Kevin Trudeau Mega Memory Review
Crisoforo Schuhmacher
Kevin Trudeau (/truːˈdoʊ/; born 1962 or 1963)[1] is an American author, salesman, and television personality known for promotion of his books and resulting legal cases involving the US Federal Trade Commission. His ubiquitous late-night infomercials, which promoted unsubstantiated health, diet, and financial advice, earned him a fortune but resulted in civil and criminal penalties for fraud, larceny, and contempt of court.
In the early 1990s, Trudeau was convicted of larceny and credit card fraud. In 2007, he was accused of grossly misrepresenting the contents of his book, The Weight-Loss Cure "They" Don't Want You to Know About. In a 2004 settlement, he agreed to pay a $500,000 fine and cease marketing all products except his books, which are protected under the First Amendment.[2] In 2011, he was fined $37.6 million for violating the 2004 settlement, and ordered to post a $2 million bond before engaging in any future infomercial advertising.[3][4][5]
In 2013, facing consequences for non-payment of the $37 million judgment, Trudeau filed for bankruptcy protection.[6] His claims of insolvency were challenged by FTC lawyers, who maintained that he was hiding money in shell companies, and cited examples of continued lavish spending, such as $359 for a haircut.[7] In November 2013, Trudeau was convicted of criminal contempt,[8][9] and was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison in March 2014.[10][11] The Chicago Tribune reported in April 2014 that infomercials starring Trudeau and promoting his books continued to air regularly on United States television stations even though he was in jail at the time.[12] Trudeau left federal custody in 2022 after 8 years, after which the FTC continued to pursue the unpaid $37 million fine.[13]
Trudeau grew up in Lynn, Massachusetts, the adopted son of Robert and Mary Trudeau. His birth mother was Jewish.[14] He attended St. Mary's High School in Lynn, where he was voted "Most Likely to Succeed" by the class of 1981.[1]
After high school Trudeau became a used car salesman, then joined the seminar circuit, selling memory improvement techniques. In 1990 he pleaded guilty to depositing $80,000 in worthless checks and impersonating a physician, but served, he said, fewer than 30 days. In 1991, he pleaded guilty to 11 counts of credit card fraud and spent two years in federal prison.[15]
After his release in 1993, Trudeau joined a multi-level marketing firm, Nutrition for Life. The firm was successful until the Attorney General of Illinois charged that it was running a pyramid scheme. Trudeau and Nutrition for Life settled cases brought by the state of Illinois, and seven other U.S. states, for US$185,000.[15][16][17][18][clarification needed]
Next, Trudeau produced and appeared in a series of late-night television infomercial broadcasts throughout North America. They promoted a range of products, including health aids, dietary supplements (such as coral calcium), baldness remedies, addiction treatments, memory-improvement courses, reading-improvement programs, and real estate investment strategies. The FTC took regulatory action against Trudeau, alleging that his broadcasts contained unsubstantiated claims and misrepresentations. In 1998, he was fined. In 2004, he settled a contempt-of-court action arising out of the same cases by agreeing to a settlement that included both payments of a $2 million fine and a ban on further use of infomercials to promote any product other than publications protected by the First Amendment.[19][20][non-primary source needed]
In 2004, Trudeau began writing books and promoting them with infomercials in the U.S. The first book he published was a medical guide titled Natural Cures "They" Don't Want You to Know About, which was published in 2005. The book was criticized for containing no natural cures.[21][22] Trudeau claimed he was not able to include them because of threats by the FTC.[23] The book became a bestseller selling 5 million copies.[24]
Two years later, Trudeau published a second medical book titled More Natural Cures Revealed: Previously Censored Brand Name Products That Cure Disease. According to Trudeau, the book identifies brand name products that will cure myriad illnesses. Trudeau's books claim that animals in the wild rarely develop degenerative conditions like cancer or Alzheimer's disease, and that many diseases are caused not by viruses or bacteria, but rather by an imbalance in vital energy.[citation needed] Science writer Christopher Wanjek critiqued and rejected many of these claims in his July 25, 2006 LiveScience.com health column.[23]
Trudeau went on to publish The Weight-Loss Cure "They" Don't Want You to Know About and Debt Cures "They" Don't Want You to Know About.[25] His writing has been commercially successful if not factual. In September 2005, Natural Cures was listed in the New York Times as the number-one-selling nonfiction book in the United States for 25 weeks.[26]
Trudeau has been married at least three times. His first wife was Oleksandra Polozhentseva, a Ukrainian immigrant.[26] His second union, in 2007, was to Kristine Dorow, a Norwegian student whom he met in London, ended in annulment after four months. In 2008, he married Natalya Babenko, another Ukrainian, who filed for marriage annulment based on fraud and had it granted by Los Angeles Superior Court in November 2022.[27]
In one widely quoted example, he asserted that the University of Calgary had developed a "natural" diabetes treatment, then quashed its data, fearing reprisals from the pharmaceutical industry.[28] (A spokesman for the school told ABC News that "there have been no human studies conducted at the University of Calgary in the past 20 years on herbal remedies for diabetes." The university later sent Trudeau a "cease and desist" letter, ordering him to stop using its name.[30])
Natural Cures sold briskly due to an aggressive infomercial promotion. Quackwatch and other internet watchdog sites cautioned that the infomercial itself was "misleading".[31] In a 2005 public warning from the New York State Consumer Protection Board, CPB Chairman Teresa A. Santiago cautioned that Natural Cures contained no actual cures, only "speculation". Cures were promised, but only by subscribing to Trudeau's newsletter or website at $71.40 per year or $499 for a "lifetime membership". The paid sites contained only additional, similarly unsubstantiated speculation, according to the CPB.[21]
Following Natural Cures "They" Don't Want You to Know About, Trudeau released a second medical guide two years later. His second book, More Natural Cures Revealed: Previously Censored Brand Name Products That Cure Disease, was self-published as well.[23]
The book is a similar publication to his first, where he purports to explain why drug and food companies hide the truth about how their products can cause disease.[33] In More Natural Cures Revealed, Trudeau writes that workers at the FDA and FTC want to censor him and, figuratively, burn his books. Though the book received negative comments from some reviewers, it received average ratings on both Amazon and GoodReads.com.[33][34]
In April 2007, Trudeau released The Weight Loss Cure "They" Don't Want You to Know About. The book describes a weight loss plan originally proposed by British endocrinologist ATW Simeons in the 1950s involving injections of human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG). The diet was criticized in 1962 by the Journal of the American Medical Association as hazardous to human health and a waste of money.[35]
In 1976, the FTC ordered clinics and promoters of the Simeons Diet and hCG to inform prospective patients that there had been no "substantial evidence" to conclude hCG offered any benefit above that achieved on a restricted calorie diet. Clinical research trials published by the Journal of the American Medical Association and the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition[36] have shown that hCG is ineffective as a weight-loss aid, citing "no statistically significant difference in the means of the two groups" and that hCG "does not appear to enhance the effectiveness of a rigidly imposed regimen for weight reduction."[citation needed]
Debt Cures was published in 2007 and has been marketed on television. Chuck Jaffee, a columnist at CBS MarketWatch, stated: "Truth be told, most of the information (in the book) is readily available in personal finance columns you can find online or in books that are readily available in your local library." Trudeau says that if readers disagree with items on their credit reports, they can dispute them as identity theft; this was the "magic cure" of the book's title.[39]
Published in 2009, the product says it gives tools on how to use the Law of Attraction to manifest readers' desires. The packaging also says it contains key links to using the Law of Attraction that are missing in other publications. Among the claims made in the related infomercial is Trudeau's assertion to have virtually flunked out of high school.[40] He also says he was "taken in" by a mysterious group called "The Brotherhood" that taught him the secrets that he is now widely announcing in his book. There is also an invitation to join the now-defunct "Global Information Network," an "exclusive group of highly influential, affluent, and freedom-orientated [sic] people" (see below).[41] The network operated out of the Caribbean island Nevis and employed the Law of Attraction as its principal wealth generator, a concept generally regarded by much of the scientific community as placebo or pseudoscience.[42][43]
Trudeau has been interviewed by CNN's Paula Zahn,[44] Matt Lauer of NBC's Today Show, and Harry Smith of CBS's The Early Show.[45] Trudeau was also the subject of investigative reports done by Inside Edition,[46] ABC's 20/20[47] and Dateline NBC.[48] The 20/20 segment highlighted a Nightline interview with Jake Tapper in which Trudeau misrepresented the money he was forced to pay to the government, the charges filed against him and the reason the government did not follow through with charges, and claiming ignorance when the claims made in his book were called false by Tapper.[47]
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