Guess Which Judge Is Making Con-Artist Kevin Trudeau Pay a $37,000,000 Fine?

Kevin Trudeau, author of the full-of-bullshit book Natural Cures “They” Don’t Want You To Know About, has been ordered to pay a $37,000,000+ fine for writing lies.

Urged by both the FTC and Trudeau to reconsider aspects of its August order, on November 4 Judge Gettleman amended the judgment to $37,616,161, the amount consumers paid in response to the deceptive infomercials. The judge also revised the three-year ban to prohibit Trudeau from “disseminating or assisting others in disseminating” any infomercial for any informational publication in which he has an interest. On December 11, the court denied Trudeau’s request to reconsider or stay this ruling.

Well, that’s good to kn— wait. Who was that judge again…?

“Judge Robert W. Gettleman of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.”

He’s the same guy who wrote the following in his wonderful decision to ban Illinois’ mandatory moment of silence:

For all of these reasons the court concludes that the amendment has no clear secular purpose, and that the stated purpose is a sham.

I have a new mancrush.

(via Bad Astronomy)

Transplanted Lawyer

You know what’s really cool about this? It was a violation of the FTC act, which gives the judge the power to prevent Trudeau from filing bankruptcy to avoid paying the fine.
PrimeNumbers

That’s cool indeed. The less scamsters like this, the better.
William Brinkman

You mean, he’ll actually lose money for peddling nonsense? That’s a change I can believe in!
SarahH

Brilliant! Score one for the truth!
Quentin

Trudeau’s lies seem almost benign compared to the mind-boggling bullshit of religion.
globalizati

Fools! Our totalitarian government is moving one step closer to cutting off all the information that They don’t want us to hear about!
Doug Stewart

I love him and I want to have his baby. I mean bear his baby (forget about the I’m a male thing).
Sonny

Is it wrong to love someone you’ve never met? 🙂
Now if we can just get him in line to take the next opening in the Supreme Court……
Gabriel

It is widely assumed that Obama will have the oportunity to name 2 justices to the supreme court. I think Judge Gettleman would make a good candidate. It would be difficult for the Republics in congress to oppose him since he is a registered Republican and a christian to boot. He just happens to take his job seriously. Hard to ask for more than that.
geru

Absolutely great.

Though I’m sure this guy will instantly become a martyr for the whole alternative medicine community.

Speaking of lying, has anyone heard anything about the documentary The Beautiful Truth? I guess it went extinct as fast as Expelled did a while ago.
tom

Personally I could start telling everyone off in this blog but it makes no sense.
It makes no sense because I have not tried everything that Kevin Trudeau recommended in his books.

The information i read was quite accurate actually.

But it all goes back to common sense. If someone wanted to really get the truth out, and still go through all these obstacles, it goes to tell you something.

Maybe not everything he says is true, but take what you want from it and make your decisions.

See at least he had to courage to stand up to the government, corporations and tell it like it is.
What have you done? Come on here and say he’s a con artist?
The Unbrainwashed

Am I the only person who actually admires Trudeau? He knows all his crap is complete bull, yet he’s become a multi-millionaire taking gullible peoples’ money. It’s not like he’s doing them much harm, simply advocating for natural cures. Yes they’re garbage, but in the long run, most of these people will seek these cures only commensurate with Western medicine. And if they don’t, it’s not his fault, personal responsibility is an important virtue.

I feel the same way about con artists like Sylvia Browne as well.
Tim D.

Personally I could start telling everyone off in this blog but it makes no sense.
It makes no sense because I have not tried everything that Kevin Trudeau recommended in his books.

The information i read was quite accurate actually.

Well, for one, he said that taking vinegar will cure acid indigestion. Just so happens that my mother is a nurse, and so after about 5 minutes of study I realized that this was completely false, and on top of that, basically biologically impossible. Vinegar upsets acid indigestion, not cures it! It’s acid!

There’s no way he could have “accidentally” gotten such a fundamental snippet wrong. I refuse to believe that someone who has gone to the extent of publishing a book about the subject simply “didn’t know” to do the research.
postsimian

Yay, another quack gets his due.
Polly

My mother has that book! Every damn thing that comes down the garbage chute, she buys: including a virtually non-stop stream of religious programming on TV.
I see these things as closely related.
j davis

Hey-for you Trudeau supporters I hear he is writing a new book–Tin Foil Hat Styles ‘They’ Don’t Want You to Know About. I wish the FTC would just get it over with and send Trudeau to jail and seize his assets. He could write a new book in jail–Do it yourself proctology techniques ‘they’ don’t want you to know about!