Kevin Mark Trudeau (born February 6, 1963) is an American author, pocket billiards promoter (founder of the International Pool Tour), salesman, and self-proclaimed alternative medicine advocate. He is known for a number of television infomercials promoting his products, and for several books, including Natural Cures "They" Don't Want You to Know About.
Trudeau was convicted of fraud and larceny in the early 1990s. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has sued him repeatedly. A court order currently restricts his ability to promote and sell any product or service; however, he is permitted to promote books and other publications due to free-speech protection under the First Amendment as long as they are not used to promote or sell products or services and do not contain misrepresentations.[1][2] On November 19, 2007, a court found Trudeau in contempt of that court order for making deceptive claims about his book The Weight Loss Cure "They" Don't Want You to Know About.[3][4] In October 2008, he was fined more than $5 million and banned from infomercials for three years for continuing to make fraudulent claims pertaining to the book.[5]
In 1990, Trudeau posed as a doctor in order to deposit $80,000 in false checks, and in 1991 he pleaded guilty to larceny. Trudeau had used the credit cards of eleven customers of a mega memory product to fraudulently charge approximately $122,735.68.[12] He spent two years in federal prison because of this conviction (Choi, 2005).
Trudeau began working for Nutrition For Life, a multi-level marketing program, in the mid-1990s. In 1996, his recruitment practices were cited by the states of Illinois and Michigan, as well as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Illinois sued Trudeau and Jules Leib, his partner, accusing them of operating an illegal pyramid scheme. They settled with Illinois and seven other states for $185,000 after agreeing to change their tactics. Michigan forbade him from operating in the state.
In June 2003, the FTC filed a complaint in the Northern District of Illinois against Trudeau and some of his companies , alleging that disease-related claims for Coral Calcium Supreme were false and unsubstantiated.
On November 19, 2007, Trudeau was found in contempt of the 2004 court order for "patently false" claims in his weight loss book. On August 7, 2008, Judge Gettleman issued an order that Trudeau was not to appear in infomercials for three years from the date of the order, and was to pay a penalty of $5,173,000, an estimate of the royalties received from the weight loss book.
As of 2008, Trudeau is airing another infomercial with Leigh Valentine called Firmalift. Leigh Valentine is the former wife of fraudulent televangelist Robert Tilton.
His latest book is called, "Debt Cures They Don't Want You To Know About"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Trudeau
