$50M Judgment Based in Part on Trudeau Infomercial Affirmed

[wserra]

You know you're in trouble when an appellate court (here, the First Circuit) begins its decision on your appeal as follows:

The Defendants in this case made millions off infomercials shilling purported panaceas, products that they claimed cured literally every disease, from cancer to Parkinson's to obesity. Having been ordered to restore these millions to the customers they deceived, the Defendants now raise a multitude of challenges . . . Despite the volume of the Defendants' arguments, we find no more substance in them than the district court found in their infomercials. We therefore affirm the district court in toto.

Among the worthless nostrums those infomercials promoted was Coral Calcium, a Trudeau infomercial favorite. Trudeau's Coral Calcium infomercial featured prominently in the FTC's action.

The District Court judgment which the First Circuit affirmed included a permanent injunction and $49,000,000 in restitution. The Circuit characterized that restitution as a way "to cure their customers in a way that their bogus supplements could not".

On this one, it's Miller time.

[notorial dissent]

What I would like to know is why this sleaze is not in jail, and instead is still shilling his nonsense on late night infomertials with the collection of tired hookers who look like they would desperately like to get away from him.

[silversopp]

I'm not familiar with Trudeau, so please fill me in. How is this guy any different than any of the other late-night information promoters? The various Metabolife and other weight loss cures are just as useless as the "get rich quick with no money down" books/videos hawked - yet those are all legal. If the proper disclaimers are in place (i.e. "has not been evaluated by the FDA" "not intended to treat or cure any disease") I thought you could pretty much sell any worthless thing to suckers (like the iPad).

[webhick]

I have one of his books (it was donated to the pantry and I snagged it before it could lure in anyone gullible enough to believe it). I got through the forward and part of chapter one before I started losing brain cells. The forward consisted almost entirely of sentiments like "I'm being victimized by the FDA," "they're making me put this disclaimer here," and "they're trying to silence me." I don't remember the first chapter very well, but - and IIRC rules apply here - he starts off by describing a situation wherein he had some type of major cardiac thing (a heart attack?) at a reasonably young age and was either given a terrible prognosis, expensive medication, or needed major surgery or something to either treat or correct a congenital condition. Then he prattled on for a bit about how he didn't really need any of that, that doctors are in on a conspiracy to sell you drugs and unnecessary procedures. I even think that he said something about flying overseas and undergoing an herbal treatment and now he's completely cured. He may have insinuated that the treatment is banned in the US because there's this big conspiracy to keep you sick.

It's very repetitive. Basic premise was obviously that everyone in the medical profession is out to get you. Except Kevin. Kevin is saintly and the only one willing to tell you the TRUTH.

I suppose I should try to get further than chapter one to see how bad it gets. I'll take notes this time, promise.

[wserra]

I'm not familiar with Trudeau, so please fill me in. How is this guy any different than any of the other late-night information promoters?

Trudeau is the gold standard. All others are pikers by comparison. He has also made a fortune doing it.

I don't have the time to go into all the ways this is all but indisputable, but I and others have posted about him here on many occasions. Search Q! for Trudeau to get the stuff since early 2007, when the board last crashed (hopefully something that will never happen again). Specifically, search {+Trudeau +contempt} to get up to speed for the following.

The last we visited Kevin, Judge Gettleman had held him in contempt for two things - violating the 2004 injunction (which itself was a settlement of an even earlier contempt finding) against making infomercials and getting his supporters to bombard the judge with emails. A couple of examples of the latter:

Leave kevin and his right to free spach alone. I wish carma on your soul this very moment. may god touch you today. (Sic, etc.)

and

More people than you know are keeping a close eye on this case, not just the special interests who will benefit from Kevin’s silence, but every-day regular people. We know that if he can be persecuted, so can we. We are awake to the tyranny slowly and quietly creeping into our society. We are watching.

and

You have sold your souls for power and wealth, and eternal spiritual destruction awaits those who condemn the righteous. May God be merciful to you, and may He bless Kevin Trudeau always.

Judge Gettleman found Trudeau in summary contempt and sentenced him to thirty days. Trudeau appealed, and the Seventh Circuit reversed last May, holding the matter inappropriate for summary contempt because Trudeau did not commit the acts constituting the contempt in the Court's presence.

Meanwhile, the Seventh Circuit affirmed the contempt finding for violating the injunction, but remanded on the issue of the appropriate sanctions. Trudeau can afford good lawyers; that issue is still going 'round and 'round. Judge Gettleman's latest lengthy decision sanctions Trudeau $38,000,000 and contains an injunction with a long list of conditions. Trudeau has, of course, appealed.

Poor Judge Gettleman has understandably about had it with Trudeau. In the order above, among other similar comments, he wrote:

the court is very dubious of Trudeau’s claims of relative impecunity. The FTC has calculated that the sales of the Weight Loss Cure book totaled over $49 million, yet Trudeau claims that he has received zero for his efforts. In the trial conducted by this court in the contempt proceedings, Trudeau attempted to rely on a balance sheet that, as this court found, was not worth the paper it was written on.
...
The court finds that the consumers who purchased the Weight Loss Cure book as a result
of the infomercials did so based upon Trudeau’s “outright lies” and misrepresentations that
“induc[ed] consumers to purchase the book on false hopes and assumptions” that they would
lose weight by following an “easy” protocol, which was anything but easy.
...
Based on his long record of deceptive conduct in direct and willful violation of this court’s
orders, there can be no serious question that Trudeau has engaged in a “pattern and practice of
contemptuous conduct.”

Simultaneously with the entry of this order (April 16, 2010), he entered a show cause as to why Trudeau should not be referred to the United States Attorney's Office for prosecution for criminal contempt. On July 13, 2010, Judge Gettleman made the referral. At least two dozen Trudeau motions followed.

Finally, last week Judge Gettleman threw up his hands at least halfway. As a senior USDJ, he can decline to preside over criminal proceedings, and he threw Trudeau's back into the hopper. The U.S. Attorney has yet to act.

If the proper disclaimers are in place (i.e. "has not been evaluated by the FDA" "not intended to treat or cure any disease") I thought you could pretty much sell any worthless thing to suckers (like the iPad).

Not so: "Disclaimers or qualifications in any particular ad are not adequate to avoid liability unless they are sufficiently prominent and unambiguous to change the apparent meaning of the claims and to leave an accurate impression. Anything less is only likely to cause confusion by creating contradictory double meanings." Removatron Intern. Corp. v. FTC, 884 F.2d 1489, 1497 (1st Cir. 1989).

[wserra]

I suppose I should try to get further than chapter one to see how bad it gets.

No! Don't do it, webhick! We need you!

[Doc Bunkum]

I don't understand all these fancy legal terms, but on his blog, Kev's latest entry (Oct 25/10) is:

The Latest Twist In My Court Case

On September 10th, 2010, we presented a Memorandum in Support of Motion for Recusal with Judge Gettleman. He denied the motion for recusal, but nevertheless chose to have the criminal case reassigned to another judge.

Click here to read the Memorandum in Support of Motion for Recusal.

Oh, and if you'd like to make a donation to the Kevin Trudeau Legal Defense Fund, there's a link there on his blog also.

For a $1000 you can Have dinner with Kevin Trudeau! (Doesn't say who's paying.)

And if you want to go full bore, there a check box for $100,000.

[webhick]

For a $1000 you can Have dinner with Kevin Trudeau! (Doesn't say who's paying.)

Whoever gets caught. Dine and Dash, my friend, Dine and Dash.

And if you want to go full bore, there a check box for $100,000.

Well, that's the premium D&D. For anyone who's not aware of this amazing thing, it's more "dine" and less "dash" because you invite a sucker along and handcuff their ankle to the table without them knowing so you can simply walk away without a care in the world. Of course, this is predicated on not inviting a double-amputee along. Nobody wants to be beaten with a fake leg of any material. It tends to end up on YouTube.

[bmielke]

For a $1000 you can Have dinner with Kevin Trudeau! (Doesn't say who's paying.)

Does he come to me? Because if not that would be an extremely expensive dinner, if he does it makes me want to move to Wasilla Alaska and then invite him to dinner for the $1000. He might break even.

[Dezcad]

For a $1000 you can Have dinner with Kevin Trudeau! (Doesn't say who's paying.)

Does he come to me? Because if not that would be an extremely expensive dinner, if he does it makes me want to move to Wasilla Alaska and then invite him to dinner for the $1000. He might break even.

The $1000 is probably the "incall" fee. The $100,000 is the "outcall" fee.

[webhick]

I looked at the book again. It's copyright 2004, and declares on the cover that it's the "Update" Edition, but doesn't specify an edition number.

He does indeed say that he had a heart attack at 21, but that he felt fine afterward and didn't see a doctor until the following week. After days of advanced tests, he was diagnosed with severe mitral valve prolapse and that his life expectancy was short. The treatment was experimental drugs or risky surgery. He didn't like that so he then went to visit Dr. Yiwen Tang of the Sierra Integrative Medical Center and Dr. Tang used a Dermatron to diagnose him with MVP and the doctor told him that there was a cure: live cell injection, which was illegal in the US. He says that the treatment was "inexpensive, all-natural, painless, quick, and it worked!" He also says that after the treatment was completed, he was retested by the medical doctors and he no longer had the condition.

I tried to get further into the book, but there just isn't enough alcohol in the world, so I started skimming for areas where he may have crossed a line.

Chapter 6 "How to Never Get Sick Again?" was interesting right around page 128, where he starts a numbered list which is both funny and troubling. I'll go with the troubling stuff first: he tells you to stop taking nonprescription and prescription drugs because they're poison (there is a throw-away line about consulting your physician); to get various cleanses which includes colon, heavy metal, parasite, candida, fat/lymphatic; to stop drinking pasteurized milk (you know, the process that kills off bad bacteria); to not use sunblock; to take coral calcium ("The Federal Trade Commission forbids me to say anything about coral calcium. For the truth, go to [my website]." It's basically a fake cancer cure and because it's made from ground up dead coral reefs it can be poisonous because of harmful things that those reefs have absorbed.); to do dianetics/scientology.

The funnier stuff: to get a "bioenergetic synchronization technique practioner" (which as best I can tell, is someone who feels you up while telling you to think happy thoughts); to use a trampoline; to not eat anything produced or sold by a brand name; to get the metal out of your dental work; don't eat anything that's been nuked; don't put anything you can't eat on your skin; don't take vitamins; don't use deodorants or antiperspirants; make your own beer and wine; get a magnetic mattress pad, finger and toe rings; wear white; and don't watch the news or read the paper.

Mind you, those are just a few of 132 specific instructions, which also include logical things like "stop smoking."

My favorite chapter, by far, is "Natural" Cures for Specific Diseases. After a few pages of complaining, and then ordering you to go back and not only read but also do everything in chapter 6 or else none of the following will work, he starts a handy table on page 345 where he proceeds to outline the natural cures - his words - to Acid Reflux, Heartburn, Gas, Bloating, Acne, ADD/ADHD, Allergies, Anxiety, Stress, Arthritis, Asthma, Autism, Back Pain, Bad Breath, Bladder Infections, Blood Clots, Cancer, Chronic Fatigue System, Circulation Problems, Cold hands and feet, Cold Sores, Herpes, Colds, Constipation, Cough, Dandruff, Depression, Diabetes, Diarrhea, Fibromyalgia, Flu, Gallbladder Problems, Gout, Heart Disease, Hepatitis C, High Blood Pressure, High Cholesterol, Inflammation, Pain, Insomnia, Kidney Stones, Liver Problems, Lupus, Male Erectile Dysfunction, Migraines, MS, Obesity, Phobias, PMS, Snoring, Sore Throat, Tumors, Varicose Veins.

Most of the "cures" consist of dianetics, a bunch of the cleanses, digestive enzymes, stress reducing techniques, certain vitamin supplements or herbal supplements, etc. It's mostly the same crap in Chapter 6, with a few other things thrown in to make it interesting.

To his credit, under cancer he tells you to see a doctor, but then he tells you to do everything in chapter 6. He also says that he has a list of clinics in the back of the book that specialize in cancer. I assume he means appendix C: How to Find a Health-care Practitioner Who Doesn't Use Drugs and Surgery. Under cancer, it recommends only Century Wellness - a clinic IIRC that scams cancer patients with the promise of a cure. I believe some of the people involved were barred from practicing homeopathic treatments by an appropriate authority.

Under depression, it recommends cutting out your meds, going on St. Johns Wort, going for an hour walk a day outside, and the sun. Anyone can tell you that cutting out medications can be disastrous. St. Johns Wort is not a substitute for Prozac or Paxil, despite being the foundation for it. Sure, it can handle mild depression, but it will never be a match for anything more serious. It also has side-effects which include photo-sensitivity. Whenever I take that shit, it literally hurts my eyes and when I step outside it's like I stepped into a toaster oven. Needless to say, I don't take it often.

Also under several areas, it says that the FTC forbids him to mention the product name but then gives you clues as to what he's talking about. One was for a "pure natural Vitamin E", "a combination of herbs researched at the University of Calgary for over twenty years called by the Asian Diabetic Association the final cure for diabetes," and something sold by Darrell Stoddard that he claims is good for pain/inflammation.

There is also an Appendix B titled No-Hunger Bread: A True FDA Horror Story. It's 100 pages long - over 17% of the book. Appendix A Free Bonus Material: Newsletter Articles is 83 pages, over 14% of the book. I always thought that books shouldn't be 1/3 appendix, but maybe Alliance Publishing Group has different standards. Actually, they have to because they published a shout-out for writers in the back of the book. The "What People Are Saying About This Book" in the back is nine pages and is in 14 point font.

It should also be pointed out that Trudeau says that he didn't have the book edited or written by a professional and is therefore written in a language that people can understand. I think he didn't have an editor because any decent editor would have eliminated a lot of the repetitive rants, leaving the book much slimmer than Trudeau would have liked.

[notorial dissent]

And, Trudeau is a liar and a fraud, and anyone of integrity who edited his book would have cut all of it out for crap content, another very important reason why he wrote it himself and didn't have an editor.

The man absolutely gives me the creeps, and I shudder at the thought of the number of people who have followed his nonsense and have come to major harm as a result, probably not even knowing what caused it.

My personal opinion is that he should have been locked up for fraud a long time ago.

[Cathulhu]

Things I know about mitral valve prolapse, since my diagnosis was 20 years ago. Of the various heart ailments, it's one of the milder ones, but the loss of efficiency in your heart does slow you down. Prior to beta blockers, I could no longer walk up a hill. The malformation in the heart valve is not gonna be cured by a quickie injection--Ask Arnie Schwarzenegger, who opted for the pig valve replacement. I've been following the new of the Da Vinci robotic system as one of my best hopes when I have to go for replacement.

Despite the best efforts of law enforcement who actually feed beta blockers to sex predators, they won't make you behave yourself and do not block the adrenalin response all that effectively, or I wouldn't have experienced hysterical strength and thrown that ATV up the hill to get it off my badly injured family member some 17 years ago. My doctors think that's how I tore my rotator cuff, but I'd do it again.

[Gregg]

And, Trudeau is a liar and a fraud, and anyone of integrity who edited his book would have cut all of it out for crap content, another very important reason why he wrote it himself and didn't have an editor.

The man absolutely gives me the creeps, and I shudder at the thought of the number of people who have followed his nonsense and have come to major harm as a result, probably not even knowing what caused it.

My personal opinion is that he should have been locked up for fraud a long time ago.

What sickens me about him is how he just ignores the bans against him and laughs it off, the fine he pays as an apparent cost of doing business. How I'd love to see him get a big enough fine or order of disgorgement that effectively bankrupts him

[Nikki]

What Trudeau really needs is an encounter with a femily member of a deceased follower of Trudeau's theories, said family member carrying a .357.

[notorial dissent]

I would be just as happy with a long stretch in a not rest camp federal prison facility. I assume this judgement was civil and not criminal?

What I want to know is when are they going to hit him with actual criminal charges and put him permanently away? Just hitting him for money isn’t going to stop him from continuing his various cons.

There are very few people I find sleazier than I do him, and considering the amount of harm some of his “sure fire cures” have caused, he should have long ago been charged whatever the charge should be since some of his stuff could very easily be lethal.