Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Kevin Trudeau asks court to let him go to Zurich, FTC sez no, judge sez no too

Click on pic to enlarge, and there's also a link
to the entire document in this post.

[UPDATED to reflect court docs filed after this post was first published. ~CC]
 
Will serial scammer and huckster extraordinaire Kevin Trudeau show up in court this Friday, July 26? Not if his lawyers have anything to say about it. After all, he has high-level GIN disciples who are waiting to touch his hem in Zurich later this week, and they have paid big bucks for the privilege. The wheels of commerce should trump the wheels of justice, say the lawyers.

I guess it pays to visit PACER just about every day. I visited on July 18 (five days ago) and wrote about and shared some of the documents that were filed on July 15. Apparently more documents were filed and made available later in the day on July 18, and then even more were filed in both the civil and criminal case on July 22 and July 23 (today). Kevin's lawyers have been begging for a continuance of the July 26 hearings, and have also been begging for him to get his passport back to enable him to travel to the GIN summer conference in Zurich, which is scheduled to begin in a few days. (According to the documents, he did return to the US on July 10, and handed his passports back as ordered.)

His attorneys asked for a continuance of the scheduled July 26 hearings until July 30, or as soon as possible thereafter. They wanted him to be allowed to go to Zurich for the big GIN summer scamfest on July 26-28, and to have time to come back to the US and recover from jet lag and whatnot... maybe have a spa day, get a pedicure, kick back and relax with a fine cigar. Alternatively, they wanted the court to waive the requirement that Katie has to show up at all. He's been there for all of the evidentiary hearings, said the lawyers. He doesn't really need to be there for the oral arguments, does he?

I uploaded a PDF of one of the documents from the criminal case (Number 1:10-cr-00886, Hon. Ronald A. Guzman presiding). The same requests were filed in the civil case as well. The uploaded document includes a proposed motion for Judge Guzman to sign, allowing KT to travel.
Here's the link.

Not surprisingly, the FTC has filed pages and pages and pages of documents explaining why Kevin should NOT be allowed to travel again.
Here is one of them, filed under the civil case
(Number 1:03-cv-03904, Hon. Robert W. Gettleman presiding).
 
Not to be outdone, Kevin's attorneys filed a response, explaining again why the FTC is being grossly unfair to Kevin Trudeau, claiming, among many other things, that to incarcerate him over the civil case would be the equivalent of debtors' prison and therefore illegal.
Here is a link to that document.

See Footnote number 6 in the above, which again mentions that mysterious Nevis corporation, GIN FDN. Some think that this is where the real money is hidden, out of reach of the Feds (click to enlarge).

As was the case with the July 15 documents, there are also hundreds of pages of exhibits, some of which were filed under seal so I won't share them. But the document I linked to in the paragraph above should give an idea of the FTC's position. They were in court this morning (July 23) presenting their case as to why KT shouldn't be allowed to go to Zurich and should be thrown in jail immediately.

Now, I'm still not saying that Kevin Trudeau belongs in jail, although that would certainly give him an opportunity to polish his martyr image and get started on that epic book he's been threatening to write about his heroic struggles. But I do think that the courts have been far too lenient on him, and one thing that the FTC was concerned about was that if he were allowed to go to Zurich, he just might not come back.

Well, at least his sweet old parents, who had put their home up to secure his bond so he could travel to Canada, presumably get to stay in that home.
 

UPDATE: The request for a continuance has been denied, and apparently Katie isn't going to be allowed to go to Zurich, unless his attorneys can do some more fancy paper shuffling. Latest docket entries (click to enlarge)...

Civil case...

Criminal case...




Addendum, 24 July: Two more days remain till the court hearings, in which both judges are expected to make rulings -- although of course this could change. You can bet your bottom dollar that Katie's lawyers are still working overtime to delay the procedures in any way possible.

The GIN scamfest in Zurich is also only two days away, and some of Katie's detractors are crowing that the event will surely be cancelled now that Katie won't be there, and that GIN will be forced to refund thousands upon thousands of dollars to the people who have paid to attend the event, and that GIN will finally and totally collapse.

I've been indulging in some more Facebook conversations on forums that include GIN/KT supporters as well as detractors. As you may know, Trudeau's supporters, and even some of his detractors (including his brother Bob), think that the Feds' case against Trudeau is bogus. They say it's just one more example of government tyranny.

However one feels about Kevin Trudeau, there is no doubt that he still has lots of supporters, whether they are GIN members or not. And yes, the US government has done some appalling things over the past couple of decades (well, for the past couple of centuries, but who's counting?), so we can be reasonably certain that KT and his loyal supporters will continue to conflate government crimes and misdemeanors in other areas with Kevin's own troubles. And many people will continue to accept that conflation.

After all, as I have said numerous times before, many people are pissed off at the government for something or other (justifiably so, in many cases), and are therefore easily convinced by Kevin's shtick that he is fighting for the rest of us as well as for himself. He has been using this shtick for years.

To claim, as he and his supporters continue to claim, that the whole ten-year-plus FTC case is about Katie expressing a simple opinion in a book, is, in my opinion, a ludicrous oversimplification and misrepresentation of the case. But people continue to believe it and to repeat that story.

But make no mistake: Kevin will use every avenue available to him to capitalize on the situation, no matter what happens to him. I still do not think he will be incarcerated -- at least not for any length of time (although there is always the possibility that one or both of the judges may have become so disgusted and impatient by now that they may surprise me).

And as I have also been saying for some time now, I do not necessarily think Katie belongs behind bars. But if he does get locked up, he will continue to gather support -- financial and moral -- and to run scams any way he can. Alternatively, if goes to jail for the civil case, he may miraculously come up with the money for the fine, or most of it, and they will most likely let him go. Whether or not he pays the fine or a portion thereof, he will be able to use it as a symbol of government oppression and repression for years to come, so either way he wins, in a sense.

There is still, of course, the criminal contempt case, which may or may not go to trial. It certainly seems to be progressing in that direction, but there is still a possibility that it could be settled or dropped. That may depend upon how determined a few FTC lawyers and investigators are.

If anything comes of other agencies' investigations of KT (as reported from various sources but not completely confirmed), those will be whole separate cases -- more time and money spent.

As for the Zurich event, there is always the possibility that Katie and his GINions can arrange a videoconferencing setup so he can address the attendees live from Chicago, provided the courts allow that. (And if they don't, his attorneys can use that as further proof that the authorities are tying Kevin's hands so the poor boy can't earn more money towards the fine he owes.)  Naturally, if he gets to address the troops in Zurich, whether live or via some remote technology, he can rally them with his martyr act.

If he is unable to do that, then Lee Kenny and Chris McGarahan can exploit it to the max. "Now more than ever we have to show our strength and solidarity with Kevin! We are GIN! We are GIN!"

Or there may be some last minute paper shuffling that allows Katie to go to Zurich after all. There is also the possibility that on Friday the judge(s) could simply decide not to incarcerate him. Who knows, they might even give him his passport back and let him go to Zurich, at least for the closing ceremonies, as long as he promises to be back for his criminal trial, assuming that it goes on as scheduled.

As I said, either way Kevin and the top minions will be able to capitalize on it. In light of the numerous exploitation opportunities, it would be foolish of GIN to cancel the Zurich event.

And if GIN really does collapse as a direct or indirect result of the court actions, I predict two things:
1. Abe Husein will take the lion's share of credit for it, and will declare victory, and will be on more videos where he humbly talks about what a service he has provided to humanity by taking down Kevin Trudeau.
2. It will probably be no big deal to Kevin Trudeau. He will find something else to do. He always does. In other words: No neat and tidy endings. And no big loss to Scamworld, which feeds upon the hopes and dreams and longings, as well as the fears and insecurities, of millions of people who are on a perpetual hunt for The Next Big Thing.



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