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Terms apply.

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This episode of Swindled may

1:32

contain graphic descriptions or audio

1:35

recordings of disturbing events which may

1:37

not be suitable for all audiences. Listener

1:40

discretion is advised.

1:43

When Brian Gortz and his wife

1:45

Cheryl Skegan purchased this 15 acre

1:48

horse ranch in 2008, it

1:50

was to realize a lifelong dream. But

1:52

they quickly learned the legacy they bought

1:54

was based upon a lie.

1:57

Jean Vieve de Montremaire. told

2:00

her new neighbors in Fresno, California that

2:02

she had grown up in a castle in France. She

2:05

was a descendant of French nobility,

2:08

educated at the finest European schools

2:10

where she had completed a PhD in genetics.

2:13

Jean-Vieve intended to find a cure for cancer,

2:16

but got sidetracked by her hobby. Horse

2:19

breeding, Friesian horses in

2:21

particular. It was a tradition.

2:24

Jean-Vieve de Montremer's family had

2:26

been breeding horses for over a thousand

2:29

years. That's actually what

2:31

brought the French noblewoman to Fresno in

2:33

the early 90s. She and her husband,

2:35

Dr. Michael Weilert, a pathologist,

2:38

purchased a 15-acre ranch northeast

2:40

of the city where they housed over a million

2:42

dollars worth of the rare and

2:44

expensive breed. They

2:47

also hosted lavish parties and events at

2:49

the property to ingratiate themselves. Jean-Vieve

2:52

became highly regarded in the region's

2:55

exclusive equestrian community.

2:58

But unfortunately, sometime in 2003, she

3:01

was diagnosed with leukemia. The

3:03

chemotherapy took a toll on Jean-Vieve's

3:05

body. She was rarely seen

3:08

in public after that, and on the

3:10

rare occasion when she did make an appearance, she

3:13

was attached to an IV. By

3:16

late 2007, Jean-Vieve de

3:18

Montremer's heart was failing. The

3:20

details are vague, but she required

3:23

immediate open-heart surgery,

3:25

and it didn't work.

3:27

Jean-Vieve fell into a coma, then

3:29

died on November 30, 2007. Her

3:34

obituary called her the matriarch of the

3:36

Friesian community. Gone, but

3:38

not forgotten, the national Friesian

3:41

horse show that year was dedicated to Jean-Vieve.

3:44

The equestrian community was devastated.

3:47

It didn't even get to say their goodbyes because

3:50

there was no funeral. Jean-Vieve

3:52

de Montremer's body was taken back to France,

3:55

where her heart was removed and placed

3:57

in the cathedral as part of an ancient

3:59

family ritual.

4:01

No

4:01

one was more devastated than her widow, Dr.

4:04

Michael Weilert. He couldn't bear to

4:06

tend to the horses without his beloved John

4:08

V.F. So he put their

4:10

15-acre ranch up for sale. $2.3

4:13

million. Most prospective

4:16

buyers balked at the price. Property

4:18

values have been declining. The economy

4:20

was circling the drain. Dr.

4:22

Weilert was asking for more than what

4:24

the fair market dictated the ranch was worth.

4:28

Sorry, Dr. Weilert told them.

4:30

Don't shoot the messenger. The price

4:32

was firm. It had been set by

4:34

his wife's estate. There was nothing

4:37

he could do.

4:40

Dr. Weilert's ranch was finally sold

4:42

in May 2009 to Dr. Brian Gortz,

4:46

an anesthesiologist, and his wife Cheryl

4:48

Skegan, a corporate lawyer with a

4:50

passion for horseback riding. Dr.

4:53

Weilert personally gave the couple a tour

4:55

of the property, during which there were moments

4:58

when he would break down crying.

5:00

When he showed us his property, he would point and say,

5:03

every spot here is like a grave marker

5:05

for the person who isn't here and designed

5:07

all of this, Cheryl Skegan told ABC

5:10

News.

5:11

How could Cheryl and Brian resist owning

5:13

their own horse ranch designed by French

5:15

nobility? It was a dream come true.

5:18

But soon after moving in, they discovered

5:21

severe structural problems in the barn

5:23

and arena. It was estimated that it would

5:25

cost $800,000 to fix. Talk to my lawyer, Dr. Weilert told

5:30

Cheryl Skegan and Brian Gortz when they confronted

5:32

him.

5:33

Apparently forgetting that Cheryl Skegan was

5:35

a lawyer. This could get interesting.

5:38

And sure enough, while preparing a lawsuit against

5:40

Dr. Michael Weilert, Cheryl

5:42

did find something interesting. It

5:44

was the deed to the property, signed

5:46

by Jean-Vieve de Montremer,

5:49

dated March 20th, 2008, almost four

5:52

months after she had died.

5:55

Aha,

5:56

a forgery Cheryl Skegan thought,

5:58

so she contacted

7:59

Gary Hoffman and Genevieve Sanders divorced

8:02

soon after she legally changed her name.

8:06

In 1991, Jean-Vivier de

8:08

Montremer met Dr. Michael

8:10

Weilert in his laboratory where she worked.

8:13

They were married by the end of the year. He'd

8:15

always known the truth about her. He

8:18

stood out in front of the front door with us

8:20

and actually cried over his wife's

8:22

death.

8:23

We thought that we were dealing with this poor grieving

8:25

widower who was this fine of standing citizen. We

8:27

had no clue.

8:29

All of this revelatory information

8:32

was included in the lawsuit filed by

8:34

Brian Gewarts and Cheryl Skegan which

8:36

accused Dr. Michael Weilert of

8:38

hiding major issues with the property

8:40

and defrauding them by inflating the price

8:43

above market value based on the French

8:45

nobility connection which

8:47

wasn't even true.

8:49

Weilert refused the settle. His

8:51

defense argued that Gewarts and Skegan purchased

8:53

the property as is and should have

8:55

inspected it more closely.

8:57

The case was heard by a jury in 2012.

9:00

Dr. Weilert admitted on the

9:03

stand that he faked his wife's death. She

9:05

didn't even have leukemia. Weilert

9:08

said Genevieve suffered from depression and

9:10

a fear of public places and it was debilitating.

9:13

He said she was quote very ill and

9:16

her desire was to

9:16

be dead. She wanted to be left

9:19

alone.

9:20

Genevieve Sanders did not testify.

9:23

But she was deposed at her house and her bed

9:26

in a dimly lit room. We

9:28

had to use flashlights to read the documents

9:31

the plaintiff's lawyer said.

9:40

Genevieve

9:54

Sanders your maiden name?

9:59

During the deposition, Genevieve Sanders

10:02

appears too weak to complete a sentence.

10:05

The deposition was a failure. The

10:07

plaintiff's attorneys wanted to reschedule but

10:09

were blocked by the court when the defense

10:11

submitted a doctor's report that said, quote, a

10:14

deposition might kill her.

10:16

On October 25, 2012, after

10:19

an eight-week trial, the jury awarded

10:21

Dr. Brian Gortz and Cheryl Skegan $1.5

10:23

million, consisting of $700,000 for the fraud charges

10:25

and $850,000 in punitive damages.

10:33

Dr. Wylatt was also punished by the medical

10:35

board, not only for the real estate

10:37

fraud, but it had also been revealed

10:39

that he was ordering his staff to create fake

10:41

medical records to obtain Xanax

10:43

for his wife, who was supposedly

10:45

dead at the time. As lab director

10:48

at Community Regional Medical Center, he had

10:50

technicians create fake patients so

10:53

he could prescribe an average of 510 pills

10:55

a month for more than two years

10:58

until he finally admitted she was alive

11:00

again.

11:02

Unfortunately it would take years for Cheryl

11:04

Skegan and Brian Gortz to see any of

11:06

that settlement money.

11:08

Dr. Michael Wylatt declared bankruptcy.

11:10

He only had about $155,000 in

11:13

assets and his old medical practice

11:15

was fighting for a piece of it to pay for his

11:17

own attorney fees.

11:19

Luckily, or unluckily as

11:22

you'll soon see, Cheryl Skegan

11:24

wasn't desperate for the money because

11:27

in 2011 she settled

11:29

a sexual harassment lawsuit against

11:31

the founder

11:32

of Hooked on Phonics.

11:34

What is Hooked on Phonics? It's

11:37

a program that helps teach children and

11:40

adults how to read by

11:42

teaching the sounds of the letters in the alphabet.

11:45

All the lessons are set to music and that

11:47

makes learning to read simple and

11:49

fun.

11:59

slogan, and

12:02

the easy to remember phone number. Hooked

12:08

on phonics taught reading by associating sounds

12:10

with letters and words, the original

12:12

program consisted of nine packs of flashcards,

12:15

five softcover workbooks, and eight

12:18

20-minute cassette tapes of spoken instruction

12:21

backed by some chill, lo-fi beats.

12:31

The program was

12:33

appropriate for new readers of all ages,

12:36

an estimated 27 million adults in

12:38

the US at the time could not read. One

12:41

of Hooked on Phonics' main appeals was

12:43

that those people could now learn to read at home

12:46

at their own pace without the public embarrassment

12:48

of a classroom setting. Hooked

12:50

on Phonics seemed like a decent enough idea,

12:52

but it wasn't even original.

13:05

Thousands

13:16

of similar products were available then, but

13:19

were usually marketed to school districts

13:21

and teachers. On the other hand, Hooked

13:23

on Phonics was sold directly to the consumer

13:26

via a blitz of television and radio

13:28

advertisements. In 1991,

13:31

Gateway Educational Products, the makers

13:34

of Hooked on Phonics, reportedly spent

13:36

almost $44 million of its total $50

13:39

million in revenue on advertising.

13:42

It became the largest advertiser on network

13:44

radio, sponsoring programs like

13:47

the Rush Limbaw Show, whose audience

13:49

was comprised entirely of alliterates.

13:52

Allegedly.

15:59

He started referring to himself as a true

16:02

Renaissance man, a gourmet

16:04

chef, a historian, an accomplished

16:06

composer. He even referred to himself

16:09

as an author after compiling a book

16:11

of quotes in 1999 that he titled

16:13

The Most Brilliant Thoughts of All

16:16

Time. It contained classic quotes

16:18

from the likes of Shakespeare, Lincoln,

16:20

and Hemingway. Even John Shannon

16:23

snuck in with one of his own, quote, If

16:25

you don't bring Paris with you,

16:27

you won't find it there. Damn,

16:30

that's deep. Now

16:32

let me ask you this. Would

16:34

it surprise you to learn that such a delusionally

16:36

confident Renaissance man like John

16:38

Shanahan could be capable of

16:41

also being a sexual creep?

16:43

I didn't think so. And yes,

16:45

he is, according to Cheryl Skegan, one

16:48

of John's corporate attorneys who sued

16:50

him in 2007.

16:52

During the Muskegan's deposition, the

16:55

first incident happened in 2003 at a Christmas party

16:58

at John Shanahan's house. Cheryl

17:00

said everybody was in the backyard and John,

17:02

her boss, approached her, grabbed

17:04

her left buttock, and said, Hmm, firm,

17:08

must be all that horseback riding.

17:10

Later, Cheryl said she was

17:13

inside on the couch when John Shanahan

17:15

intoxicatedly plopped down on an adjacent

17:17

chair. Don't you want to go away

17:19

with me? He slurred while reaching out

17:21

his hand. Don't you want me to fuck your

17:24

brains out? Isn't that what you want? Tough

17:27

to resist, but Cheryl Skegan managed.

17:30

Besides she was married. John who was

17:32

also married knew that, but didn't care.

17:35

He made that obvious by sending flowers to

17:37

Cheryl's home that she shared with her husband

17:39

and five kids. Skegan

17:42

testified that John Shanahan groped her again

17:44

in 2005 on a business trip. He

17:46

begged her to leave her family and live with him in

17:49

Newport Beach. Cheryl

17:51

Skegan says that John Shanahan would get angry

17:53

when she rebuffed his offers. Must

17:55

be menopause, he would say, or must

17:57

be a lesbian.

17:59

one day without warning, he fired

18:02

her. John Shanahan

18:04

claimed he never said or did any of those

18:06

things, and many of his actions like

18:08

sending flowers to her home had innocent

18:10

explanations. Also

18:12

according to John, he wasn't drunk at that Christmas

18:15

party, he had just started taking prescription

18:17

pain pills that day.

18:20

Despite his proclamations of innocence, John

18:23

Shanahan settled Sheryl Skegan's lawsuit

18:25

pre-trial for $700,000. In addition, he paid his lawyers

18:28

over a million dollars

18:30

in fees. Shanahan filed

18:32

an insurance claim for the settlement amount but

18:35

State Farm refused to pay, noting

18:37

that his homeowners liability policy

18:39

didn't cover sexual battery.

18:43

In 2011, John Shanahan lost his appeal. We

18:46

fail to see how grabbing Skegan's buttock, squeezing

18:49

it, and telling her that its firmness must

18:51

be the result of all her horseback riding could

18:53

have been accidental, wrote a pellet just

18:56

as Eileen Moore.

18:57

Speech is intentional.

19:00

That same year, John Shanahan's soul hooked

19:02

on phonics. By then, sales of the

19:04

program had decreased dramatically since its

19:06

heyday, primarily because of criticism

19:09

from educators about the program's dubious

19:11

claims.

19:12

And let me tell you

19:14

something extraordinary. When

19:16

you learn this tape, you'll be able

19:19

to sound out and read every

19:21

page in book number one. That's

19:23

over 120 pages of words. Can you imagine

19:27

that? Just by learning one 18-minute

19:29

lesson, you'll be on your way to

19:32

becoming a super reader.

19:34

Back in 1991, the

19:36

Dallas Morning News outlined four major

19:39

complaints against hooked on phonics. For

19:42

one, people can't teach themselves to read. Two,

19:45

there's no honest feedback to let them know if they're

19:47

doing something wrong. Three, the

19:49

program ignores critical elements of teaching

19:51

reading. And lastly, it's expensive.

19:55

Around the same time, a panel of reading

19:57

experts also attacked the effectiveness of

19:59

hooked on phonics. They argued that

20:01

reading is words in context, literature

20:04

in content, not merely mimicking

20:06

sounds. There are no picture cues,

20:08

there are no formal studies, instead

20:10

the programs of marriage rely on the testimonials

20:13

of children who, let's face

20:15

it, simply cannot be trusted. As

20:18

instructional design, this really stinks,

20:21

a reading instructor told Newsweek magazine.

20:25

John Shanahan brushed off the criticism, chalking

20:28

it up to an upset establishment education

20:30

industry whose secondary income as tutors

20:32

was being impacted. Sour

20:35

grapes, Shanahan told Newsweek. We

20:37

can teach people to read in 30 days, they

20:39

can't teach them in 12 years. John

20:42

Shanahan's proof was that very few people

20:44

returned the product and asked for a refund.

20:47

However, common sense tells us that one might

20:49

be too embarrassed to admit to failing, a program

20:52

guaranteed to work. That's

20:54

why the Federal Trade Commission began investigating

20:57

the claims Gateway Educational Products

20:59

was making in its advertising for Hooked on

21:01

Phonics. The FTC made it clear

21:03

that they weren't challenging the effectiveness of

21:05

phonics-based reading instruction. They

21:08

only wanted Gateway to substantiate the testimonials

21:11

and provide evidence of the guarantees, such

21:13

as Hooked on Phonics claiming they

21:15

could help people with disabilities learn to read.

21:18

These concerns were first revealed in

21:21

a December 13, 1994 episode of Dateline NBC. It

21:25

was reported that the FTC found that Gateway

21:27

could not support its bold advertising

21:29

claims.

21:29

Gateway called the piece false

21:32

and defamatory and then signed an agreement

21:34

with the FTC the next day, agreeing

21:36

to restrict its advertising claims. John

21:39

Shanahan was not financially penalized,

21:42

nor did he admit to any wrongdoing.

21:46

And we have a follow-up now on a story broadcast

21:48

last night on Dateline NBC. Producers

21:50

of the well-known reading system called Hooked

21:53

on Phonics today reached agreement with the federal

21:55

government to stop misleading advertising

21:58

about what this program can do.

21:59

can deliver. Sales

22:02

of Hooked on Phonics plummeted in response

22:04

to the news. By the end of the year,

22:06

Gateway Educational Products was filing for

22:09

bankruptcy. Just another victim

22:11

of the liberal curriculum. At

22:14

least that's what many letters to the FTC were

22:16

saying. Attacking Hooked on Phonics

22:18

was an attack on homeschooled America. It

22:20

was an attack on Jesus. It was

22:23

an attack on free speech. It

22:25

was an attack on John Shanahan for

22:27

disrupting the establishment. It

22:29

was tyranny.

22:29

Again, in

22:32

reality, the case against Hooked

22:34

on Phonics was about making false claims

22:36

in advertising. But some

22:39

who refuse to live in reality don't

22:41

see it that way. This

22:43

is the sinister nature

22:46

of the United States government. They

22:48

coordinate with the media

22:51

because they control the media. The

22:54

media then ran exposés on

22:56

Hooked on Phonics saying it was a scam. The

22:59

U.S.

22:59

government sued Shanahan

23:02

at the same time. His business collapsed.

23:04

All of his assets were frozen. Out of

23:06

business.

23:06

Gone. Threatened

23:09

jail time. He surrendered.

23:12

Consider this. The Federal Trade Commission

23:15

at that time had not received not

23:17

one. As I understand it, not one

23:20

complaint from somebody who bought Hooked

23:23

on Phonics. There were

23:25

tens of thousands

23:27

of letters on Hooked on Phonics saying,

23:30

thank you, I bought Hooked on Phonics

23:33

and it changed my life. And it changed my child's

23:35

life. Why would the government go after

23:37

somebody who's helping so many people?

23:39

And why would they spread such

23:41

disinformation and ruin

23:43

this man? Well, they bankrupted Sean

23:46

Shanahan and it was sad. A little

23:49

while later that same year, they did the

23:51

same thing to me. That's

23:54

a man named Kevin Trudeau. He

23:56

also made infomercials and he

23:58

was also in an ongoing

23:59

battle with the Federal Trade Commission over

24:02

false advertising claims. But

24:05

unlike John Shanahan and hooked on phonics,

24:08

Kevin Trudeau knew this day would come,

24:10

that he wasn't going to surrender.

24:14

A career salesman becomes a habitual

24:16

offender and it's quest to share information

24:19

they don't want you to know

24:21

on this episode of Swindled.

24:30

Pay to play, taxpayer dollars

24:32

that were wasted, paid tens of millions

24:35

of dollars, billion dollars,

24:39

by falsifying its votes and

24:41

records model for the collapse of the entire system.

24:51

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26:11

Well the fact is I did not have

26:13

a good memory most of my life. See

26:15

in 1979 I was an LD child. I

26:18

had a learning speech impediment. I

26:20

was flunking out of high school. I

26:22

was 45 pounds overweight. Had a dead end

26:24

job, a beat up car. Didn't feel good

26:27

about myself. My future did not look

26:29

very bright. Kevin

26:32

Mark Trudeau was a boy scout,

26:34

altar boy, and church organist as

26:37

a child. He cut lawns, delivered

26:39

newspapers, shoveled snow, and set

26:41

pins at a bowling alley.

26:43

Kevin was also the president

26:45

of the Junior Clowns of America and

26:47

a magician who performed at birthday parties

26:50

in nursing homes. Kevin

26:52

was an honor student that played baseball and football

26:54

at St. Mary's High School in Lynn, Massachusetts.

26:57

During his senior year in 1981, he was

27:00

voted most likely to succeed. Kevin

27:03

Trudeau was an accomplished, well-rounded

27:05

kid who was going places when everybody

27:08

could see it. But not if you hear

27:10

him tell the story. Publicly,

27:12

Kevin claims he was out of shape and out of options

27:15

until he sat in the audience for a lecture

27:18

about success given by a former

27:20

body shop mechanic turned real life millionaire.

27:23

After the show, an 18-year-old Kevin

27:25

Trudeau followed the man to a Denny's

27:27

Diner, where millionaires often

27:30

gather in the early morning hours to watch the working

27:32

class throw chairs at each other. Uninvited,

27:35

Kevin sat down in the booth next to the man and

27:37

begged him to share more secrets to success. He

27:40

shared with me that night till 4 o'clock in the morning,

27:43

principles of success. I

27:46

curiously took down notes. The

27:48

most important thing that man taught me that night,

27:51

he said, Kevin, knowledge

27:53

is power. But

27:56

only if you can remember it.

28:15

secure

30:00

credit cards for himself. He charged

30:02

a total of $122,735.68 to the cards. Again, Kevin

30:10

Trudeau pleaded guilty. He said he was desperate

30:12

for assets and was trying to keep the American

30:14

Memory Institute afloat. This

30:17

time, Kevin was sentenced to two years in

30:19

prison. While in custody, he underwent

30:21

a psychiatric evaluation, which found

30:24

quote, no indication of

30:26

organic mental disorder or psychosis.

30:29

He has been driven by a subconscious urge

30:31

to succeed, to the point where he may

30:33

have shown poor judgment. Kevin

30:37

Trudeau's mother, who described her son as a

30:39

literal altar boy in a letter to the judge,

30:41

blamed her son's behavior on the repressed awareness

30:44

of his adoption. A cousin had

30:46

accidentally let the truth slip out in

30:48

front of Kevin before his parents told him. Kevin's

30:51

mother says she saw a quote, big change

30:53

in him from that point on. Success

30:56

was the only thing that mattered. While

30:59

in prison, Kevin Trudeau met a convicted

31:01

cocaine distributor named Jules Leib. After

31:04

their release, the two men formed a partnership

31:06

and started a business in 1993. That

31:09

was called the Trudeau Marketing

31:12

Group.

31:24

The

31:36

Trudeau Marketing Group partnered with a

31:38

company called Nutrition for Life in Houston,

31:41

Texas. Nutrition for Life sold vitamins

31:43

and health supplements, herbal formulas,

31:46

homeopathic remedies. They

31:48

have products for weight management. They have amino

31:51

acid balanced pastas. They have all

31:53

types of vitamins, minerals, herbs.

31:56

They're one of the largest distributors of homeopathic

31:59

and natural heat.

31:59

killing remedies in America. Kevin

32:02

devised a way to sell the products in bulk. The

32:05

Trudeau Marketing Group offered a quote,

32:07

instant executive program with

32:10

nutrition for life. To get

32:12

in, participants were required to buy $1,000 worth

32:15

of products to resell, hopefully,

32:18

and a $35 startup kit, which

32:20

would teach them to be the best salesman they could

32:22

be. But the real money was

32:24

in recruiting others into the program. In

32:27

order to get in, we asked you to buy $1,035 worth

32:31

of product and a distributor kit. Now,

32:34

the

32:34

other thing that we asked you to do is each month

32:37

buy $135 in product. You

32:40

can certainly buy more than that, and you don't have

32:42

to buy product in any month. If you don't, you don't

32:44

get a bonus check that month. And if you don't buy a product for

32:46

two months in a row, you simply get taken

32:48

out of the program, and you lose your downline

32:50

forever. It's optional, but we recommend

32:53

that you get, and you sign up for the order assurance

32:55

program, which means you put down a credit card number.

32:57

And if you forget to buy a product in any given

33:00

month, we automatically charge your

33:02

credit card and send you a gift certificate for $100.

33:06

At least 10 states attorneys general

33:08

filed lawsuits against Kevin Trudeau and

33:10

Nutrition for Life for operating

33:12

an illegal pyramid scheme. Trudeau

33:15

paid $185,000 to settle the charges. The

33:18

Trudeau marketing group was no longer allowed

33:21

to operate.

33:22

So Kevin Trudeau brought back an

33:24

old classic, but in a different form. Trudeau

33:27

dusted off his memory improvement program,

33:30

but this time instead of seminars, he

33:32

would sell it via infomercial, which

33:35

had littered America's late night airwaves, thanks

33:37

to Reagan's deregulation of the TV

33:40

advertising industry. Stay

33:42

tuned, get a pencil and paper, and in

33:44

the next 30 minutes, you'll be able to take a test

33:47

to find out just how good your memory really is, and

33:50

learn to unleash the power of your own

33:52

mega memory. Featuring Kevin Trudeau,

33:55

author, lecturer, and America's foremost

33:57

memory

33:57

expert. Kevin is so sure

33:59

that this...

36:02

The Mega Memory course wasn't the only

36:04

product Kevin Trudeau was shilling at

36:06

the time. There were at least half a dozen.

36:09

Each had their own infomercial that followed

36:11

a similar format. Kevin

36:13

Trudeau would play talk show host and

36:15

conduct a scripted interview with a so-called

36:18

expert on a subject. It was usually

36:20

the founder of whatever product they were selling.

36:23

For example, Kevin Trudeau interviewed

36:25

a self-proclaimed beauty expert named

36:28

Jacqueline Sable about her product,

36:30

the Sable Hair Farming System, which

36:33

promised to quote, finally end

36:35

hair loss in the human race. One

36:38

can see how that turned out just by looking

36:40

in the mirror.

36:41

What I want to share with you now is a simple

36:43

step-by-step procedure that you will apply anytime

36:46

you have an addictive urge. Now the first thing I

36:48

want you to understand is when do you apply

36:50

this particular technique. This technique

36:53

is fast, effective, and it works. The reason

36:55

it works is it gets at the energy field level.

36:58

Dr. Callahan's techniques now are called Thought

37:00

Field Therapy because we deal with

37:02

the thought field.

37:04

There was also Dr. Callahan's addiction

37:07

breaking system, which Kevin Trudeau

37:09

tells the audience is a series of gestures

37:11

like tapping on the chest that can eliminate

37:14

every addictive urge. This

37:16

Dr. Callahan fellow reportedly discovered

37:19

it while he was studying quantum

37:21

physics. Don't be

37:23

left behind. Unlock your natural

37:25

ability to quadruple your reading speed.

37:27

Call the number on your screen and order mega reading.

37:30

It really works. Not available in stores.

37:32

Money back if you aren't astounded. Call now.

37:34

I highly endorse and recommend

37:36

this program how it is the world's fastest reader.

37:40

Kevin also pitched Howard Berg's

37:43

mega reading home study program, which

37:45

could increase reading speed and comprehension

37:47

by as much as 10 times. I

37:50

have a letter here from a girl who has brain

37:52

damage. Howard Berg says in the interview, she

37:55

was in a car accident and half her brain

37:57

stopped functioning. It was electrically dead.

37:59

Yet, even that woman

38:02

increased her reading speed to 600 words

38:04

per minute after using his program.

38:08

In 1998, the Federal Trade Commission

38:10

asked for proof. They asked Kevin

38:13

Trudeau to substantiate the claims for all

38:15

of the products he was selling on TV, and

38:17

he couldn't do it. So the FTC

38:19

fined Kevin Trudeau $500,000, and he

38:22

agreed not to make any more misrepresentations

38:24

about the benefits or performance of any

38:26

product without, quote, competent

38:29

and reliable evidence of his claims.

38:34

Less than three years later, Kevin Trudeau

38:36

was back on TV. This time he

38:38

was starring in infomercials selling a non-surgical

38:40

facelift called Firmalift. There

38:43

was another product called Biotape, which

38:45

were strips of, quote, space-age mylar

38:47

that connected broken circuits in the body to

38:50

provide permanent pain relief. And

38:52

then there was also Corals Calcium, which

38:55

Trudeau promoted during a scripted interview

38:57

with Dr. Robert Barefoot, who

38:59

was neither a medical doctor nor a

39:01

PhD. But no

39:04

one seems to know that a small amount

39:06

of vitamin D can cure cancer. What

39:09

about those women with breast cancer? They're out there on all

39:11

their marches and all this. 15,000 units

39:15

could solve their problem.

39:16

And cure other diseases as

39:18

well. Oh, yes. You

39:20

know that black guy, I'm trying to

39:22

remember his name on television. He

39:25

has MS. Oh,

39:26

I'm Montel Williams. Yes, that's the guy. Well,

39:30

I have all kinds of letters

39:32

from people who had terminal

39:34

MS, and they're all cured today. Montel

39:37

Williams doesn't have to suffer. He's

39:39

suffering through ignorance, and that's why reading

39:41

these books are so important.

39:45

During the infomercial, Bob Barefoot claims

39:47

that Corals Calcium is an effective

39:49

treatment for cancer, heart disease,

39:51

multiple sclerosis, and many other diseases.

39:54

He estimates that all conditions could be reduced

39:56

by 90% within three years if

39:59

people read his book. book.

40:01

The Federal Trade Commission wasn't convinced. In

40:04

June 2003, the agency alleged that

40:06

Kevin Trudeau violated their agreement

40:09

from 1998 about misrepresenting

40:11

benefits without sufficient evidence. The

40:14

FTC entered into a preliminary injunction

40:17

that prohibited Trudeau from continuing to make

40:19

claims about corals calcium and biotape.

40:22

Kevin violated that preliminary injunction

40:24

less than a year later by mass mailing

40:26

an advertisement for corals calcium and

40:28

producing another infomercial. In 2004,

40:32

Kevin Trudeau was found in contempt of court

40:34

for his transgressions. As part

40:36

of the 2004 final order, the

40:39

salesman was to cease all marketing for

40:41

corals calcium. He was forced to turn

40:43

over a vacation home and a Mercedes Benz

40:46

in addition to $2 million in cash.

40:49

But most importantly, Kevin Trudeau

40:51

was quote, permanently enjoined

40:53

and restrained from producing, disseminating,

40:56

or making any representation in an infomercial

40:59

aired or played on any television or radio

41:01

media. In other words, Kevin

41:04

Trudeau was banned from promoting products

41:06

on TV or radio. A

41:09

spokesperson for the FTC's Bureau

41:11

of Consumer Protection stated quote, this

41:14

ban is meant to shut down an infomercial

41:17

empire that has misled American consumers

41:19

for years. Less

41:21

than a year later, Kevin Trudeau

41:24

was back on TV.

41:30

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41:42

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41:47

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41:52

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41:55

statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration.

41:57

This product is intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent

41:59

any disease.

42:01

Now, no health training, not

42:03

a doctor. I'm a journalist, I'm a medical researcher,

42:06

and for 25 years I traveled

42:08

to over 60 countries, over 5 million

42:11

miles, and I interviewed over 5,000 medical

42:14

doctors all around the world who are curing

42:17

people every single day of virtually every disease

42:19

like cancer, diabetes, high

42:21

blood pressure, herpes, acid

42:24

reflux, heart disease, curing

42:26

these diseases without drugs and

42:28

surgery. And that's why I wrote the book, Natural

42:31

Cures They Don't Want You to Know About

42:33

because it describes the cures

42:35

that are being used all around the world and

42:38

why the drug companies and even

42:40

the U.S. government try to hold that information back

42:42

from the American public.

42:44

In the summer of 2005, an infomercial

42:47

for a book about natural health treatments was

42:49

running on a loop in the living rooms of insomniacs

42:52

across the country.

42:54

The infomercial starred Kevin Trudeau, the

42:56

author of the book, which was called Natural

42:59

Cures They Don't Want You to

43:01

Know About. Trudeau

43:03

was not violating the terms of the

43:05

FTC's 2004 final order which banned

43:08

him from selling products on TV because

43:11

Trudeau was not selling a product on

43:13

TV, he was selling a book that,

43:15

according to the FTC's Mirror Image Doctrine,

43:18

was considered protected free speech.

43:22

Kevin Trudeau had found a loophole that allowed

43:24

him to continue his career as a TV

43:26

pitchman legally. He wasn't making

43:29

claims on the airwaves, he was quoting

43:31

claims from a book on the airwaves. Totally

43:34

different, totally legal. The

43:36

FTC reluctantly agreed and

43:38

approved Trudeau's new infomercial. He

43:41

spent a million dollars a week on airtime.

43:44

And it paid off. In September 2005, Kevin

43:48

Trudeau's Natural Cures They Don't Want

43:50

You to Know About

43:51

was the New York Times number one best-selling

43:53

nonfiction book in the United States for 26

43:56

weeks in a row.

43:59

book in America it beat Harry Potter

44:02

and that's never been done in history especially

44:04

it's a nonfiction book.

44:06

Trudeau's self-published book was 600 pages

44:09

long and poorly written.

44:11

It claimed to contain information deliberately

44:13

hidden from the public by the FTC,

44:16

the FDA, and food and drug companies.

44:18

Okay I'm intrigued. Unfortunately

44:22

there was no bibliography or references

44:24

included. There are

44:27

non-patentable, inexpensive,

44:29

all-natural ways to cure

44:32

arthritis.

44:33

Diabetes. Herpes.

44:35

Herpes is curable. It is 100%

44:38

curable. People don't have to have breakouts

44:41

ever again. Acid reflux

44:43

is curable. Cancer

44:46

is curable. So these natural

44:49

remedies are suppressed in America

44:51

because the drug companies which control

44:53

and own the media and unfortunately

44:56

control the FDA and the FTC don't

44:58

want people to know about it because it could adversely

45:01

affect their properties. Get the number one New

45:03

York Times bestselling book Natural

45:05

Cures they don't want you to know about. Over 10

45:08

million

45:08

people have already benefited from this life-changing

45:10

information. Stop being a slave

45:13

to the drug companies. Wow

45:16

the infomercial claims that over 10 million people

45:19

have benefited from Kevin Trudeau's book. Let's

45:22

hear from some of them. Before

45:24

I read the book I was suffering

45:26

horribly from multiple sclerosis.

45:27

My acid reflux was really bad where I couldn't

45:30

even sleep at night. It's been just

45:32

over seven years now since I read that book

45:35

and I have never been sick. There are so many people that'll

45:37

say oh chronic fatigue can't be cured and

45:39

it's just not true because I'm

45:41

living proof. I used to see my doctor once

45:43

a month I seen him once in two years. I wound

45:45

up actually losing 54 pounds. The symptoms

45:48

are completely completely gone.

45:51

The pain virtually went away overnight.

45:54

The results sounded pretty impressive you

45:56

must admit

45:58

but if you were to pick up the phone in order

45:59

natural cures they don't want you to

46:02

know about. You would find that the book is actually

46:04

filled to the brim with nothing but completely

46:06

unsubstantiated claims.

46:08

For instance, Kevin Trudeau recommends

46:11

curing arthritis by removing

46:13

all dental metal from your mouth. He

46:15

claims sunscreen, not sunlight, causes

46:18

skin cancer. And he urges everybody

46:20

to stop taking all prescription and non-prescription

46:23

drugs. And of course, no vaccines

46:26

and no doctors. Also,

46:28

if you're depressed, Trudeau recommends you

46:31

read Dianetics by L. Ron Hubbard

46:33

and become a Scientologist. What

46:36

else? Oh yeah, Kevin recommends

46:38

wearing white clothes despite being dressed

46:40

in all black on the book's cover. He

46:42

writes that the color white brings more positive

46:44

energy into your energetic field and

46:47

he recommends jumping on a trampoline sometimes.

46:50

In the book, Trudeau also claims that a professor

46:53

at the University of Calgary developed

46:55

a natural cure for diabetes but the

46:58

pharmaceutical companies pressured the school into

47:00

quashing the data. The University

47:02

of Calgary told ABC News that there had been no

47:04

human studies conducted at the school in the past 20

47:07

years on herbal remedies for diabetes.

47:10

And the school sent Trudeau a cease-and-desist

47:12

letter. The University of Calgary

47:14

did a massive cover-up and denied

47:17

that they produced the product and they did any

47:19

research on the product. They lied.

47:22

They did a massive cover-up. I reported

47:26

that in my book and I reported

47:28

that

47:29

in news outlets around the world. I

47:31

reported that the gentleman who was

47:33

marketing this, Dr. Yung-Su Kim,

47:36

was offered over ten million dollars to take the product

47:38

off the market because if people use it they

47:40

would cure their diabetes and the companies

47:42

that sell diabetes supplies would

47:45

lose money. In

47:48

chapter six of Natural Cures They Don't Want You to

47:50

Know About, Kevin Trudeau teaches us how

47:52

to never get sick again.

47:54

Drink eight glasses of water. Stop smoking.

47:56

Walk daily. Stay away from microwaves.

47:59

Sleep on the floor.

49:59

Someone had removed the lug nuts from his car

50:02

wheels. Even more terrifying,

50:04

he told the magazine that he was woken up at 3am

50:06

one morning and three men were standing over

50:08

him. Shut your mouth, they instructed.

50:11

It was a message from the boss. Kevin

50:14

Trudeau promoted the book even harder after

50:16

that.

50:17

At the end of 2005, the FTC

50:20

had not acted but the New York State

50:22

Consumer Protection Board issued a public warning

50:24

about Kevin Trudeau's natural cures. This

50:27

is not a matter of free speech as Mr. Trudeau

50:30

claims. The board's chairwoman Teresa

50:32

Santiago told the Associated Press,

50:35

If you advertise the contents of a book, it

50:37

had better contain what has been promised. When

50:40

you are doing an infomercial and you say you

50:42

have the cure for diabetes and you go

50:44

to the book and there's no cure for diabetes,

50:47

that's an issue. In

50:49

response, Kevin Trudeau filed a lawsuit

50:51

against the New York Consumer Protection Board for

50:54

violating his First Amendment rights. The

50:56

board had been contacting television stations

50:58

in New York, urging them to refrain from

51:01

giving Trudeau airtime. Kevin

51:03

Trudeau won a preliminary injunction

51:05

and the Consumer Protection Board had to cease the

51:08

notifications.

51:10

As if 2005 wasn't busy enough

51:12

for the Kev man, he also founded

51:15

the International Pool Tour that year. He

51:17

planned to transform billiards into a major

51:19

league sport, which shockingly

51:21

never happened. The tour ran out

51:23

of money within a few years. Trudeau

51:26

reportedly sank $13 million into

51:28

the failed venture.

51:29

That's okay because

51:31

he had more natural cures.

51:33

The reason that natural cures are so important.

51:36

All drugs, prescription and non-prescription,

51:39

have side effects. Am I

51:41

saying that? No. Who says

51:44

that? The drug companies themselves. If you

51:46

read it, if you read an ad

51:48

for a drug in Time magazine, there's

51:51

three pages of side effects

51:53

and thousands of people every year are in wheelchairs

51:56

because they did what their doctor said. Took

51:59

a drug.

52:00

In 2006, Kevin Trudeau

52:02

published More Natural Cures They Don't

52:05

Want You to Know About. It contains

52:07

similar pseudoscience as the first. Animals

52:10

never get sick in the wild. Disease

52:12

is caused by an imbalance of energy, things

52:14

like that.

52:15

But what makes more natural cures exciting is

52:18

that Kevin Trudeau gives us a peek behind the curtain

52:21

from where he has obtained this incredible knowledge.

52:24

Yeah, I know, Trudeau used to say he traveled over 5 million

52:26

miles to talk to a bunch of medical experts,

52:29

blah blah blah. But that's only

52:31

half the story. Here's the truth.

52:33

Kevin Trudeau says he got his insider health

52:35

information from a secret

52:38

society. When

52:40

I was 15 years old, I got exposed

52:42

to an organization called The Brotherhood. And

52:44

I went on to generate a very large,

52:47

successful empire all over the world in business

52:49

and did some pretty amazing things. Trudeau

52:52

says being in The Brotherhood has given

52:55

him access to the inner circles of the rich and

52:57

powerful. Politicians, celebrities,

52:59

musicians, scientists, they recruited

53:02

him because he was talented, Kevin says.

53:03

They wanted to use his abilities

53:05

for quote, increasing their own billions

53:08

in their own power, control and influence

53:10

over the masses. Kevin

53:12

writes, as a member of the secret

53:14

society, I've sat in private meetings

53:17

with the heads of state from countries around the world.

53:19

I've attended secret international business

53:21

meetings where business leaders, politicians

53:24

and media moguls coerce together

53:26

to create the New World Order with global

53:28

control over individual people everywhere.

53:31

I've been shown and have seen with my own eyes,

53:33

secret government and corporate documents. I've

53:36

heard with my own ears how Big Pharma, the

53:38

food industry and the oil industry are

53:40

working together with governments and media outlets

53:43

around the world.

53:44

I've been in over 60 countries, yet there

53:46

are no stamps or evidence in any of my passports.

53:49

I've been to Area 51 in Nevada. This

53:52

is where much of our technology has been developed.

53:54

Area 51 houses most extraterrestrial

53:57

artifacts, including a working spacecraft.

53:59

dead alien bodies. I've seen

54:02

these things with my own two eyes. As

54:04

a member of this secret society, I

54:06

was used in covert operations

54:09

around the world."

54:12

So yeah, it's

54:13

not a stretch to believe that Kevin Trudeau could have picked

54:15

up a few health tips along the way. Seems

54:18

like he picked up some personal finance strategies

54:20

as well because he also published Debt

54:22

Cures they don't want you to know about the

54:24

same year. Critics pointed out

54:27

that Trudeau's Debt Cures book contained rudimentary

54:30

financial information that was readily available

54:32

everywhere for free, like how to improve

54:34

your credit score. There was nothing revelatory

54:37

about it. The same could be said

54:39

about Kevin Trudeau's Weight Loss Book, published

54:41

in 2007. The Weight Loss

54:44

Cure they don't want you to know about

54:46

claimed to be the quote, simplest and

54:48

most effective way to lose weight on planet

54:51

earth and has been hidden from the public,

54:53

according to the accompanying infomercial.

54:56

The methods in the book have been used by the rich and famous

54:58

for decades,

55:00

but the food and drug industry suppressed that

55:02

information. The program was so

55:04

easy you could do it from home, no dieting

55:06

or exercise required, and once completed,

55:09

you could eat whatever you want. It really

55:11

was a miracle. That was, according

55:14

to Kevin Trudeau's infomercial

55:15

pitch. In reality,

55:17

the program outlined in the book

55:19

didn't seem so easy. Trudeau's

55:21

four phase weight loss program actually

55:24

required a limit of 500 calories

55:26

a day of nothing but organic foods with

55:28

chorocalcium supplementation,

55:30

a daily hour long walk, 15 colonics

55:34

in the first 30 days

55:35

someone is obsessed, and a daily

55:38

injection of HCG, a

55:40

hormone found in pregnant women. Trudeau

55:43

claimed that combining the hormonal injections

55:45

with these strict dietary and caloric intake

55:47

restrictions would reset one's hypothalamus,

55:50

thereby reducing the urge to eat while

55:53

redistributing one's body fat. His

55:55

weight loss program was based on the Simeons

55:57

protocol, also known as the 8th

55:59

CG diet proposed by British

56:02

endocrinologist ATW Simiens

56:04

back in the 1950s, which was debunked as

56:07

nonsense in the 1960s.

56:09

Kevin Trudeau was trying to repopularize

56:11

it.

56:12

The Federal Trade Commission had other plans.

56:15

So they sent me for the weight loss cure book saying this

56:18

book, this infomercial was

56:21

misleading because in the

56:24

infomercial I said that the weight loss cure

56:26

described in the book was easy and

56:28

you could eat virtually anything you want when you were done.

56:31

They said that was a lie. They

56:34

said they read the book and

56:36

they believed that after reading

56:39

the book the weight loss cure was not easy. Therefore

56:42

my claim was a lie and it was

56:44

a violation of the consent decree because I agreed

56:47

I wouldn't misrepresent my books. And

56:49

they said you clearly misrepresented your book

56:52

because you said the weight loss cure was easy. We

56:54

read the book. We don't think it's easy. I

56:57

went to the FTC and said hey did any of you guys

56:59

do the diet? They said no. I

57:01

said well how do you know if it's easy or not?

57:04

Easy is subjective. Even

57:06

though a reasonable person would describe Kevin

57:09

Trudeau's weight loss program as anything but.

57:12

However, Trudeau also claimed there was no

57:14

exercise or dieting required which was

57:16

blatantly untrue. Also, the

57:19

FTC argued, how could the program be

57:21

done at home when it requires daily

57:23

injections of a prescription substance? I'll

57:26

tell you how, Kevin Trudeau told them. It's

57:29

freedom of speech. Actually

57:32

it's false advertising, the FTC ruled

57:34

on November 19th 2007. Kevin

57:37

Trudeau was again found in contempt of court

57:39

for, again, violating the 2004 final

57:42

order for misleading thousands of customers

57:44

about the difficulty of the diet he

57:46

was selling.

57:48

On August 7th 2008,

57:50

Trudeau was fined 5.1 million dollars,

57:53

an estimate of the revenue earned from the book,

57:55

and he was banned from selling anything on TV or

57:57

radio, including books, for three years.

1:00:01

This is Kevin Trudeau in the studio. I'd

1:00:04

like to personally congratulate you to

1:00:06

getting this program your wish is your command

1:00:09

how to manifest your desires. This

1:00:11

is a very special program and you're

1:00:13

not listening to this by accident. This

1:00:16

program, if you listen to the entire

1:00:18

program, can help you

1:00:20

make all of your dreams come true. This

1:00:23

series is a revolutionary breakthrough

1:00:26

to help you become virtually a success

1:00:28

magnet, a money magnet. If

1:00:31

you listen to the entire program, if

1:00:33

you do what I suggest you do on the

1:00:36

program, you virtually can have your own

1:00:38

personal genie, granting

1:00:40

you your every wish. Your

1:00:42

dreams can come true. You

1:00:44

can learn how to manifest your desires.

1:00:47

You can learn how to

1:00:49

make what you want to happen

1:00:52

actually happen in your life. In 2009,

1:00:56

Kevin Trudeau was back with a new product, an

1:00:59

audio cassette program called Your Wish

1:01:01

is Your Command. It was a self-help

1:01:04

guide to success based on the law of

1:01:06

attraction and the power of positive thinking,

1:01:09

basically

1:01:09

a ripoff of the popular but

1:01:11

equally worthless book, The Secret. When

1:01:14

a person just listens to this seminar,

1:01:17

I'm virtually reprogramming

1:01:19

their brain. We now

1:01:21

know scientifically that the brain transmits

1:01:24

and receives frequency, Kevin says.

1:01:26

We also know that those frequencies affect physical

1:01:28

matter in the universe at the quantum level.

1:01:31

Here's proof. That's why the guy

1:01:33

who came to the event and he helps, when

1:01:36

I recorded this, he wanted a relationship.

1:01:39

And that night, in less than 24 hours,

1:01:42

he had met the woman of his dreams. One guy

1:01:45

missed his flight on the way

1:01:47

to the airport in Zurich. And

1:01:49

then while waiting for his next flight, bumped into

1:01:51

somebody, they started a conversation, and

1:01:54

now they're business partners in a multi-million dollar

1:01:56

business deal.

1:01:59

No, thousands of stories just

1:02:02

like those. You can have anything you want

1:02:04

in life he assures. All you have to

1:02:06

do is just think about it really

1:02:08

hard. And if that doesn't work,

1:02:10

Kevin wrote another book the following year that might

1:02:12

be of interest. It was called Free Money

1:02:15

They Don't Want You to Know About. Discover

1:02:18

the methods in Kevin's book that these real

1:02:20

people use to make a fortune before

1:02:23

the government possibly bans the book and

1:02:25

freezes the latest free money program.

1:02:28

Kevin's free money secrets

1:02:29

include government grants and unclaimed property.

1:02:33

There's usually a state website set up for the latter

1:02:35

where you can search your name and see if there's any money

1:02:37

that's rightfully yours that you have not claimed.

1:02:40

Usually like a final paycheck you never picked up

1:02:42

or funds sent after you changed addresses.

1:02:45

You have pretty basic stuff. You're

1:02:48

a genius, Kevin.

1:02:49

I made over a million dollars

1:02:51

using Kevin's method. I made almost

1:02:54

two million dollars. Cash money.

1:02:57

Maybe you ought to check those websites. And

1:03:00

remember,

1:03:00

just think positively.

1:03:03

Kevin Trudeau should take his own advice because

1:03:05

around the time he was preaching the power of positivity,

1:03:08

he

1:03:08

started hosting an internet radio

1:03:10

show which was mostly angry and

1:03:13

negative. Well, you know, there

1:03:15

was a dad

1:03:17

and he was struggling and

1:03:19

his wife and he had three kids and he decided

1:03:21

to do a hoax and

1:03:24

send a balloon up in the air and go on television

1:03:27

and say, my six-year-old is in the balloon. And

1:03:29

he did this because he wanted to take care

1:03:31

of his kids. He wanted to become a celebrity

1:03:34

and he thought doing this would get him money.

1:03:36

He could write a book. He would go on television.

1:03:39

He'd become a celebrity. He

1:03:41

broke the law to take care of his kids. We're

1:03:44

outraged at this

1:03:45

person. Why

1:03:48

aren't we outraged at the illegal immigrants? Unsurprisingly,

1:03:53

Kevin Trudeau had built up a substantial

1:03:55

cult-like following.

1:03:57

During the broadcast, he appealed to the audience

1:03:59

as paranoid. fear, and pseudo-intellectual

1:04:02

superiority while selling them bullshit,

1:04:05

don't we all? But at the same time, Kevin

1:04:07

was still claiming innocence and trying to appeal

1:04:09

his $37 million fine. Jesus

1:04:13

Christ had to be crucified. Gandhi

1:04:18

had to be in prison. Nelson Mandela had

1:04:20

to go to prison. Cesar Chavez

1:04:22

was beaten.

1:04:23

Martin Luther King was

1:04:25

assassinated. So

1:04:28

sometimes bad things

1:04:30

happen to good people.

1:04:32

But when you believe in what you're doing, like I believe

1:04:34

in what I'm doing, I can handle those

1:04:36

challenges that lie before me. But

1:04:39

he couldn't do it alone. Even a great

1:04:42

man like Kevin Trudeau needed help

1:04:44

sometimes. I need your help.

1:04:46

I need you to write a comment. I need

1:04:48

you to write a comment and email it. Email

1:04:50

it to me and then email it

1:04:52

to the judge, Judge Gettleman, we're going to put

1:04:55

his email address and email it to the FTC. When

1:04:57

you basically say, look, I got the weight loss cure,

1:05:00

or Kevin Trudeau's a great guy, or I

1:05:02

love what he's doing, leave him alone.

1:05:05

On February 10, 2010, Kevin

1:05:08

Trudeau urged his audience to email

1:05:10

Judge Robert Gettleman letters of support

1:05:12

about how his products had positively affected

1:05:15

their lives. He listed the judge's

1:05:17

email address on his website and a message

1:05:19

titled,

1:05:20

Kevin needs your voice. Hundreds

1:05:23

of emails flooded Judge Gettleman's inbox. Maybe

1:05:26

they were angry or vaguely threatening.

1:05:29

Judge Gettleman was pissed.

1:05:30

The next day, February 11, 2010, the

1:05:34

judge ordered Kevin Trudeau into court with three

1:05:36

hours notice. Gettleman

1:05:38

called the email blast the deliberate attempt to

1:05:40

harass, intimidate, and influence

1:05:42

him. Just got another one, Gettleman

1:05:45

complained in court. He said his blackberry

1:05:47

was clogged with email and completely frozen.

1:05:50

Every time you hear that little bell.

1:05:54

Obviously this is the first amendment issue

1:05:57

and I certainly thought that I was

1:05:59

excellent

1:05:59

I'm exercising my personal rights.

1:06:18

I'm

1:06:30

not even Trudeau's name on them.

1:06:56

Stop

1:07:00

the presses! It's

1:07:02

the story of the

1:07:04

year!

1:07:07

Again,

1:07:22

I can't comment on the proceedings until

1:07:24

they're done. My attorneys told me not to comment, but I do

1:07:26

want to give you the facts. The facts are this.

1:07:29

Last Wednesday, I went on the air

1:07:31

and asked you to write

1:07:33

the judge and write the Federal Trade Commission

1:07:36

and tell the judge and tell the Federal Trade Commission

1:07:38

that you liked my books and you liked my

1:07:41

writings and you didn't think you were misled in any of my

1:07:43

ads. That

1:07:46

was wrong and do not, under any circumstances,

1:07:49

email the judge or write the judge. Well,

1:07:52

it appears that hundreds of you wrote

1:07:55

the judge.

1:07:58

On May 20th, 2010, the

1:07:59

The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals granted

1:08:02

Kevin Trudeau's motion and dismissed the

1:08:05

most current contempt citation. He

1:08:07

would not have to spend the 30 days in jail.

1:08:10

However, a year and a half later, on

1:08:12

November 29, 2011, the court again upheld the $37.6 million

1:08:18

fine for violating the 2004 final order.

1:08:22

Kevin Trudeau would have to pay it. But

1:08:24

how?

1:08:25

Well, in May, I'm

1:08:28

going to be revealing in a two-hour

1:08:30

webinar exactly

1:08:34

what is going to happen December 21, 2012.

1:08:38

This is information you and your family need to

1:08:40

know. It is information

1:08:43

that you categorically, 100%, need to know. You

1:08:49

need to know this. This

1:08:52

is vital. It is valuable. Now,

1:08:55

who am I going to reveal it to? I'm

1:08:57

going to be revealing it to members of my

1:08:59

club, the Global Information

1:09:02

Network.

1:09:08

The Global Information Network, or

1:09:10

JIN, as its members refer to it, is

1:09:12

an international anonymous council

1:09:15

created by Kevin Trudeau and 29 other

1:09:17

heavy hitters. This

1:09:19

group of people includes several

1:09:22

members of major royal

1:09:25

families. This group includes

1:09:28

members of the Bildenburg Club. This

1:09:30

group includes members of Bohemian

1:09:33

Grove, Skull and Bones,

1:09:35

Trilateral Commission. These

1:09:38

people

1:09:38

are billionaires, multi-billionaires.

1:09:40

They control major industries around the

1:09:42

world.

1:09:44

The purpose of their little club is

1:09:46

to give ordinary people access to super-secret

1:09:49

insider and forbidden knowledge to which

1:09:51

only the wealthy elite are privy. This

1:09:54

is Ed Foreman, a former congressman

1:09:56

from Texas who was a card-carrying

1:09:58

JIN member.

1:09:59

It's like an institution

1:10:02

that gives you an

1:10:05

education in business and

1:10:07

success in accomplishing

1:10:10

things in life. Many universities

1:10:12

will give you a degree and teach

1:10:15

you physics or

1:10:16

algebra or a

1:10:19

variety of things, but the thing

1:10:21

about the Global Information Network

1:10:24

is it talks to you about business and you associate

1:10:27

with business people.

1:10:29

As a member of the Global Information Network,

1:10:32

you will learn how to invest in real estate.

1:10:34

You'll learn how to get a second passport, how

1:10:37

to open an offshore bank account, how to

1:10:39

live abroad, and of course how to make money

1:10:41

among a list of other things. This

1:10:44

is what I believe to be one

1:10:47

of the greatest money-making opportunities

1:10:49

that you may see in your lifetime.

1:10:52

Lucky for you, this exclusive club accepts

1:10:55

everybody for a fee of course. New

1:10:58

members must pay the Global Information Network $1,500

1:11:00

up front and then $150 every month

1:11:04

after. Here's something else you need to know.

1:11:07

There are levels to this shit. 10 levels

1:11:10

and you can buy your way up the ladder. This

1:11:12

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

1:11:17

And

1:11:21

this man is a member of the club's prestigious

1:11:23

inner circle. How much do you have to pay to be in the

1:11:25

inner circle? $75,000 which

1:11:30

he says gets this exclusive CD

1:11:32

set along with a cut of the club's revenue.

1:11:35

While it's not paying off well yet, he's

1:11:37

confident it was a good investment.

1:11:40

That's another thing. Not only will you learn

1:11:42

some top secret information, you

1:11:44

can make money while doing it without selling

1:11:47

any stupid products. All you have to

1:11:49

do is get other people to join the Global Information

1:11:51

Network and you'll get a cut of

1:11:54

whoever you signed up signs up and so

1:11:57

on.

1:11:58

Plus you'll get to go to the retreats.

1:12:00

At its peak,

1:12:03

the Global

1:12:07

Information

1:12:08

Network

1:12:12

had more

1:12:15

than

1:12:28

30,000 members,

1:12:31

some of which eventually wised up and reported

1:12:34

gin to the FTC with allegations

1:12:36

that the club was nothing more than a pyramid scheme.

1:12:39

Kevin Trudeau's Global Information Network had

1:12:42

collected over $60 million in gross

1:12:44

revenue by then. Guess

1:12:46

how much he paid towards his $37.6 million

1:12:49

fine? $0, that's

1:12:51

correct. Five years had passed since it

1:12:53

was levied. Judge Robert Gettleman's patience

1:12:56

was wearing thin. In September 2013,

1:13:00

Kevin Trudeau was held in contempt of court for not

1:13:02

paying that fine. The court had evidence

1:13:04

that since 2010, Trudeau

1:13:06

had spent $12 million on first class

1:13:09

airfare, bought $12,000 cufflinks and $300

1:13:12

haircuts. He still drove a Bentley,

1:13:15

lived in a mansion near Chicago, paid $15,000 a

1:13:18

month for a vacation home in California,

1:13:21

employed two personal chefs and a butler,

1:13:23

but claimed to be dead broke.

1:13:25

Kevin Trudeau had filed for bankruptcy. He

1:13:28

and his third 26-year-old Ukrainian

1:13:30

wife were effectively homeless, he said.

1:13:33

But the FTC was convinced he was hiding millions.

1:13:36

They had emails in which Trudeau discussed his shipping

1:13:38

gold bars out of the country.

1:13:40

Trudeau said he owned nothing and was willing

1:13:42

to be waterboarded to prove he had nothing to

1:13:45

hide.

1:13:59

I can't pay 37.6 million

1:14:02

dollars. I don't have it sitting there. Judge

1:14:06

Gettelman appointed a receiver to identify

1:14:08

and catalog Trudeau's assets and holdings.

1:14:11

Kevin Trudeau did not play along. A

1:14:13

month later, Gettelman again found Trudeau

1:14:15

in contempt of court for not cooperating with

1:14:18

the receiver's investigation. This

1:14:20

time, it was criminal. Tyranny

1:14:23

in America, fascism in America. But

1:14:26

the good news is there are some people like

1:14:28

myself and many others who are willing

1:14:29

to fight for what we believe

1:14:32

in and express our First Amendment constitutional

1:14:34

rights. As you hear this

1:14:36

broadcast, there's a good chance that I will be in jail.

1:14:42

Kevin Trudeau's trial lasted a week

1:14:45

in November 2013. It

1:14:47

included all of the familiar arguments.

1:14:49

The U.S. attorneys called Trudeau a, quote, habitual

1:14:52

liar and fraudster who had repeatedly

1:14:54

ignored the previous court order by making misrepresentations

1:14:57

in advertising. The defense

1:15:00

attorneys argued that Kevin Trudeau did not willfully

1:15:02

violate the court order.

1:15:03

Any statements he made in the infomercials were carefully

1:15:06

couched as opinions and thus were constitutionally

1:15:09

protected free speech.

1:15:11

The

1:15:11

jury sided with the government.

1:15:13

Kevin Trudeau was found guilty of criminal contempt

1:15:16

for repeated violations of the 2004 final

1:15:19

order, as well as subsequent orders

1:15:21

and plea deals. After the verdict

1:15:23

was read, Kevin Trudeau's supporters

1:15:25

filed out of the courtroom, still

1:15:27

holding their autographed copies of his books

1:15:30

in their hands. Kevin

1:15:32

Trudeau was held without bail until sentencing.

1:15:35

He was considered a flight risk since he had

1:15:37

not disclosed his assets. Four

1:15:39

months later, in March 2014, 50-year-old

1:15:43

Kevin Trudeau appeared

1:15:43

in court, a humbled man. His

1:15:46

trademark black hair was gray and thinning. He

1:15:48

carried a stack of carefully typed notes

1:15:50

that he read to the court.

1:15:53

In the past four months, I've been

1:15:55

stripped of all ego, defiance,

1:15:57

arrogance, and pride.

1:15:59

I am thankful. If I ever

1:16:02

write a book again, if I ever do another

1:16:04

infomercial again, I promise no

1:16:06

embellishment, no puffery, and

1:16:09

absolutely no lies. I

1:16:11

know going forward, I will be a better

1:16:13

person." Trudeau

1:16:15

said his four months in jail were awful. He

1:16:18

wouldn't wish incarceration on anyone, but

1:16:21

it was also quote, one of the best, most positive

1:16:23

things in my life. He was rehabilitated

1:16:26

with a new outlook on life. So

1:16:28

he begged the judge,

1:16:29

there's no need for more time.

1:16:33

Judge Ronald Guzman, who replaced Judge

1:16:35

Robert Gettleman after the defense had him

1:16:37

removed, became visibly irritated

1:16:40

listening to Kevin Trudeau. The judge

1:16:42

described him as quote, deceitful

1:16:45

to the core. Just then,

1:16:47

an 80 year old man stood up and yelled, judge,

1:16:50

I am a former US congressman.

1:16:53

Oh shit, it was Ed Foreman from the Global

1:16:55

Information Network. The judge ordered

1:16:57

Ed to sit down and shut up and he did,

1:17:00

but then he made another outburst a few minutes later

1:17:03

and police dragged the limp old man out

1:17:05

of the courtroom and wrote him a citation.

1:17:08

With no further interruptions, Judge Ronald

1:17:10

Guzman handed down the sentencing.

1:17:13

What's funny is that if Judge Robert Gettleman

1:17:15

had handled the case, Trudeau would have

1:17:17

had a bench trial with a six

1:17:19

month sentencing limitation. Instead,

1:17:22

Kevin Trudeau received 10 years.

1:17:25

TV pitch man Kevin Trudeau will

1:17:27

spend the next 10 years behind bars.

1:17:29

At his sentencing, the judge called him an unrepentant

1:17:32

huckster who was deceitful

1:17:35

to the core.

1:17:37

Kevin Trudeau's sentence has been upheld in

1:17:39

subsequent appeals. The government's

1:17:41

quest to recover his assets to pay back his

1:17:43

victims continues. In 2015,

1:17:46

they auctioned off items seized from Trudeau's

1:17:48

home, items that Trudeau called priceless

1:17:51

because quote,

1:17:52

all have my energy infused in them.

1:17:55

There was a grand player piano, a replica

1:17:58

of Catherine the Great's 72-candlemen.

1:17:59

chandelier, a signed print of

1:18:02

Rush Limbaugh, and several copies

1:18:04

of the weight loss cure they don't want you

1:18:06

to know about.

1:18:08

The government also assumed control of the Global

1:18:10

Information Network, whose members were

1:18:12

informed that the club, quote, likely

1:18:15

amounted to an illegal pyramid scheme. Yeah

1:18:18

right, that's exactly what they

1:18:20

would say. But only about 4,000 of

1:18:23

those remain. A few of the most

1:18:25

devoted members are pooling their resources

1:18:27

to buy the club for $200,000. Amazingly,

1:18:32

while Kevin Trudeau was sitting in a federal prison

1:18:35

in Alabama, his infomercials

1:18:37

were still airing on

1:18:38

TV.

1:18:39

Kevin had sold the rights to everything back in 2006 for $121

1:18:41

million. Trudeau

1:18:45

claims he's only received $2 million from

1:18:47

the sale. The government started

1:18:49

collecting the infomercial royalties. By

1:18:53

October 2015, a few million dollars

1:18:55

in assets had been recovered from Kevin Trudeau. Payouts

1:18:58

were sent to hundreds of thousands of people who purchased

1:19:00

his books. The average check was

1:19:02

about $25. Seven

1:19:05

years later, in the spring of 2022, Kevin Trudeau

1:19:08

was released from

1:19:09

prison. He immediately took

1:19:11

a job with the Global Information Network

1:19:14

United. He gives seminars and

1:19:16

provides training and makes up to a million

1:19:18

dollars a year. Kevin Trudeau's

1:19:20

fan club still pays the majority of his bills

1:19:23

though.

1:19:23

In fact, Trudeau paid $1.86 million towards his $37 million

1:19:26

fine with money collected from

1:19:29

his members, some of whom contributed

1:19:32

as much as $50,000 at a time.

1:19:35

But the government knew there was more. His

1:19:37

third, now ex-wife, told them. In

1:19:39

January 2023, she handed over documents

1:19:42

to the FTC that Trudeau had kept

1:19:44

at their home in Switzerland.

1:19:46

She also said she had seen him keep gold bars

1:19:48

in a closet. Kevin Trudeau

1:19:50

claimed those gold bars were gifts to his

1:19:52

wife

1:19:53

and is adamant that he has no assets in his

1:19:55

name. Quote,

1:19:57

I want to pay this debt. I want

1:19:59

to get this behind.

1:19:59

me. I want to live a normal life

1:20:02

and not have to walk on eggshells.

1:20:05

Walking on eggshells. Huh.

1:20:08

I wonder what that cures.

1:20:13

Swindled is written, researched, produced,

1:20:16

and hosted by me, a concerned citizen, with

1:20:18

original music by Trevor Howard, aka

1:20:21

the former, aka the hair

1:20:23

farmer. For more information

1:20:25

about Swindled, you can visit swindledpodcast.com

1:20:28

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1:20:33

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1:21:40

Thanks for listening.

1:21:43

My name is Tala from

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Apex, North Carolina. My name is Janae

1:21:47

from Michigan. Hello

1:21:49

Swindled Corporation. My

1:21:51

name is Mariana from New

1:21:53

Jersey. And I'm your

1:21:56

citizen and valued listener.

1:22:01

Remember, read the

1:22:04

labels on stuff, especially

1:22:07

if you eat it.

1:22:08

Have a great

1:22:10

day.