloud in class. At the time, John Shanahan was a jingle composer for commercials and such.

Speaker 1 He went to the library, studied reading instruction books, plugged in the synthesizer, and got to work.

Speaker 1 Many educators believe that when the right and left sides of the brain are stimulated at the same time, learning capabilities are maximized, the Hooked on Phonics instructions read.

Speaker 1 John Shanahan wholeheartedly believed that. Hooked on Phonics worked for his son.
He knew it could work for you. Shanahan invested $25,000 of his own money to mass produce and market the Phonics kits.

Speaker 1 He was selling them out of a small warehouse in California. He tried to partner with McDonald's but failed.
There was little interest in Hooked on Phonics initially, but as we know, that would change.

Speaker 1 And the sales graph wasn't the only thing that would rapidly ascend. So did John Shanahan's ego, reportedly.

Speaker 1 He started referring to himself as a true Renaissance man, a gourmet chef, a historian, an accomplished composer. He even referred to himself as an author.

Speaker 1 after compiling a book of quotes in 1999 that he titled, The Most Brilliant Thoughts of All Time. It contained classic quotes from the likes of Shakespeare, Lincoln, and Hemingway.

Speaker 1 Even John Shanahan snuck in with one of his own, quote, if you don't bring Paris with you, you won't find it there. Damn, that's deep.
Now let me ask you this.

Speaker 1 Would it surprise you to learn that such a delusionally confident Renaissance man like John Shanahan could be capable of also being a sexual creep?

Speaker 1 I didn't think so. And yes, he is, according to Cheryl Skeegan, one of John's corporate attorneys who sued him in 2007.

Speaker 1 According to Ms. Skeegan's deposition, the first incident happened in 2003 at a Christmas party at John Shanahan's house.

Speaker 1 Cheryl said everybody was in the backyard, and John, her boss, approached her, grabbed her left buttock, and said, hmm, firm. Must be all that horseback riding.

Speaker 1 Later, Cheryl said she was inside on the couch when John Shanahan intoxicatedly plopped down on an adjacent chair. Don't you want to go away with me? He slurred while reaching out his hand.

Speaker 1 Don't you want me to fuck your brains out? Isn't that what you want?

Speaker 1 Tough to resist, but Cheryl Skeegan managed. Besides, she was married.
John, who was also married, knew that, but didn't care.

Speaker 1 He made that obvious by sending flowers to Cheryl's home that she shared with her husband and five kids. Skeegan testified that John Shanahan groped her again in 2005 on a business trip.

Speaker 1 He begged her to leave her family and live with him in Newport Beach. Cheryl Skeegan says that John Shanahan would get angry when she rebuffed his offers.

Speaker 1 Must be menopause, he would say, or must be a lesbian. Then, one day, without warning, he fired her.

Speaker 1 John Shanahan claimed he never said or did any of those things, and many of his actions like sending flowers to her home had innocent explanations.

Speaker 1 Also, according to John, he wasn't drunk at that Christmas party. He had just started taking prescription pain pills that day.

Speaker 1 Despite his proclamations of innocence, John Shanahan settled Cheryl Skeekin's lawsuit pre-trial for $700,000. In addition, he paid his lawyers over a million dollars in fees.

Speaker 1 Shanahan filed an insurance claim for the settlement amount, but State Farm refused to pay, noting that his homeowner's liability policy didn't cover sexual battery.

Speaker 1 In 2011, John Shanahan lost his appeal.

Speaker 1 We fail to see how grabbing Skeeken's buttock, squeezing it, and telling her that its firmness must be the result of all her horseback riding could have been accidental, wrote Appellate Justice Eileen Moore.

Speaker 1 Speech is intentional.

Speaker 1 That same year, John Shanahan sold Hooked on Phonics.

Speaker 1 By then, sales of the program had decreased dramatically since its heyday, primarily because of criticism from educators about the program's dubious claims.

Speaker 22 And let me tell you something extraordinary. When you learn this tape, you'll be able to sound out and read every page in book number one.
That's over 120 pages of words. Can you imagine that?

Speaker 22 Just by learning one 18-minute lesson, you'll be on your way to becoming a super reader.

Speaker 1 Back in 1991, the Dallas Morning News outlined four major complaints against hooked on phonics.

Speaker 1 For one, people can't teach themselves to read. Two, there's no honest feedback to let them know if they're doing something wrong.

Speaker 1 Three, the program ignores critical elements of teaching reading, and lastly, it's expensive. Around the same time, a panel of reading experts also attacked the effectiveness of hooked on phonics.

Speaker 1 They argued that reading is words and context, literature and content, not merely mimicking sounds. There are no picture cues, there are no formal studies.

Speaker 1 Instead, the programs of merits rely on the testimonials of children who, let's face it, simply cannot be trusted.

Speaker 1 As instructional design, this really stinks, a reading instructor told Newsweek magazine.

Speaker 1 John Shanahan brushed off the criticism, chalking it up to an upset establishment education industry whose secondary income as tutors was being impacted. Sour grapes, Shanahan told Newsweek.

Speaker 1 We can teach people to read in 30 days. They can't teach them in 12 years.

Speaker 1 John Shanahan's proof was that very few people returned the product and asked for a refund.

Speaker 1 However, common sense tells us that one might be too embarrassed to admit to failing a program guaranteed to work.

Speaker 1 That's why the Federal Trade Commission began investigating the claims Gateway Educational Products was making in its advertising for hooked on phonics.

Speaker 1 The FTC made it clear that they weren't challenging the effectiveness of phonics-based reading instruction.

Speaker 1 They only wanted Gateway to substantiate the testimonials and provide evidence of the guarantees, such as Hooked on Phonics claiming it could help people with disabilities learn to read.

Speaker 1 These concerns were first revealed in a December 13th, 1994 episode of Dateline NBC. It was reported that the FTC found that Gateway could not support its bold advertising claims.

Speaker 1 Gateway called the piece false and defamatory and then signed an agreement with the FTC the next day, agreeing to restrict its advertising claims. John Shanahan was not financially penalized.

Speaker 1 nor did he admit to any wrongdoing.

Speaker 17 And we have a follow-up now on a story broadcast last night on Dateline NBC.

Speaker 17 Producers of the well-known reading system called Hooked on Phonics today reached agreement with the federal government to stop misleading advertising about what this program can deliver.

Speaker 1 Sales of Hooked on Phonics plummeted in response to the news. By the end of the year, Gateway Educational Products was filing for bankruptcy.
Just another victim of the liberal curriculum.

Speaker 1 At least that's what many letters to the FTC were saying. Attacking Hooked on Phonics was an attack on homeschooled America.
It was an attack on Jesus. It was an attack on free speech.

Speaker 1 It was an attack on John Shanahan for disrupting the establishment. It was tyranny.
Again, in reality, the case against Hooked on Phonics was about making false claims in advertising.

Speaker 1 But some who refuse to live in reality don't see it that way.

Speaker 29 This is the sinister nature of the United States government.

Speaker 27 They coordinate with the media because they control the media.

Speaker 32 The media then ran exposés on Hooked on Fawnix saying it was a scam.

Speaker 32 The U.S.

Speaker 15 government sued Shanahan at the same time.

Speaker 31 His business collapsed.

Speaker 34 All of his assets were frozen.

Speaker 35 Out of business. Gone.

Speaker 31 Threatened jail time.

Speaker 36 He surrendered.

Speaker 10 Consider this.

Speaker 14 The Federal Trade Commission at that time had not received not one,

Speaker 14 as I understand it, not one complaint from somebody who bought Hooked on Phonics.

Speaker 14 There were tens of thousands of letters on Hooked on Phonics saying, thank you.

Speaker 19 I bought Hooked on Phonics and it changed my life, and it changed my child's life.

Speaker 14 Why would the government go after somebody who's helping so many people?

Speaker 10 And why would they spread such disinformation and ruin this man?

Speaker 19 Well, they bankrupted Sean Channing, and it was sad.

Speaker 14 A little while later, that same year, they did the same thing to me.

Speaker 1 That's a man named Kevin Trudeau.

Speaker 1 He also made infomercials, and he was also in an ongoing battle with the Federal Trade Commission over false advertising claims.

Speaker 1 But unlike John Shanahan and Hooked on Phonics, Kevin Trudeau knew this day would come, and he wasn't going to surrender.

Speaker 1 A career salesman becomes a habitual offender in its quest to share information they don't want you to know. On this episode of Swindled

Speaker 18 government officials,

Speaker 18 clear violations of decades state law earlier in the authority of the law.

Speaker 18 You paid tens of millions of dollars.

Speaker 18 Dumping up the tablet records to hide the banks.

Speaker 1 Support for swindled comes from Simply Safe. If you could actually stop someone from breaking into your home before they got inside, why wouldn't you want to? That's the idea behind Simply Safe.

Speaker 1 Real security that can stop a crime before it starts. Traditional systems wait until it's too late.
But Simply Safe's active guard outdoor protection is proactive.

Speaker 1 Their AI-powered cameras detect suspicious activity and real live agents step in.

Speaker 1 They actually talk to to potential intruders while they're still outside, trigger sirens, flash spotlights, and let them know the police are on the way. It's wild to watch.

Speaker 1 I've used SimplySafe for years and I trust it to protect everything that matters to me even when I'm not home.

Speaker 1 It's reliable, simple, and honestly kind of satisfying to know someone else is watching when I can't.

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Speaker 1 on any new system.

Speaker 16 Well, the fact is I did not have a good memory most of my life.

Speaker 32 See, in 1979, I was an LD child, had a learning speech impediment.

Speaker 16 I was flunking out of high school. I was 45 pounds overweight, had a dead-end job, a beat-up car, didn't feel good about myself.
My future did not look very bright.

Speaker 1 Kevin Mark Trudeau was a Boy Scout, altar boy, and church organist as a child. He cut lawns, delivered newspapers, shoveled snow, and set pins at a bowling alley.

Speaker 1 Kevin was also the president of the Junior Clowns of America and a magician who performed at birthday parties in nursing homes. Kevin was an honor student that played baseball and football at St.

Speaker 1 Mary's High School in Lynn, Massachusetts. During his senior year in 1981, he was voted most likely to succeed.

Speaker 1 Kevin Trudeau was an accomplished, well-rounded kid who was going places when everybody could see it. But not if you hear him tell the story.

Speaker 1 Publicly, Kevin claims he was out of shape and out of options until he sat in the audience for a lecture about success. given by a former body shop mechanic turned real-life millionaire.

Speaker 1 After the show, an 18-year-old Kevin Trudeau followed the man to a Denny's diner where millionaires often gather in the early morning hours to watch the working class throw chairs at each other.

Speaker 1 Uninvited, Kevin sat down in the booth next to the man and begged him to share more secrets to success.

Speaker 34 He shared with me that night till four o'clock in the morning, principles of success.

Speaker 16 I furiously took down notes.

Speaker 24 The most important thing that man taught me that night, he said, Kevin, knowledge is power.

Speaker 27 But only if you can remember it.

Speaker 9 Isn't that powerful?

Speaker 16 That literally changed my whole life.

Speaker 1 That must be it, Kevin realized. The key to success is a good memory.
I'll give you a second to write that down.

Speaker 1 Kevin spent the next several years trying to improve his memory. while working as a used car salesman.

Speaker 1 He read every book he could find on the subject, mostly word association stuff that didn't work for him personally. But then, Kevin Trudeau met another man.
His name was Dr.

Speaker 1 Michael Van Masters, and he had written a research paper about improving the memories of blind children in Muscogee, Oklahoma, in just five days.

Speaker 1 The children, who were blind from birth, increased their recall ability from 15% to 98%.

Speaker 1 And not only did their improved memories persist over time, but according to Trudeau, Van Masters had also duplicated the results in children with developmental disabilities.

Speaker 27 So I took that raw data and put together, invented, if you will, over the next year, the entire mega-memory system that we have today founded the Institute.

Speaker 1 In the late 80s, Kevin Trudeau created the American Memory Institute to market the male order memory program he designed. He traveled the country giving seminars and signing up customers.

Speaker 1 Kevin claims he was making millions of dollars per year.

Speaker 1 Seems unlikely, because in 1990, Kevin Trudeau, at 28 years old, was convicted of depositing $80,000 in worthless checks and impersonating a doctor. He said it was a misunderstanding.

Speaker 1 He thought he had sufficient funds in his account, but apparently, his secretary had embezzled all of it. Kevin Trudeau pleaded guilty and served 10 days of a 21-day sentence.

Speaker 1 Later that year, he was indicted by a federal grand jury in Boston for credit card fraud.

Speaker 1 From October 1984 to May 1990, Trudeau used 11 different names and social security numbers of his Memory Course customers to secure credit cards for himself.

Speaker 1 He charged a total of $122,735.68 to the cards. Again, Kevin Trudeau pleaded guilty.
He said he was desperate for assets and was trying to keep the American Memory Institute afloat.

Speaker 1 This time, Kevin was sentenced to two years in prison. While in custody, he underwent a psychiatric evaluation, which found, quote, no indication of organic mental disorder or psychosis.

Speaker 1 He has been driven by a subconscious urge to succeed, to the point where he may have shown poor judgment.

Speaker 1 Kevin Trudeau's mother, who described her son as a literal altar boy in a letter to the judge, blamed her son's behavior on the repressed awareness of his adoption.

Speaker 1 A cousin had accidentally let the truth slip out in front of Kevin before his parents told him. Kevin's mother says she saw a, quote, big change in him from that point on.

Speaker 1 Success was the only thing that mattered. While in prison, Kevin Trudeau met a convicted cocaine distributor named Jules Lieb.

Speaker 1 After their release, the two men formed a partnership and started a business in 1993. It was called the Trudeau Marketing Group.

Speaker 41 What would your life be like with an extra $50,000 a month?

Speaker 33 Month after month after month in a part-time business of your own

Speaker 41 in the next few minutes, Kevin Trudeau will share with you information on the Trudeau Marketing Group, America's newest and most explosive multi-level marketing enterprise.

Speaker 1 The Trudeau Marketing Group partnered with a company called Nutrition for Life in Houston, Texas. Nutrition for Life sold vitamins and health supplements, herbal formulas, homeopathic remedies.

Speaker 16 They have products for weight management. They have amino acid balanced pastas.

Speaker 33 They have all types of vitamins, minerals, herbs.

Speaker 16 They're one of the largest distributors of homeopathic and natural healing remedies in America.

Speaker 1 Kevin devised a way to sell the products in bulk. The Trudeau Marketing Group offered a, quote, instant executive program with nutrition for life.

Speaker 1 To get in, participants were required to buy $1,000 worth of products to resell, hopefully. and a $35 startup kit, which would teach them to be the best salesman they could be.

Speaker 1 But the real money was in recruiting others into the program.

Speaker 16 In order to get in, we ask you to buy $1,035 worth of product and a distributor kit. Now, the other thing that we ask you to do is each month, buy $135 in product.

Speaker 16 You can certainly buy more than that, and you don't have to buy a product in any month. If you don't, you don't get a bonus check that month.

Speaker 16 And if you don't buy a product for two months in a row, you simply get taken out of the program and you lose your downline forever.

Speaker 16 It's optional, but we recommend that you get and you sign up for the order assurance program, which means you put down a credit card number.

Speaker 16 And if you forget to buy a product any given month, we automatically charge your credit card and send you a gift certificate for $100.

Speaker 1 At least 10 states attorneys general filed lawsuits against Kevin Trudeau and Nutrition for Life for operating an illegal pyramid scheme. Trudeau paid $185,000 to settle the charges.

Speaker 1 The Trudeau marketing group was no longer allowed to operate.

Speaker 1 So, Kevin Trudeau brought back an old old classic, but in a different form.

Speaker 1 Trudeau dusted off his memory improvement program, but this time, instead of seminars, he would sell it via infomercial, which had littered America's late-night airwaves thanks to Reagan's deregulation of the TV advertising industry.

Speaker 45 Stay tuned, get a pencil and paper, and in the next 30 minutes, you'll be able to take a test to find out just how good your memory really is and learn to unleash the power of your own mega-memory.

Speaker 45 Featuring Kevin Trudeau, author, lecturer, and America's foremost memory expert.

Speaker 45 Kevin is so sure that this mega memory program will work for you that you may use the program and within a 30-day period, if your memory hasn't improved at least 500%,

Speaker 45 then send the program back and receive a full refund. Don't hold your children or yourself back any longer.

Speaker 1 Kevin Trudeau's mega memory program promised to unlock everyone's ability to achieve a photographic memory. Even those with learning disabilities and low IQs, there were testimonials to prove it.

Speaker 12 I feel like I'm using more of my mind.

Speaker 12 I don't know, everybody, they say that you only use a fraction of your brain, and I feel like I've been using more of my brain ever since I've taken this memory course.

Speaker 46 The impact from the memory course is so powerful. Now my memory is 700% more powerful than it was before.

Speaker 47 I just want you to know that I have personally gone through Kevin's Mega Memory Home Study course, and I highly recommend and endorse the program. This is Danny Monaducci, and remember, I love you.

Speaker 1 The program contained 16 lessons on eight cassette tapes and a VHS of Kevin Trudeau demonstrating his own mega memory in front of a live studio audience.

Speaker 16 Knowledge is power,

Speaker 37 but only if you can remember it.

Speaker 30 See, this will work for you, because I know it's worked for me.

Speaker 16 It's changed my life.

Speaker 29 I know it can change your life.

Speaker 16 I'd like to share with you a poem I think is real special.

Speaker 16 It goes, it's not what you eat, but it's what you digest that makes you strong.

Speaker 33 It's not what you earn,

Speaker 44 but what you save that brings you wealth.

Speaker 34 And it's not what you learn in life, but rather

Speaker 16 what you remember that makes you wise.

Speaker 35 If you have not ordered the Mega Memory program yet, I urge you, order now.

Speaker 44 You owe it to yourselves, you owe it to your children.

Speaker 1 Order now.

Speaker 1 The Mega Memory course wasn't the only product Kevin Trudeau was shilling at the time. There were at least half a dozen.
Each had their own infomercial that followed a similar format.

Speaker 1 Kevin Trudeau would play talk show host and conduct a scripted interview with a so-called expert on a subject. It was usually the founder of whatever product they were selling.

Speaker 1 For example, Kevin Trudeau Trudeau interviewed a self-proclaimed beauty expert named Jacqueline Sable about her product, the Sable Hair Farming System, which promised to, quote, finally end hair loss in the human race.

Speaker 1 One can see how that turned out just by looking in the mirror.

Speaker 32 What I want to share with you now is a simple step-by-step procedure that you will apply anytime you have an addictive urge.

Speaker 32 Now, the first thing I want you to understand is when do you apply this particular technique? This technique is fast, effective, and it works.

Speaker 40 The The reason it works is it gets at the energy field level. Dr.
Callahan's techniques now are called thought field therapy because we deal with the thought field.

Speaker 1 There was also Dr. Callahan's addiction breaking system, which Kevin Trudeau tells the audience is a series of gestures like tapping on the chest that can eliminate every addictive urge.
This Dr.

Speaker 1 Callahan fellow reportedly discovered it while he was studying quantum physics.

Speaker 35 Don't be left behind.

Speaker 49 Unlock your natural ability to quadruple your reading speed. Call the number on your screen and order mega reading.
It really works.

Speaker 32 Not available in stores. Money back if you aren't astounded.

Speaker 16 Call now.

Speaker 33 I highly endorse and recommend this program.

Speaker 16 How it is the world's fastest reader.

Speaker 1 Kevin also pitched Howard Berg's Mega Reading Home Study Program, which could increase reading speed and comprehension by as much as 10 times.

Speaker 1 I have a letter here from a girl who has brain damage, Howard Berg says in the interview. She was in a car accident and half her brain stopped functioning.
It was electrically dead.

Speaker 1 Yet, even that woman increased her reading speed to 600 words per minute after using his program.

Speaker 1 In 1998, the Federal Trade Commission asked for proof. They asked Kevin Trudeau to substantiate the claims for all of the products he was selling on TV, and he couldn't do it.

Speaker 1 So the FTC fined Kevin Trudeau $500,000, and he agreed not to make any more misrepresentations about about the benefits or performance of any product without, quote, competent and reliable evidence of his claims.

Speaker 1 Less than three years later, Kevin Trudeau was back on TV. This time he was starring an infomercial selling a non-surgical facelift called Fermilift.

Speaker 1 There was another product called Biotape, which were stripped of, quote, Space Age Mylar that connect the broken circuits in the body to provide permanent pain relief.

Speaker 1 And then there was also Coral Calcium, which Trudeau promoted during a scripted interview with Dr. Robert Barefoot, who was neither a medical doctor nor a PhD.

Speaker 50 But no one seems to know that a small amount of vitamin D can cure cancer. What about those women with breast cancer?

Speaker 5 They're out there on all their marches and all this.

Speaker 50 15,000 units could solve their problem.

Speaker 13 And cure other diseases as well.

Speaker 9 Oh,

Speaker 1 yes.

Speaker 35 You know, that black guy, I'm trying to remember his name on television.

Speaker 6 He has MS.

Speaker 40 Oh, Montel Williams. Yeah, that's the guy.

Speaker 1 Well,

Speaker 1 I have all kinds of letters from people who had terminal MS, and they're all cured today.

Speaker 50 Montel Williams doesn't have to suffer. He's suffering through ignorance, and that's why reading these books are so important.

Speaker 1 During the infomercial, Bob Barefoot claims that coral calcium is an effective treatment for cancer, heart disease, multiple sclerosis, and many other diseases.

Speaker 1 He estimates estimates that all conditions could be reduced by 90% within three years if people read his book.

Speaker 1 The Federal Trade Commission wasn't convinced. In June 2003, the agency alleged that Kevin Trudeau violated their agreement from 1998 about misrepresenting benefits without sufficient evidence.

Speaker 1 The FTC entered into a preliminary injunction that prohibited Trudeau from continuing to make claims about coral calcium and biotape.

Speaker 1 Kevin violated that preliminary injunction less than a year later by mass mailing an advertisement for coral calcium and producing another infomercial.

Speaker 1 In 2004, Kevin Trudeau was found in contempt of court for his transgressions. As part of the 2004 final order, the salesman was to cease all marketing for coral calcium.

Speaker 1 He was forced to turn over a vacation home and a Mercedes-Benz in addition to $2 million in cash.

Speaker 1 But most importantly, Kevin Trudeau was, quote, permanently enjoined and restrained from producing, disseminating, or making any representation in an infomercial aired or played on any television or radio media.

Speaker 1 In other words, Kevin Trudeau was banned from promoting products on TV or radio.

Speaker 1 A spokesperson for the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection stated, quote, This ban is meant to shut down an infomercial empire that has misled American consumers for years.

Speaker 1 Less than a year later, Kevin Trudeau was back on TV.

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Speaker 31 No health training, not a doctor.

Speaker 30 I'm a journalist, I'm a medical researcher.

Speaker 30 And for 25 years, I traveled to over 60 countries, over 5 million miles, and I interviewed over 5,000 medical doctors all around the world who are curing people every single day of virtually every disease like cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure, herpes, acid reflux, heart disease, curing these diseases without drugs and surgery.

Speaker 49 And that's why I wrote the book Natural Cures They Don't Want You to Know About because it describes the cures that are being used all around the world and why the drug companies and even the U.S.

Speaker 31 government are trying to hold that information back from the American public.

Speaker 1 In the summer of 2005, an infomercial for a book about natural health treatments was running on a loop in the living rooms of insomniacs across the country.

Speaker 1 The infomercial starred Kevin Trudeau, the author of the book, which was called Natural Cures They Don't Want You to Know About.

Speaker 1 Trudeau was not violating the terms of the FTC's 2004 final order, which banned him from selling products on TV because Trudeau was not selling a product on TV.

Speaker 1 He was selling a book that, according to the FTC's mirror image doctrine, was considered protected free speech.

Speaker 1 Kevin Trudeau had found a loophole that allowed him to continue his career as a TV pitchman legally. He wasn't making claims on the airwaves.
He was quoting claims from a book on the airwaves.

Speaker 1 Totally different and totally legal. The FTC reluctantly agreed and approved Trudeau's new infomercial.
He spent a million dollars a week on airtime. And it paid off.

Speaker 1 In September 2005, Kevin Trudeau's Natural Cures They Don't Want You to Know About was the New York Times' number one best-selling nonfiction book book in the United States for 26 weeks in a row.

Speaker 36 It actually was the number one-selling book in America.

Speaker 43 It beat Harry Potter, and that's never been done in history, especially it's a non-fiction book.

Speaker 1 Trudeau's self-published book was 600 pages long and poorly written. It claimed to contain information deliberately hidden from the public by the FTC, the FDA, and food and drug companies.

Speaker 1 Okay, I'm intrigued. Unfortunately, there was no bibliography or references included.

Speaker 8 There are non-patentable, inexpensive, all-natural ways to cure arthritis, diabetes, herpes.

Speaker 30 Herpes is curable.

Speaker 8 It is 100% curable.

Speaker 50 People don't have to have breakouts ever again.

Speaker 29 Acid reflux is curable. Cancer is curable.

Speaker 30 So these natural remedies are suppressed in America because the drug companies, which control and own the media, media, and unfortunately control the FDA and the FTC, don't want people to know about it because it could adversely affect their profits.

Speaker 36 Get the number one New York Times best-selling book, Natural Cures They Don't Want You to Know About. Over 10 million people have already benefited from this life-changing information.

Speaker 37 Stop being a slave to the drug company.

Speaker 1 Wow. The infomercial claims that over 10 million people have benefited from Kevin Trudeau's book.
Let's hear from some of them.

Speaker 1 Before I read the book, I was suffering horribly from multiple sclerosis.

Speaker 42 My acid reflux was really bad where I couldn't even sleep at night.

Speaker 33 It's been just over seven years now since I read that book, and I have never been sick.

Speaker 22 There are so many people that'll say, oh, chronic fatigue can't be cured, and it's just not true because I'm living proof.

Speaker 7 I used to see my doctor once a month, I've seen her once in two years.

Speaker 14 I wound up actually losing 54 pounds.

Speaker 31 The symptoms are completely, completely gone.

Speaker 41 The pain virtually went away overnight.

Speaker 1 The results sounded pretty impressive, you must admit.

Speaker 1 But if you were to pick up the phone and order natural cures they don't want you to know about, you would find that the book is actually filled to the brim with nothing but completely unsubstantiated claims.

Speaker 1 For instance, Kevin Trudeau recommends curing arthritis by removing all dental metal from your mouth. He claims sunscreen, not sunlight, causes skin cancer.

Speaker 1 and he urges everybody to stop taking all prescription and non-prescription drugs. And of course no vaccines and no doctors.

Speaker 1 Also if you're depressed, Trudeau recommends you read Dianetics by L. Ron Hubbard and become a Scientologist.

Speaker 1 What else? Oh yeah, Kevin recommends wearing white clothes despite being dressed in all black on the book's cover. He writes that the color white brings more positive energy into your energetic field.

Speaker 1 and he recommends jumping on a trampoline sometimes.

Speaker 1 In the book, Trudeau also claims that a professor at the University of Calgary Calgary developed a natural cure for diabetes, but the pharmaceutical companies pressured the school into quashing the data.

Speaker 1 The University of Calgary told ABC News that there have been no human studies conducted at the school in the past 20 years on herbal remedies for diabetes.

Speaker 1 And the school sent Trudeau a cease and desist letter.

Speaker 25 The University of Calgary did a massive cover-up. and denied that they produced the product and they did any research on the product.

Speaker 27 They lied. They did a massive cover-up.

Speaker 25 I reported that in my book, and I reported that in news outlets around the world.

Speaker 49 I reported that the gentleman who was marketing this, Dr.

Speaker 49 Young-su Kim, was offered over $10 million to take the product off the market because if people use it, they would cure their diabetes, and the companies that sell diabetes supplies would lose money.

Speaker 1 In chapter 6 of Natural Cures They Don't Want You to Know About, Kevin Trudeau teaches us how to never get sick again.

Speaker 1 Drink eight glasses of water, stop smoking, walk daily, stay away from microwaves, sleep on a magnetic mattress pad, and undergo 15 colonics in 30 days.

Speaker 1 If you do get sick, Kevin Trudeau's natural cure in some cases is to quote, go to the doctor.

Speaker 1 Seriously, that's what it suggests, but according to the book, typically your condition could be cured with nothing more than a bit of vitamin E, an infrared sauna, and regular sex. Results may vary.

Speaker 1 By the time you get to page 600, it becomes clear that there are no actual cures to be found in the natural cures they don't want you to know about book. That's by design.

Speaker 1 Trudeau said he had to remove them because of threats from the FTC, but you can still access them on his website for the low price of $9.95 a month.

Speaker 1 That, my friends, is where you can find the real information that they don't want you to know about.

Speaker 1 Who are they, anyway?

Speaker 20 Do you understand?

Speaker 7 Who are they?

Speaker 51 They are the big corporations who sell products, who don't want you to know this information because it will affect their bottom line.

Speaker 49 They own the politicians and they use the politicians, they use the regulatory agencies like the FDA and the Federal Trade Commission and the various Attorney General's offices.

Speaker 20 They use them to suppress

Speaker 32 people like myself.

Speaker 1 Having a boogeyman helped Kevin Trudeau survive the anticipated backlash from writing a book rife with health quackery.

Speaker 1 If his infomercials were to be pulled for whatever reason, he could play the victim now, claim he's being censored for telling the truth and get all those Constitution fetishists frothing at their coral calcium-filled mouths.

Speaker 1 Having a boogeyman would let Kevin Trudeau play the hero, the messenger of the people. David versus Goliath, taking on big pharma and big government at the risk of his own life.

Speaker 1 Kevin Trudeau told Business Insider that after publishing his book, someone had removed the lug nuts from his car wheels. Even more terrifying, he told the magazine that he was woken up at 3 a.m.

Speaker 1 one morning and three men were standing over him. Shut your mouth, they instructed.
It was a message from the boss. Kevin Trudeau promoted the book even harder after that.

Speaker 1 At the end of 2005, the FTC had not acted, but the New York State Consumer Protection Board issued a public warning about Kevin Trudeau's natural cures. This is not a matter of free speech, as Mr.

Speaker 1 Trudeau claims, the board's chairwoman Teresa Santiago told the Associated Press. If you advertise the contents of a book, it had better contain what has been promised.

Speaker 1 When you are doing an infomercial and you say you have the cure for diabetes and you go to the book and there's no cure for diabetes, that's an issue.

Speaker 1 In response, Kevin Trudeau filed a lawsuit against the New York Consumer Protection Board for violating his First Amendment rights.

Speaker 1 The board had been contacting television stations in New York, urging them to refrain from giving Trudeau airtime.

Speaker 1 Kevin Trudeau won a preliminary injunction, and the Consumer Protection Board had to cease the notifications.

Speaker 1 As if 2005 wasn't busy enough for the Kev man, he also founded the International Pool Tour that year. He planned to transform billiards into a major league sport, which shockingly never happened.

Speaker 1 The tour ran out of money within a few years. Trudeau reportedly sank $13 million into the failed venture.
That's okay, because he had more natural cures.

Speaker 28 The reason that natural cures are so important, all drugs, prescription and non-prescription, have side effects.

Speaker 20 Am I saying that? No. Who says that? The drug companies themselves.

Speaker 49 If you read it.

Speaker 30 If you read an ad for a drug in Time magazine, there's three pages of side effects.

Speaker 21 And thousands of people every year are in wheelchairs because they did what their doctor said.

Speaker 30 Took a drug.

Speaker 1 In 2006, Kevin Trudeau published More Natural Cures They Don't Want You to Know About. It contains similar pseudoscience as the first.
Animals never get sick in the wild.

Speaker 1 Diseases caused by an imbalance of energy. Things like that.
But what makes more natural cures exciting?

Speaker 1 is that Kevin Trudeau gives us a peek behind the curtain from where he has obtained this incredible knowledge. Yeah, I know.

Speaker 1 Trudeau used to say he traveled over 5 million miles to talk to a bunch of medical experts, blah, blah, blah. But that's only half the story.
Here's the truth.

Speaker 1 Kevin Trudeau says he got his insider health information from a secret society.

Speaker 30 When I was 15 years old, I got exposed to an organization called the Brotherhood.

Speaker 30 And I went on to generate a very large, successful empire all over the world in business and done some pretty amazing things.

Speaker 1 Trudeau says being in the Brotherhood that's that's given him access to the inner circles of the rich and powerful.

Speaker 1 Politicians, celebrities, musicians, scientists, they recruited him because he was talented, Kevin says.

Speaker 1 They wanted to use his abilities for, quote, increasing their own billions and their own power, control, and influence over the masses.

Speaker 1 Kevin writes, as a member of this secret society, I've sat in private meetings with the heads of state from countries around the world.

Speaker 1 I've attended secret international business meetings where business leaders, politicians, and media moguls coerce together to create the new world order with global control over individual people everywhere.

Speaker 1 I've been shown and I've seen with my own eyes secret government and corporate documents.

Speaker 1 I've heard with my own ears how big pharma, the food industry, and the oil industry are working together with governments and media outlets around the world.

Speaker 1 I've been in over 60 countries, yet there are no stamps or evidence in any of my passports. I've been to Area 51 in Nevada.
This is where much of our technology has been developed.

Speaker 1 Area 51 houses most extraterrestrial artifacts, including a working spacecraft and dead alien bodies. I've seen these things with my own two eyes.

Speaker 1 As a member of the secret society, I was used in covert operations around the world.

Speaker 1 So yeah, it's not a stretch to believe that Kevin Trudeau could have picked up a few health tips along the way.

Speaker 1 Seems like he picked up some personal finance strategies as well because he also published debt cures they don't want you to know about the same year.

Speaker 1 Critics pointed out that Trudeau's debt cures book contained rudimentary financial information that was readily available everywhere for free, like how to improve your credit score.

Speaker 1 There was nothing revelatory about it. The same could be said about Kevin Trudeau's weight loss book, published in 2007.

Speaker 1 The weight loss cure they don't want you to know about, claimed to be the quote, simplest and most effective way to lose weight on planet Earth, and has been hidden from the public, according to the accompanying infomercial.

Speaker 1 The methods in the book have been used by the rich and famous for decades but the food and drug industry suppressed that information.

Speaker 1 The program was so easy you could do it from home, no dieting or exercise required, and once completed, you could eat whatever you want. It really was a miracle.

Speaker 1 That was according to Kevin Trudeau's infomercial pitch.

Speaker 1 In reality, the program outlined in the book didn't seem so easy.

Speaker 1 Trudeau's four-phase weight loss program actually required a limit limit of 500 calories a day of nothing but organic foods with coral calcium supplementation, a daily hour-long walk, 15 colonics in the first 30 days, someone is obsessed, and a daily injection of HCG, a hormone found in pregnant women.

Speaker 1 Trudeau claimed that combining the hormonal injections with the strict dietary and caloric intake restrictions would reset one's hypothalamus, thereby reducing the urge to eat while redistributing one's body fat.

Speaker 1 His weight loss program was based on the Simeons Protocol, also known as the HCG diet, proposed by British endocrinologist A.T.W.

Speaker 1 Simeons back in the 1950s, which was debunked as nonsense in the 1960s. Kevin Judea was trying to repopularize it.
The Federal Trade Commission had other plans.

Speaker 13 So they sued me for the weight loss cure book, saying this book, this infomercial,

Speaker 10 was misleading. Because in the infomercial, I said that the weight loss cure described in the book was easy and you could eat virtually anything you want when you were done.

Speaker 14 They said that was a lie.

Speaker 15 They said they read the book

Speaker 39 and they believed that after reading the book the weight loss cure was not easy.

Speaker 13 Therefore

Speaker 14 my claim was a lie and it was a violation of the consent decree because I agreed I wouldn't misrepresent my books.

Speaker 15 And they said, you clearly misrepresented your book because you said the weight loss cure was easy.

Speaker 39 We read the book.

Speaker 14 We don't think it's easy.

Speaker 10 I went to the FTC and said, hey, did any of you guys do the diet?

Speaker 14 They said, no.

Speaker 35 I said, well, how do you know if it's easy or not?

Speaker 1 Easy is subjective. Even though a reasonable person would describe Kevin Trudeau's weight loss program as anything but.

Speaker 1 However, Trudeau also claimed there was no exercise or dieting required, which was blatantly untrue.

Speaker 1 Also, the FTC argued, how could the program be done at home when it requires daily injections of a prescription substance? I'll tell you how, Kevin Trudeau told them. It's freedom of speech.

Speaker 1 Actually, it's false advertising, the FTC ruled on November 19, 2007.

Speaker 1 Kevin Trudeau was again found in contempt of court for, again, violating the 2004 final order for misleading thousands of customers about the difficulty of the diet he was selling.

Speaker 1 On August 7, 2008, Trudeau was fined $5.1 million,

Speaker 1 an estimate of the revenue earned from the book, and he was banned from selling anything on TV or radio, including books, for three years. But of course, Kevin was the true victim.

Speaker 52 I am Kevin Trudeau, and I'm here to tell you that the U.S.

Speaker 11 government is really scared of me.

Speaker 35 They're scared of my books, like Natural Cures They Don't Want You to Know About, or the Weight Loss Cure They Don't Want You to Know About, or Debt Cures They Don't Want You to Know About.

Speaker 49 Things that are exposing the corruption in the U.S.

Speaker 32 federal government.

Speaker 35 They're scared of me because they're scared that I may run for Congress and virtually pull back the curtain on the great Oz.

Speaker 31 That I'll expose more fraud, more corruption in Washington and in government agencies.

Speaker 1 On November 4th, 2008, U.S. District Judge Robert Gettelman amended the judgment against Kevin Trudeau based on new revenue calculations.
The fine was increased from $5.1 million to $37.6 million.

Speaker 1 Kevin Trudeau immediately appealed the amount in the three-year moratorium.

Speaker 1 The infomercial ban was overturned, but a lower court affirmed Judge Gettelman's $37.6 million fine and added a $2 million performance bond that must be paid before conducting any future infomercial advertising, just for good measure.

Speaker 1 Big government strikes again. Poor Kevin Trudeau.
His back was against the wall, but the fight wasn't over. So,

Speaker 1 what would be his next move?

Speaker 37 This is Kevin Trudeau in the studio. I'd like to personally congratulate you to getting this program, Your Wishes, Your Command, How to Manifest Your Desires.

Speaker 37 This is a very special program, and you're not listening to this by accident. This program, if you listen to the entire program, can help you make all of your dreams come true.

Speaker 13 This series is a revolutionary breakthrough to help you become virtually a success magnet, a money magnet.

Speaker 37 If you listen to the entire program, if you do what I suggest you do on the program, you virtually can have your own personal genie granting you your every wish. Your dreams can come true.

Speaker 37 You can learn how to manifest your desires. You can learn how to make what you want to happen actually happen in your life.

Speaker 1 In 2009, Kevin Trudeau was back with a new product, an audio cassette program called Your Wish is Your Command.

Speaker 1 It was a self-help guide to success based on the law of attraction and the power of positive thinking, basically a rip-off of the popular but equally worthless book, The Secret.

Speaker 20 When a person just listens to this seminar, I'm virtually reprogramming their brain.

Speaker 1 We now know scientifically that the brain transmits and receives frequency, Kevin says. We also know that those frequencies affect physical matter in the universe at the quantum level.
Here's proof.

Speaker 21 That's why the guy who came to the event in the Alps, when I recorded this, he wanted a relationship.

Speaker 31 And that night, in less than 24 hours, he had met the woman of his dreams.

Speaker 40 One guy missed his flight on the way to the airport in Zurich.

Speaker 30 And then while waiting for his next flight, bumped into somebody.

Speaker 20 They started a conversation. And now they're business partners in a multi-million dollar business deal.

Speaker 1 Kevin Trudeau claimed there were hundreds, no, thousands of stories just like those. You can have anything you want in life, he assures.
All you have to do is just think about it really hard.

Speaker 1 And if that doesn't work, Kevin wrote another book the following year that might be of interest. It was called Free Money They Don't Want You to Know About.

Speaker 7 Discover the methods in Kevin's book that these real people use to make a fortune before the government possibly bans the book and freezes the latest free money program.

Speaker 1 Kevin's free money secrets include government grants and unclaimed property.

Speaker 1 There's usually a state website set up for the latter where you can search your name and see if there's any money that's rightfully yours that you have not claimed.

Speaker 1 Usually, like a final paycheck you never picked up or funds sent after you changed addresses. Yep, pretty basic stuff.

Speaker 13 You're a genius, Kevin.

Speaker 22 I made over a million dollars using Kevin's method.

Speaker 49 I made almost two million

Speaker 25 Cash money.

Speaker 1 Maybe you ought to check those websites. And remember, just think positively.
Kevin Trudeau should take his own advice.

Speaker 1 Because around the time he was preaching the power of positivity, he started hosting an internet radio show, which was mostly angry and negative.

Speaker 40 Well, you know, there was a dad, and he was struggling.

Speaker 29 and his wife and he had three kids and he decided to do a hoax and send a a balloon up in the air and go on television and say, My six-year-old is in the balloon.

Speaker 29 And he did this because he wanted to take care of his kids. He wanted to become a celebrity, and he thought doing this would get him money.

Speaker 40 He could write a book, he would go on television, he'd become a celebrity.

Speaker 29 He broke the law to take care of his kids.

Speaker 32 We're outraged at this

Speaker 50 person.

Speaker 35 Why aren't we outraged at the illegal immigrants?

Speaker 1 Unsurprisingly, Kevin Trudeau had built up a substantial cult-like following.

Speaker 1 During the broadcast, he appealed to the audience's paranoia, fear, and pseudo-intellectual superiority while selling them bullshit. Don't we all?

Speaker 1 But at the same time, Kevin was still claiming innocence and trying to appeal his $37 million fine.

Speaker 38 Jesus Christ had to be crucified.

Speaker 38 Gandhi had to be imprisoned. Nelson Mandela had to go to prison.

Speaker 10 Cesar Charez was beaten.

Speaker 38 Martin Luther King was assassinated.

Speaker 19 So sometimes bad things happen to good people.

Speaker 51 But when you believe in what you're doing, like I believe in what I'm doing, I can handle those challenges that lie before me.

Speaker 1 But he couldn't do it alone. Even a great man like Kevin Trudeau needed help sometimes.

Speaker 49 I need your help. I need you to write a comment.

Speaker 52 I need you to write a comment and email it.

Speaker 21 Email it to me and then email it to the judge, Judge Gettleman.

Speaker 52 We're going to to put his email address and email it to the FTC.

Speaker 21 And you basically say, look, I got the weight loss cure or Kevin Trudeau is a great guy or I love what he's doing.

Speaker 35 Leave him alone.

Speaker 1 On February 10th, 2010, Kevin Trudeau urged his audience to email Judge Robert Gettelman letters of support about how his products had positively affected their lives.

Speaker 1 He listed the judge's email address on his website and a message titled, Kevin Needs Your Voice.

Speaker 1 Hundreds of emails flooded Judge Gettleman's inbox. Many of them were angry or vaguely threatening.
Judge Gettelman was pissed.

Speaker 1 The next day, February 11, 2010, the judge ordered Kevin Trudeau into court with three hours' notice. Gettelman called the email blast the deliberate attempt to harass, intimidate, and influence him.

Speaker 1 Just got another one, Gettelman complained in court. He said his BlackBerry was clogged with the email and completely frozen.
Every time you hear that little bell.

Speaker 1 Obviously, Obviously, this is a first amendment issue, and I certainly thought that I was exercising my first amendment rights.

Speaker 1 Kevin Trudeau was found in contempt of court. He was forced to turn over his passport, pay a $50,000 bond, and spend 30 days in jail.

Speaker 1 Gedelman also warned Trudeau that he would be tried for criminal contempt next time, which could land the salesman in prison.

Speaker 1 He's really a career contemner, Judge Gedelman said, adding that he could count on one hand the times he had found someone in contempt of court during his long career.

Speaker 1 And quote, three of those fingers have Kevin Trudeau's name on them.

Speaker 25 Welcome to the John Dillinger Show.

Speaker 25 Public enemy number one here: Al Capone, Babyface Nelson, Machine Gun Kelly,

Speaker 25 John Gaudy.

Speaker 13 Front page everywhere.

Speaker 53 The story of the year.

Speaker 53 Number one, New York Times, best-selling author Kevin Trudeau, sentenced to 30 days in jail.

Speaker 53 Stop the presses!

Speaker 53 It's the story of the year.

Speaker 1 On his radio show, Kevin Trudeau vowed to appeal the charges because he believed he did nothing wrong. I had no negative intent, he said.
I did not intend on doing anything wrong.

Speaker 1 He was simply exercising his First Amendment rights like usual.

Speaker 32 Again, I can't comment on the proceedings until they're done. My attorneys told me not to comment, but I do want to give you the facts.

Speaker 21 The facts are this: last Wednesday, I went on the air and asked you to write the judge and write the Federal Trade Commission

Speaker 35 and tell the judge and tell the Federal Trade Commission that you liked my books and you liked

Speaker 32 my writings and you didn't think you were misled in any of my ads.

Speaker 52 That was wrong, and do not, under any circumstances, email the judge or write the judge.

Speaker 21 Well, it appears that hundreds of you wrote the judge.

Speaker 1 On May 20th, 2010, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals granted Kevin Trudeau's motion and dismissed the most current contempt citation. He would not have to spend the 30 days in jail.

Speaker 1 However, a year and a half later, on November 29th, 2011, the court again upheld the $37.6 million fine for violating the 2004 final order. Kevin Trudeau would have to pay it.
But how?

Speaker 9 Well, in May,

Speaker 16 I'm going to be revealing in a two-hour webinar

Speaker 35 exactly what is going to happen

Speaker 48 December 21st, 2012.

Speaker 20 This is information you and your family need to know.

Speaker 48 It is information that you categorically 100%

Speaker 1 need

Speaker 35 to know.

Speaker 51 You need to know this.

Speaker 32 This is vital.

Speaker 16 It is valuable.

Speaker 36 Now who am I going to reveal it to?

Speaker 51 I'm going to be revealing it to members of my club, the Global Information Network.

Speaker 1 The Global Information Network, or JIN, as its members refer to it, is an international anonymous council created by Kevin Trudeau and 29 other heavy hitters.

Speaker 21 This group of people includes several members of major royal families. This group includes members of the Bilderberg Club.

Speaker 28 This group includes members of Bohemian Grove, Skull and Bones, Trilateral Commission.

Speaker 52 These people are billionaires, multi-billionaires.

Speaker 51 They control major industries around the world.

Speaker 1 The purpose of their little club was to give ordinary people access to super-secret insider and forbidden knowledge to which only the wealthy elite are privy.

Speaker 1 This is Ed Foreman, a former congressman from Texas who was a card-carrying gin member.

Speaker 11 It's like an institution that gives you

Speaker 11 an education in business and success in accomplishing things in life. Many universities will give you a degree and teach you physics or algebra or

Speaker 11 a variety of things. But the thing about the Global Information Network is it talks to you about business and you associate with business people.

Speaker 1 As a member of the Global Information Network, you will learn how to invest in real estate.

Speaker 1 You'll learn how to get a second passport, how to open an offshore bank account, how to live abroad, and of course how to make money, among a list of other things.

Speaker 15 This is what I believe to be one of the greatest money-making opportunities that you may see in your lifetime.

Speaker 1 Lucky for you, this exclusive club accepts everybody for a fee, of course. New members must pay the Global Information Network $1,500 up front and then $150 every month after.

Speaker 1 Here's something else you need to know: there are levels to this shit. 10 levels, and you can buy your way up the ladder.

Speaker 39 This woman told us she paid $25,000 for the brand new level 6.

Speaker 24 So you're the top dog.

Speaker 39 And this man is a member of the club's prestigious inner circle.

Speaker 52 How much do do you have to pay to be the inner circle?

Speaker 49 $75,000, which he says gets this exclusive CD set, along with a cut of the club's revenue.

Speaker 39 While it's not paying off well yet, he's confident it was a good investment.

Speaker 1 That's another thing. Not only will you learn some top secret information, you can make money while doing it without selling any stupid products.

Speaker 1 All you have to do is get other people to join the global information network and you'll get a cut. And then you'll get a cut of whoever you signed up, signs up, and so on.

Speaker 1 Plus, you'll get to go to the retreats.

Speaker 1 Which include enough to see

Speaker 1 that we are champions,

Speaker 1 champions,

Speaker 1 champions black.

Speaker 1 We should learn that you're all together

Speaker 1 and win this awful fight.

Speaker 1 We are champions,

Speaker 1 champions.

Speaker 1 This I know is true

Speaker 1 when we

Speaker 1 At its peak, the Global Information Network had more than 30,000 members, some of which eventually wised up and reported Jin to the FTC with allegations that the club was nothing more than a pyramid scheme.

Speaker 1 Kevin Trudeau's Global Information Network had collected over $60 million in gross revenue by then. Guess how much he paid towards his $37.6 million fine? Zero dollars, that's correct.

Speaker 1 Five years had passed since it was levied. Judge Robert Gettelman's patience was wearing thin.
In September 2013, Kevin Trudeau was held in contempt of court for not paying that fine.

Speaker 1 The court had evidenced that since 2010, Trudeau had spent $12 million on first-class airfare, bought $12,000 cufflinks and $300 haircuts.

Speaker 1 He still drove a Bentley, lived in a mansion near Chicago, paid $15,000 a month for a vacation home in California, employed two personal chefs and a butler, but claimed to be dead broke.

Speaker 1 Kevin Trudeau had filed for bankruptcy. He and his third 26-year-old Ukrainian wife were effectively homeless, he said.
But the FTC was convinced he was hiding millions.

Speaker 1 They had emails in which Trudeau discusses shipping gold bars out of the country. Trudeau said he owned nothing and was willing to be waterboarded to prove he had nothing to hide.

Speaker 18 I knew that the government would be coming after me.

Speaker 19 I gave away everything I own. I virtually own nothing.

Speaker 35 I own no company.

Speaker 14 I own no, I'm not the beneficiary of any trust.

Speaker 39 I own virtually nothing.

Speaker 19 So I have no assets.

Speaker 15 I can't pay $37.6 million.

Speaker 35 I don't have it sitting there.

Speaker 1 Judge Gettelman appointed a receiver to identify and catalog Trudeau's assets and holdings. Kevin Trudeau did not play along.

Speaker 1 A month later, Gettelman again found Trudeau in contempt of court for not cooperating with the receiver's investigation. This time, it was criminal.

Speaker 21 Tyranny in America, fascism in America.

Speaker 21 But the good news is there are some people like myself and many others who are willing to fight for what we believe in and express our First Amendment constitutional rights.

Speaker 20 As you hear this broadcast, there's a good chance that I will be in jail.

Speaker 1 Kevin Trudeau's trial lasted a week in November 2013. It included all the familiar arguments.
The U.S.

Speaker 1 attorneys called Trudeau a, quote, habitual liar and fraudster who had repeatedly ignored the previous court order by making misrepresentations and advertising.

Speaker 1 The defense attorneys argued that Kevin Trudeau did not willfully violate the court order.

Speaker 1 Any statements he made in the infomercials were carefully couched as opinions and thus were constitutionally protected free speech. The jury sided with the government.

Speaker 1 Kevin Trudeau was found guilty of criminal contempt for repeated violations of the 2004 final order. as well as subsequent orders and plea deals.

Speaker 1 After the verdict was read, Kevin Trudeau's supporters filed out of the courtroom, still holding their autographed copies of his books in their hands.

Speaker 1 Kevin Trudeau was held without bail until sentencing. He was considered a flight risk since he had not disclosed his assets.

Speaker 1 Four months later, in March 2014, 50-year-old Kevin Trudeau appeared in court, a humbled man. His trademark black hair was gray and thinning.

Speaker 1 He carried a stack of carefully typed notes that he read to the court.

Speaker 1 In the past four months, I have been stripped of all ego, defiance, arrogance, and pride, and for that I am thankful.

Speaker 1 If I ever write a book again, if I ever do another infomercial again, I promise no embellishment, no puffery, and absolutely no lies. I know going forward, I will be a better person.

Speaker 1 Trudeau said his four months in jail were awful. He wouldn't wish incarceration on anyone.
But it was also, quote, one of the best, most positive things in my life.

Speaker 1 He was rehabilitated with a new outlook on life. So, he begged the judge, there's no need for more time.

Speaker 1 Judge Ronald Guzman, who replaced Judge Robert Gettelman after the defense had him removed, became visibly irritated listening to Kevin Trudeau.

Speaker 1 The judge described him as, quote, deceitful to the core. Just then, an 80-year-old man stood up and yelled, Judge, I am a former U.S.
Congressman.

Speaker 1 Oh shit, it was Ed Foreman from the Global Information Network. The judge ordered Ed to sit down and shut up, and he did.

Speaker 1 But then he made another outburst a few minutes later, and police dragged the limp old man out of the courtroom and wrote him a citation.

Speaker 1 With no further interruptions, Judge Ronald Guzman handed down the sentencing.

Speaker 1 What's funny is that if Judge Robert Gettleman had handled the case, Trudeau would have had a bench trial with a six-month sentencing limitation. Instead, Kevin Trudeau received 10 years.

Speaker 22 TV pitch man Kevin Trudeau will spend the next 10 years behind bars. At his sentencing, the judge called him an unrepentant huckster who was deceitful to the core.

Speaker 1 Kevin Trudeau's sentence has been upheld in subsequent appeals. The government's quest to recover his assets to pay back his victims continues.

Speaker 1 In 2015, they auctioned off items seized from Trudeau's home. items that Trudeau called priceless because, quote, all have my energy infused in them.

Speaker 1 There was a grand player piano, a replica of Catherine the Great's 72-candle chandelier, a signed print of Rush Limbaugh, and several copies of the weight loss cure they don't want you to know about.

Speaker 1 The government also assumed control of the Global Information Network, whose members were informed that the club, quote, likely amounted to an illegal pyramid scheme. Yeah, right.

Speaker 1 That's exactly what they would say.

Speaker 39 But only about 4,000 of those remain. A few of the most devoted members are pooling their resources to buy the club for $200,000.

Speaker 1 Amazingly, while Kevin Trudeau was sitting in a federal prison in Alabama, his infomercials were still airing on TV. Kevin had sold the rights to everything back in 2006 for $121 million.

Speaker 1 Trudeau claims he's only received $2 million from the sale. The government started collecting the infomercial royalties.

Speaker 1 By October 2015, a few million dollars in assets had been recovered from Kevin Trudeau. Payouts were sent to hundreds of thousands of people who purchased his books.
The average check was about $25.

Speaker 1 Seven years later, in the spring of 2022, Kevin Trudeau was released from prison. He immediately took a job with the Global Information Network United.

Speaker 1 It gives seminars and provides training and makes up to a million dollars a year. Kevin Trudeau's fan club still pays the majority of his bills though.

Speaker 1 In fact, Trudeau paid $1.86 million towards his $37 million fine with money collected from his members, some of whom contributed as much as $50,000 at a time. But the government knew there was more.

Speaker 1 His third, now ex-wife, told them. In January 2023, she handed over documents to the FTC that Trudeau had kept at their home in Switzerland.
She also said she had seen him keep gold bars in a closet.

Speaker 1 Kevin Trudeau claimed those gold bars were gifts to his wife and is adamant that he has no no assets in his name. Quote, I want to pay this debt.
I want to get this behind me.

Speaker 1 I want to live a normal life and not have to walk on eggshells.

Speaker 1 Walking on eggshells. Huh.
I wonder what that cures.

Speaker 1 Swindled is written, researched, produced, and hosted by me, a concerned citizen. with original music by Trevor Howard, aka the former, aka the hair farmer.

Speaker 1 For more information about swindled, you can visit swindledpodcast.com and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and TikTok at SwindledPodcast.

Speaker 1 Or you can send us a postcard at P.O. Box6044, Austin, Texas, 78762.
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Speaker 54 My name is Tala from Apex, North Carolina. My name is Janae from Michigan.
Hello, Swindled Corporation. My name is Mariana from New Jersey.
and

Speaker 54 valued listener.

Speaker 54 Remember, read the labels on stuff, especially if you eat it.

Speaker 54 Have a great day.

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