Kevin Trudeau: As Schemed on TV | 234

Before he was a bestselling author and late-night TV fixture, Kevin Trudeau was hustling his way through multilevel marketing schemes. He worked his way onto infomercials, then into bookstores, building a fortune by peddling easy, feel-good answers to some of life’s hardest problems – your health, your weight, your money. He cast himself as a fearless whistleblower, the one guy brave enough to expose what doctors, banks, and the government didn’t want you to know. But the bigger his claims got and the fatter his bank account grew, the more the law came knocking – fines, lawsuits, indictments, even prison. And every single time, like a weed, Kevin Trudeau kept coming back for more. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Sarah Hagi?

  Audible subscribers can listen to all our episodes of Scamfluencers ad-free right now. Join Audible today by downloading the Audible app.

• 0:15Sarah Hagi?

  Sachi, do you remember watching late-night infomercials as a kid and being like, oh, my God, I wish I can make four easy payments using my credit card?

• 0:23Scaachi Koul?

  Yeah, it was one of the things I loved most about when my parents had dinner parties is that they would leave me alone and I would watch TV and I'd get to see

• 0:30Sarah Hagi?

  all the weird commercials that were aired after 11:30 at night. Do you remember what you wanted to buy the most?

• 0:36Scaachi Koul?

  Yeah, I wanted this cake thing that would let you put ice cream inside of a cake. And I also wanted any and all contraptions having to do with hair. I really thought that if I bought the right, like, French pin twist, that I would be a new person.

• 0:51Sarah Hagi?

  I wanted phloem so badly. Do you remember that? It was like these little beads that were like tactile and you can like decorate things and build things. It definitely looks like something that would kill you if you ate it.

• 1:05Scaachi Koul?

  And I did want to eat it. It was like a precursor to slime and kinetic sand. Yeah. And I wanted it. And you could only buy it on one of these ads.

• 1:14Sarah Hagi?

  Well, today, I'm going to tell you about a guy you may have seen on TV hawking everything from better memory to diet advice. Unfortunately, he dabbled in far more nefarious claims than salsa in three seconds. And your satisfaction was not guaranteed.

• 1:37Sarah Hagi?

  It's the early 2010s and Abe Hussain is standing in a conference room in a super-secret location somewhere in the US. Abe is in his late 20s with close-cropped brown hair and prominent ears. He's excited and maybe even a little nervous because today, he's hoping his life is about to change. At the podium, a tall man with square shoulders and an expensive tailored suit is giving a speech. The speaker's name is Kevin Trudeau, and this is a meeting of an organization he founded called the Global Information Network, or GIN. Kevin tells the crowd that the world is controlled by a shadowy cabal of elites who hoard wealth and power.

• 2:19Sarah Hagi?

  That might sound sinister, but Abe finds it inspiring. After all, he came here to join that group of elites or at least learn their secrets. As the head of GIN, Kevin has promised his followers that he can teach them how the world really works and hand them the key to being rich and powerful. Now, he explains that he's assembled another organization of powerful elites that he calls the Council. He can't say exactly who's on it, just that it's 29 of the most powerful people in the world. Abe and his fellow audience members have been trading theories about who these figures might actually be. Here he is talking to CNBC's American Greed about GIN's appeal.

• 3:03Speaker 06

  They may seem like they're exposing the secrets of the world to the masses, so I thought I was going to learn the secrets of how the world works.

• 3:10Scaachi Koul?

  I mean, OK, here's the thing. I don't think it's wrong to say that the world is mostly controlled by very rich people with sometimes nefarious intent, but it's never the people who loudly talk about it. Like, it's going to be someone that we would never conceive of. I don't think it's our friend Abe here.

• 3:31Sarah Hagi?

  Yeah, it's a fundamental misunderstanding of what secrets are. Yeah. Which is that you can't know them.

• 3:40Sarah Hagi?

  Well, Kevin has made over $100 million off GIN in just four years. His pitch is simple. Work your way up to the program's 12 levels and you'll be connected with the Council's wisdom. To get started, you pay an initial membership fee of around $1,000, plus a monthly fee of $150, and begin working your way up the ladder. To the outside observer, GIN looks and feels a lot like a pyramid scheme with enormous pressure to recruit new members and level up. After the signup fee and a lot of recruiting, you have to pay another $75,000 to access the Inner Circle, which features premium insights only VIP members can receive.

• 4:23Sarah Hagi?

  But Abe's heard that if you have the honor of getting all the way to level 12, you'll become an instant millionaire and be gifted a Ferrari.

• 4:34Sarah Hagi?

  Over his time in GIN, Abe will end up spending $30,000 on seminars, products, and travel. He'll recruit 20 people below him, and while he never gets that Ferrari, he is eventually given a check for roughly $200.

• 4:52Sarah Hagi?

  Kevin claims to hold the keys to the secrets of the rich and famous, but there's one secret he's not sharing that he's currently under investigation by the FTC. He's already been in jail for fraud, and he's in the middle of a huge, drawn-out battle with the federal government over accusations that he's a scam artist. But Kevin doesn't seem worried. In fact, he's about to get bolder, louder, and more reckless than ever, even as the government closes in.

• 5:26Speaker 10

  Confidence. It's listening to your gut. It's moving forward even when the path ahead is unclear. For nearly 160 years, Pacific Life has helped people keep their promises, building confidence for generations. Whether you're confident in your financial future or just beginning to envision it, we're here to help. Ask a financial professional how. Pacific Life, the power of a promise. Pacific Life Insurance Company, Omaha, Nebraska. And in New York, Pacific Life and Annuity, Phoenix, Arizona.

• 5:56Speaker 11

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• 6:45Sarah Hagi?

  From Audible Originals, I'm Sarah Haggie. And I'm Sachi Cole. And this is Scamfluencers.

• 6:59Sarah Hagi?

  Kevin Trudeau is a distinctly American species of scammer, a weed that grew out of the crack in her culture's Get Rich Quick Foundation. He started out in multi-level marketing, worked his way into late-night infomercials, and then, through TV ads and self-help books, made a career and a fortune by offering easy, optimistic solutions to complex and crushing problems. And he did it all with a fast-talking charm that made him a celebrity among late-night channel surfers. Kevin positioned himself as a whistleblower, someone willing to tell truths that authority figures want to suppress. But as his claims got bigger and his pockets filled up with cash, he was fined, sued, indicted, and even thrown in jail.

• 7:44Sarah Hagi?

  But like a weed, he kept coming back for more. This is Kevin Trudeau as schemed on TV.

• 7:58Sarah Hagi?

  It's 1974, and 12-year-old Kevin Trudeau is hanging out with a cousin. Up until this moment, Kevin's childhood has been pretty average. He grew up in the small town of Lynn, Massachusetts. Kevin's always been bright and energetic. An honor student voted "most likely to succeed," an athlete, a boy scout, and an altar boy at his church where he learned to play the organ.

• 8:26Sarah Hagi?

  As a kid, he taught himself close-up magic, which he performs at parties and old folks' homes. Beyond the surface, though, he's always had a feeling that he's different from other kids. And then today, he learns why. His cousin lets it slip that Kevin was actually adopted. Kevin's mom was always planning to tell him about the adoption, but not until he was 21. Even though he's totally caught off guard, there's another part of Kevin that's almost vindicated. The revelation makes him feel even more like an outsider, and that chip on his shoulder is only going to grow bigger for the rest of his life.

• 9:07Sarah Hagi?

  Soon after this discovery, Kevin starts acting out. He's smart, but as he gets into his teens, he shaves against teachers who tell him what to do. One day in high school, he's asked to take an aptitude test. He scores super high on one section but is so annoyed by the next one that he bubbles in D for every single answer. According to Kevin, when he gets his less-than-stellar results, a guidance counselor tells him in front of his fellow

• 9:35Scaachi Koul?

  students, quote, "You're a loser, and you're always going to be a loser."

• 9:41Sarah Hagi?

  Sachi, can you read how Kevin describes his reaction to this in one of his books?

• 9:46Scaachi Koul?

  Yeah, he wrote, quote, "I tried to put on a cocky, I could care less, smile. I don't think I fooled anyone. I turned around and walked out of the room. I distinctly remember mumbling to myself, 'You're going to eat those words, baby. You're going to eat those words.'" I'm sure there was a teacher who was rude to him, but it sounds like this is the story that he tells himself about why he is the way that he is. It's a justification for everything that comes after.

• 10:14Sarah Hagi?

  Well, you know, a wise woman once said, "We tell ourselves stories in order to live." That woman, I don't remember who she is. But if Kevin has a villain origin story, this is it. That feeling of being constantly underestimated, even persecuted, will drive him everywhere, from private jets to jail cells. But first, it's going to take him to a hotel conference room in suburban Massachusetts where he'll discover his true calling.

• 10:48Sarah Hagi?

  It's 1979 and a crowd is gathered in the conference room of a Sheraton Hotel in Newton, Massachusetts. Picture a lot of beige, patterned carpet, a heavy wooden podium, and an audience sitting in uncomfortable chairs. This is a meeting for members of AMWAY, America's most popular multi-level marketing scheme. On stage, a motivational speaker is hyping up the audience, but a man named Fred Van Lee isn't really paying attention. He's distracted by another audience member, a 15-year-old boy who looks like he's having a genuinely life-changing experience. Fred's curious, so after the speech, he introduces himself.

• 11:32Sarah Hagi?

  The kid's name is Kevin Trudeau, and he's here to learn. Fred immediately recognizes that this kid is not an average teen boy. For one thing, Kevin's already started his first successful business. He tells Fred that a while ago, he picked up a copy of The National Enquirer and flipped to the back pages, which were full of ads for fortune tellers. He wondered if these businesses actually made money, so he bought an ad of his own, telling people to send him money in exchange for advice. The letters and the money started coming in fast. Sachi, can you describe one of Kevin's many back-of-the-magazine ads from a few years later?

• 12:13Scaachi Koul?

  Yeah, so it's a photo of him. He looks like Brett Kavanaugh. I don't really know how else to describe him, but it's a black-in-my-photo of him. And he's written a little passage as an advertisement that says, "Your wish is my command. I will make all of your desires come true in one hour. I was taken by a UFO and taught how to make all of the cosmic forces of the universe channel together to make what I say happen instantly. I will bring you love, money, happiness. $10 per wish, Reverend Powers."

• 12:47Sarah Hagi?

  It's kind of a deal. It's genius to me. Also, if you're reading that and you are willing to send $10-- Just some guy $10? You're donating money to someone at that point, basically. It's a gift. Kevin tells Fred he's doing AMWAY to become, quote, "financially free." But Kevin later writes that he has a deeper, darker reason for wanting to make lots of money at such a young age. He says, quote, "The only way I imagined I could overcome my low self-esteem, self-doubts,

• 13:17Scaachi Koul?

  and feelings of unworthiness was to achieve huge financial success."

• 13:24Sarah Hagi?

  Fred and Kevin stay in touch after the conference and become friends. Fred watches as Kevin gets deeper into AMWAY and starts reading self-help books. He observes Kevin approaching these things almost anthropologically. He's trying to understand how the business works so he can build something similar for himself. And when Kevin graduates high school, he gets his first real-world job at a used car lot, selling customers sketching loans. It's like a practice stage, where he gets to put the skills he's been studying to the test. And it turns out, Kevin's really, really good at pushing loans. He's charming, expressive, energetic, and cheerful. He makes lots of eye contact and big hand gestures as he tells customers whatever he

• 14:09Sarah Hagi?

  thinks they want to hear. They feel like he's leveling with them and giving them the best deal possible, even when he's actually tricking them into predatory loans. Fred is impressed with his protege, but Kevin's about to cross the line of morality and the American legal system for the very first time. It's the mid-'80s, and Kevin is doing fine. He's in his early 20s, and he still works at the used car lot. But deep down, he knows he's meant to be doing something greater. He just needs to find his calling.

• 14:51Sarah Hagi?

  In 1986, he takes a course in Chicago with a group called Memory Masters Institute. He likes their system so much that he keeps going back, and eventually, they offer him a job selling their seminars. But not long after, he decides to go solo, using the techniques he's learned from Memory Masters. He calls himself Mr. Mega Memory and puts out a series of cassette tapes to help listeners train their brains. He promises that with his system, you can do everything from improving your grades, to making more money, to supercharging your self-esteem. He also starts putting out infomercials to promote his tapes. Sachi, take a look at this clip.

• 15:35Sarah Hagi?

  I feel like it shows off so much of what Kevin's been absorbing as a student of self-help, you need to see it.

• 15:41Speaker 09

  How many here have actually happened to at least one? You walk up to someone, you shake hands, that person gives you their name. And then as soon as that handshake breaks, the name just kind of drops right to the floor. Happened to anybody here? Sure, all of you. I always kid, if you didn't raise your hand to that one, maybe you didn't understand the question. It's happened to all of us at least once or twice. And it's embarrassing, isn't it? You know, you're at a cocktail party and you're chatting with someone, all of a sudden your spouse comes over and you can't even make a proper introduction. It's embarrassing. But in a business situation, not only is that embarrassing to you, maybe it's costing you some money.

• 16:15Scaachi Koul?

  Well, I like his silly little suit. I like his double-breasted suit. I like his pocket square that's matching his tie. This is a very, like, man in the '80s convincing me that I need something and he's going to solve it.

• 16:30Sarah Hagi?

  It also is amazing, like, the set is very talk show, and I love that there's three different places where it says "Mega Memory." Just in case you forgot. So now Kevin's on TV, he's got a thriving business, and his memory's never been sharper. On the surface, things seem like they're falling into place, but behind the scenes, Kevin's facing some serious trouble. We're missing some details about these next events, but here's what we know for sure. In 1988, around the same time the Mega Memory infomercial is airing on TV, Kevin opens a bank account using a fake identity and social security number and deposits $80,000 in bad checks.

• 17:15Sarah Hagi?

  He's caught by the feds pretty quickly and pleads guilty in 1990. Soon after, he's also accused of stealing his customers' credit card information. Later, when a reporter asks about it, Kevin says it's, quote, "blurry in his mind," which is interesting for a guy who's literally Mr. Mega Memory. He does say that he was, quote, "motivated by money and dealing with an emotional challenge due to a breakup with a girlfriend." Whatever's actually going on, Kevin refuses to take any responsibility for his actions. In court, he blames a late credit card bill and an American Express error for this misunderstanding. But the government isn't buying it.

• 18:00Sarah Hagi?

  In 1991, at the age of 29, Kevin's indicted by a grand jury. They charge him with banking fraud and sentence him to two years in prison. A lot of people would take a two-year jail sentence as an opportunity to reflect and maybe even change their lives. But Kevin's not a lot of people. Instead, this incident is about to supercharge his career. It's 1995, and David Bertrand is excited about a new recruit. David's a Texas businessman with a receding hairline and a tight smile. He's the president of a multi-level marketing company called Nutrition for Life that sells

• 18:43Sarah Hagi?

  vitamins and supplements with names like Nutique, Oriflame Plus, BioWater, and E-Lemonator. David's been building this company since the mid-'80s, and he wants to keep growing. So when a charismatic new guy named Kevin Trudeau joins the operation, David pays attention. At this point, Kevin is in his early 30s with a boyish Midwestern face and a likable, if slightly manic, energy. He's the perfect salesperson, except, of course, for all the recent jail time. For many people, Kevin's fraud conviction might be a deal-breaker, but David can see that Kevin has something special, and he knows Kevin had a lot of success as Mr. Mega

• 19:28Sarah Hagi?

  Memory before he went to jail. This guy could definitely move a lot of BioWater. Kevin, using his own company called Trudeau Marketing, sells David's products and recruits new distributors to the Nutrition for Life pyramid. In exchange, some of Kevin's own products, including his memory course, are distributed by Nutrition for Life. David gets Kevin's charm and salesmanship, and Kevin gets David's network. Everybody wins.

• 20:00Sarah Hagi?

  Okay, so just to be clear, this is a pyramid scheme, right? Yes, it is a scheme shaped like a pyramid. You are correct. And almost immediately, Kevin becomes the most successful recruiter Nutrition for Life has ever had. The year before Kevin joined, the company made less than $300,000 in profit. The year after, that number jumps to more than $2 million. By 1996, just two years into Kevin's tenure, Nutrition for Life has basically tripled its sales. David's proud of the company's new hire. Sure, Kevin's not totally perfect. He has a habit of overpromising to recruits, guaranteeing them impossible rewards for

• 20:45Sarah Hagi?

  signing up. Like when Kevin promises a group of potential recruits that if they sign up, Nutrition for Life will send them on a free cruise. The company doesn't have anything like this planned, but lots of people join because of it. In the end, David gets so many complaints that he has to put together a cruise for thousands of people, all because of Kevin's random lie.

• 21:08Scaachi Koul?

  It's kind of amazing that Kevin feels so comfortable already to tell a lie that is so bonkers. He's not worried about losing his job. He kind of knows that they're going to figure it out no matter what he says. Like, he's operating with maximum confidence, in fact.

• 21:22Sarah Hagi?

  Yeah, and David doesn't seem to think Kevin is doing this stuff maliciously. He just gets caught up in the moment. Plus, Kevin's numbers are so good that David has no problem standing by his man. Even in 1996, when The Wall Street Journal publishes an expose on Kevin's criminal past, Nutrition for Life's stock takes a huge nosedive, but the company refuses to fire its number one salesman. But soon after the article, the Illinois Attorney General's office files suit against Kevin. He's charged under a new law that requires business owners with criminal backgrounds to disclose their past convictions to investors. They also just straight up accuse him of running a pyramid scheme.

• 22:07Sarah Hagi?

  Kevin's forced to pay nearly $200,000 to seven different states and promises that he'll change his tactics. But with the money he's bringing in, he can afford to pay any fine the government throws at him. And he's about to find a bigger audience than David could ever provide using one of the great tools of the 90s: the late-night infomercial.

• 22:32Speaker 12

  On January 24th, 2023, in Duxbury, Massachusetts, Patrick Clancy called 911. He had found his wife Lindsay badly injured and his three children dead and dying. What followed would become one of the most searing and complicated cases in recent memory, raising hard questions about motherhood, mental illness, and how far our justice system will go to understand what really happened. I'm Candace DeLong, host of the podcast Killer Psyche. In our latest episode, we take you inside the case of Lindsay Clancy, the postpartum psychosis defense, the courtroom battle, and the trial that just ended in a stunning mistrial.

• 23:16Speaker 12

  Follow Killer Psyche wherever you get your podcasts. Audible subscribers can listen to all episodes of Killer Psyche one week early and ad-free right now. Join Audible in the Audible app or by subscribing on Apple Podcasts.

• 23:33Speaker 01

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• 24:35Speaker 05

  It's 1997.

• 24:42Sarah Hagi?

  Kevin's in his mid-30s, and at this point, he's racked up more experience than many people manage in a whole lifetime. By now, he claims to have a net worth of $200 million. But Kevin's just getting started. A year after the state of Illinois filed charges against him, he published a book about his mega-memory system. He also started branching out into selling many, many different products. Sachi, can you read this quote from a Business Insider article about some of the things Kevin's shilling around this time?

• 25:17Scaachi Koul?

  Yeah, it says... There was the sable hair farming system, which he promised would end hair loss in the human race. Dr. Callahan's addiction-breaking system, which he said would break the user of any addiction in 60 seconds virtually 100% of the time. Howard Berg's mega-reading-speed reading program. The Perfect Lift Dawn Surgical Facelift. And Eden's Secret Nature's Purifying Product. There were magnetic toe rings and magnetic mattress pads and crocodile protein peptide. Mad Libs. Mad Libs for stuff that you want. And you know what? If someone was like, "Do you want crocodile protein peptide?", I would be open to hearing more.

• 25:58Sarah Hagi?

  I am personally very interested in Howard Berg's mega-reading-speed reading program, which I feel like Kevin was just like, "Hey, that's fun to say out loud." Yeah. And also, magnetic toe ring. Fascinated by that. Fascinated. That idea seems impractical. Seems like you don't want a magnet around your foot, but that's just me.

• 26:19Speaker 00

  No, no.

• 26:23Sarah Hagi?

  Well, Kevin is the infomercial king. And by 1998, he has so many ads on TV and so much money flowing his way that he draws the attention of the FTC, which files another suit against him for making false claims on TV. Kevin can't really argue with any of the FTC's accusations. The evidence is all on tape. He settles quickly and pays the FTC a $500,000 settlement. He also agrees to keep another $500,000 escrow account open to repay victims in case he does this again in the future.

• 27:01Scaachi Koul?

  I've never heard of the legal system demanding money from you in advance because they're so sure that you're going to do fraud.

• 27:08Sarah Hagi?

  Yeah, they pretty much created a pre-crime account, which doesn't seem like it would act as a deterrent. And last, but not least, Kevin agrees he'll only advertise products whose benefits he has, quote, "competent and reliable evidence for." But Kevin's always had a chip on his shoulder when it comes to authority. And even if the feds think this is going to stop him, they'd better think again. Kevin's next foray into advertising is going to bring him more money and notoriety than ever. It's the year 2000, and 20-year-old Christine Duro is waiting for a friend in the restaurant of the luxurious Sanderson Hotel in London.

• 27:50Sarah Hagi?

  Christine is a Norwegian college student who's studying at the University College of London, and she's got model-good looks: slim and blonde with a big, bright smile. While she sits there waiting, a man walks by and does a double take. When Christine doesn't react, he does it again, and then again. Eventually, he comes over and introduces himself. His name is Kevin Trudeau, and he's a 37-year-old American businessman visiting London. He's charming and sweet, with dark hair and a wide-open smile. Christine is immediately smitten, though Kevin neglects to mention that he's currently married to another woman.

• 28:33Sarah Hagi?

  Instead, he invites Christine to come visit him in America. She immediately buys a ticket to California and heads there without even telling her

• 28:41Scaachi Koul?

  parents. I'm begging women to not do anything with a man 17 years older than you that your parents don't know anything about. If you cannot tell your parents where you are going when you're 20, that suggests that perhaps you should not be going there.

• 29:05Sarah Hagi?

  Well, when Christine arrives at Kevin's house in Ojai, she can't believe her eyes. The house is enormous and the decor is incredibly over the top. There's red velvet and gold everywhere, huge crystal chandeliers, even a piano that plays itself. Things are so pristine and untouched that it feels unreal. Later, she describes it as, quote, "almost too good to be true." Still, she's impressed. Kevin has money and it seems like he enjoys spending it. Now, Sachi, you may be wondering, where's Kevin's wife while he's showing off his mega mansion to his new 20-year-old European girlfriend? The answer is, we don't actually know.

• 29:50Sarah Hagi?

  Around this time, Kevin's marriage is annulled. As far as we know, Kevin doesn't tell Christine anything about it. And as far as she knows, she's having a whirlwind romance with a prince charming who owns a lot of really intense chandeliers.

• 30:05Scaachi Koul?

  If I go to a man's house and he's 37, I'm leaving. If I go to a man's house and he's 37 and there's a piano playing itself, I'm sticking around.

• 30:13Sarah Hagi?

  That is a good rule. I mean, I would love to see a piano play itself. It sounds not tacky at all. Kevin's lifestyle is definitely alluring. He stays at high-end hotels, eats at fancy restaurants, and shops at luxury stores. He owns multiple homes and drives a Rolls Royce, a Mercedes, and a Bentley. After Christine visits Kevin, things between them get serious. Kevin starts talking about marriage, and before she knows it, less than a year after meeting him, she's quitting school and moving to California to be with him. It's a lot of big changes for a girl from Norway. But Kevin's got even more changes up his sleeves. And the bigger he gets,

• 30:58Sarah Hagi?

  the harder it's going to be for the feds to look the other way.

• 31:06Sarah Hagi?

  It's 2002, and Kevin's just put his latest infomercial on the American airwaves. And he's bulldozing through all the regulations the FTC set out for him in their last judgment. The infomercial is for a supplement called Coral Calcium, which is just calcium made of coral. The ad is a half an hour long and formatted like a news program. Kevin sits at a desk against a black background that's giving Charlie Rose. There's a guy named Bob barefoot sitting across from him. Kevin appears to be interviewing Bob, and Bob claims that the supplement can cure high blood pressure, heart disease, lupus, MS, cancer, and basically every other illness on the planet.

• 31:52Scaachi Koul?

  Okay, we've been having a silly goofy time together about all of this. As ever, this is where a scam becomes deeply and demonstrably evil to me. When you tell people that they can get better from illnesses that have fully changed their lives, have taken away their autonomy, and you tell them, "I can make you better. You just have to give me all of your money." I mean, it's so cruel, and it's bullshit. It's bullshit. If this was true, this would already be sold to you through Big Pharma. Don't worry, they want to sell you stuff. No, it's so evil. I also think it's interesting that the format that he's chosen is something that looks very specifically like Charlie Rose.

• 32:35Scaachi Koul?

  It's really suggesting that what they're saying is super, super important, and it's making you listen to him. It's really about, this is an authority figure.

• 32:44Sarah Hagi?

  Yeah, it's using a very familiar look to assert authority that doesn't exist. They know what they're doing, of course. Kevin's openly flouting the rules the FTC laid out in their last lawsuit, the ones that banned him from making false claims he had no evidence for. And it's not just Coral Calcium. Kevin's also shilling something called Biotape, an adhesive tape that supposedly relieves pain by re-establishing broken electrical connections in the body. In his infomercials, Kevin claims Biotape can cure injuries permanently. So, in June of 2003, the FTC files their next lawsuit against him.

• 33:28Sarah Hagi?

  And this time, they're not messing around. He ends up owing them $2 million. But most importantly, they ban Kevin from making health benefit claims for any product in any form of advertising ever again, including infomercials. An FTC official says the ban is, quote, "meant to shut down an infomercial empire that has misled American consumers for years." As part of a settlement, Kevin gives up $500,000 in cash and turns over his house in Ojai and a luxury car to the US government. You'd think this would be a major setback for our infomercial king,

• 34:12Sarah Hagi?

  but if there's a loophole, Kevin's gonna find it. He's about to turn this punishment into his biggest payday yet, and it'll make him more famous than ever.

• 34:25Sarah Hagi?

  We don't know exactly where Kevin is when he first hears about the FTC's judgment, but he's probably in his over-the-top mansion in Ojai. Maybe the velvet curtains are blocking out the California sun while that creepy piano plays itself in the background. As Kevin reads it, he realizes he may have to give up this house. But whatever frustration he feels disappears as he comes across one very important clause in the document. Sachi, can you read it?

• 34:54Scaachi Koul?

  It says, quote, "The orders banned on future infomercials exempts infomercials for books, newsletters, and other informational publications."

• 35:03Sarah Hagi?

  This is crazy. Like, this is not a ban.

• 35:05Scaachi Koul?

  He can find any way to get around this.

• 35:08Sarah Hagi?

  Yes, that's exactly it. Kevin's not legally allowed to film infomercials anymore, unless he's promoting a book. Books are protected by the First Amendment, which means the government can't restrict his right to sell them as long as he doesn't misrepresent their contents. So Kevin does what anyone else would do in his position. He quickly writes and self-p publishes a 570-page book about natural medicine. It's called "The Natural Cures They Don't Want You to Know About", and it comes out in 2004, just a year after his settlement with the FTC. The book costs $30

• 35:51Sarah Hagi?

  and is full of simple, common sense wellness tips that Kevin's picked up over the course of his career. Sachi, can you please read this synopsis from a Washington Post article? You bet I can.

• 36:03Scaachi Koul?

  It says, "Get an electromagnetic chaos eliminator. Do some bioenergetic synchronization. Give yourself some enemas, and then give yourself some more enemas. Wear white for positive energy. Don't dry-clean your clothes, or use swimming pools, or eat pork. Don't use deodorant, causes cancer, or nonstick cookware, causes cancer, or watch the news. Stress alters your body's pH, which can make you get cancer. Remove the metal fillings from your mouth, and you're all set." This is a cornucopia of really established conspiracy theories about health, that an enema will make you feel better, that you need an electromagnetic whatever to, like, help you get more settled, that pools are bad for you, that dry cleaning is bad for you,

• 36:48Scaachi Koul?

  everything gives you cancer. And of course, the classic, that metal fillings are going to do something to your body if you leave them in your mouth. None of this is new. It's not even inventive.

• 36:58Sarah Hagi?

  Mm-hmm. And with this, Kevin starts taping infomercials. In all of them, he goes hard on the idea that he's giving away secrets the government and other powerful elites are trying to suppress. It's a brilliant way to turn his fraud into a story where he's the hero. Here's Kevin summing up his perspective on his YouTube channel 20 years later.

• 37:21Speaker 08

  It was the first book, and I was the first person to not expose that there are natural ways to be healthy. But I exposed why the drug companies and the US government, the FDA, and the media all worked together as a, you know, kind of an collusion to hide the non-drug and non-surgical ways to cure and prevent disease so that the drug companies continue to make huge profits. That's what I exposed. And that's when the crap hit the fan.

• 37:51Scaachi Koul?

  You know, Sarah, maybe this will make me sound like a conspiracy theorist. I do believe there are some people that drug companies and the government don't particularly care about if they are healthy and are not necessarily committed to making sure that they have access to what they need in order to be well. We have lots of examples of this. There's lots of governments that, for example, do not give their citizens clean water, right? And then they get sick. I guess I don't understand why he thinks he would be a part of the people who are being defrauded by Big Pharma and big government and the media. But like, What is the motivation for them to keep a white guy named Kevin

• 38:33Sarah Hagi?

  out of getting all this stuff? Yeah, he's convincing people he's a victim like them, but also that he's some kind of rebel leader exposing the lies for the people. And perversely, this is only helped by the FTC banning him from advertising other people's products. Now Kevin is the product, the pitchman, and the advertisement all at once. It's like he's evolved into his most powerful form. Plenty of people are skeptical about Kevin. Salon writes an expose about his battles with the FTC. The Washington Post publishes an article outlining his criminal past. The New York Times runs a whole piece about all the crazy unsupported claims in Kevin's book.

• 39:17Sarah Hagi?

  The New York State Consumer Protection Board even issues a statement saying the book is full of empty promises and that it's designed to mislead and exploit vulnerable readers. But none of that slows down the book's runaway success. By the summer of 2005, it hits number one on the New York Times Self-Help Bestseller List and is number two on the overall list, right behind Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Its huge success can be chalked up to two things. Kevin's an established brand. A lot of people already trust him. And maybe, more importantly, America's early 2000s diet craze is really hitting its stride. The Atkins Diet is everywhere.

• 40:02Sarah Hagi?

  And pretty soon Beyonce is going to tell the country about the Master Cleanse on Oprah.

• 40:09Scaachi Koul?

  Sarah, unfortunately, I did both of those diets, and I did them in real time, as we're talking about. This is sort of the beginning of wellness culture as we know it, and also influencer wellness culture. This is the beginning of it.

• 40:23Sarah Hagi?

  I remember these moments so well with it's like some lemon water and cayenne pepper and a bit of this. And I drank that all day, and that's what made me Beyonce. And it's just like, it's so crazy. All of this, plus the fact that the book is self-published, means that Kevin's pocketing tons of cash. And of course, the last page of the book directs you to Kevin's website, where you can buy a monthly subscription for $9.95 to get even more of his health-related insights, or just pay $499 upfront for a lifetime subscription. Kevin is riding high, and he's not humble about it either. In an interview with Brand Week about his book's success,

• 41:05Sarah Hagi?

  he tells the reporter that his inspirations are Rosa Parks, Cesar Chavez, Gandhi, and Martin Luther King Jr.

• 41:14Scaachi Koul?

  Sarah, you do know that very famous Martin Luther King speech, "I have a dream that you will buy my Master Cleanse book."

• 41:21Sarah Hagi?

  Yeah, this is what Martin Luther King marched for.

• 41:28Sarah Hagi?

  In 2007, he finally marries Christine and publishes a second, super-long book called "Weight Loss Cures They Don't Want You to Know About." This book is a huge hit, too. And of course, he puts out even more infomercials to sell it. Between December 2006 and August 2007, these spots run over 32,000 times on TVs across the country. In later court proceedings, prosecutors will say he makes over $39 million in profits from this book. But the FTC is still keeping a close eye on him, and they're noticing Kevin's claims aren't just outlandish. They don't even properly represent the book's contents.

• 42:13Sarah Hagi?

  In the book, Kevin lays out an extremely complicated weight loss program that involves going to a doctor for special injections and getting regular colonics. That seems at odds with his infomercials, which claim the book's cures can all be done simply and at home.

• 42:32Sarah Hagi?

  In October 2008, four years after the last time they tried to shut him down, the FTC bans Kevin from appearing in infomercials for products in which he has an interest, including books. They also fine him another $5 million, hoping this will finally stop him. The government has Kevin cornered. There are no more ways for him to weasel his way onto national television. So if he wants to keep the money coming in, he's going to have to find another way to sell his so-called secrets and bring back some of the lessons he learned from Amway all those years ago.

• 43:13Speaker 07

  You stepped out for your morning jog. Except it's not your usual morning jog. You started listening to an epic sci-fi book on Audible. 30 chapters later, you've accidentally run a half marathon. You've lost track of how far you've run, somewhere just past the city limits. You can't stop. You have to find out what happens next. Then it's over. The universe seems bigger. You feel different. You feel like you have no idea where you are. Audible. Stories that speak to you.

• 43:44Speaker 03

  Journalist Tristan Redman goes where no son-in-law should ever go. Deep into his wife's family history, digging up the cold case of who murdered her great-grandmother. Because, I should mention, he thinks the murderer might actually be the beloved family patriarch. For the best spindle series, like Ghost Story, listen to the Audible True Crime Podcast wherever you get your podcasts.

• 44:16Sarah Hagi?

  It's around 2010, three years after Kevin published his Weight Loss Cures book. Natalia Babenco, a young woman in her mid-20s with straight blond hair and a wide smile, is going through security at O'Hare Airport in Chicago. She's with her new husband, a man named Kevin Trudeau. As they're going through customs, they're stopped by TSA agents who ask Kevin to empty his carry-on. This part is pretty normal, but what happens next is anything but. Natalia watches as Kevin calmly takes out a bunch of gold bars and places them on the table. Natalia's never seen a gold bar before, but Kevin acts like it's no big deal.

• 45:00Sarah Hagi?

  Eventually, the agents let them through, but the whole thing stays with her. It's definitely weird. Now, Sachi, you may be wondering, what happened to Kevin's last wife, Christine? I have done nothing but wonder about her. Well, Natalia doesn't ask any of those questions because she doesn't know that Christine even exists. She believes she's Kevin's first wife. Natalia's from Ukraine, and she met Kevin a few years ago at a party in LA. She was 20, just like Christine, when she met Kevin. Natalia and Kevin stayed in touch, and two years later, he flew to Ukraine and proposed in front of all her friends and family.

• 45:44Sarah Hagi?

  Kevin didn't mention that he'd married Christine in 2007 or that their marriage was annulled pretty soon after that. When Natalia accepted, Kevin brought her back to the States, and she immediately got swept up in his whirlwind lifestyle. He's still in the self-help business, but he's moved on from infomercials. Now, he's focused on a brand-new MLM he just started called Global Information Network, or GIN. That's the organization we saw at the beginning of this episode. Kevin is making millions of dollars a month off of GIN, but he's also millions in debt to the US government.

• 46:25Sarah Hagi?

  In 2009, after both Kevin and the FTC pushed for an amended judgment, the judge increased his fines from $5 to $37 million. Ever since then, Kevin's been trying to hide as many of his assets as possible, though Natalia doesn't know that yet. In 2012, at the age of 27, Natalia gets accepted to NYU for grad school and moves to New York while Kevin stays in Zurich. But about halfway through the year, he comes back to the States for some kind of emergency. When Natalia flies to see him, he's cold and cruel, the opposite of the charming, smooth-talking man she married. Instead of telling her what's going on,

• 47:09Sarah Hagi?

  Kevin gives her a one-way ticket back to Kiev. He tells her she's in danger and needs to take a leave of absence from school. Natalia's scared and confused, but she doesn't know what else to do. So she takes the ticket and flies back to Ukraine. But what Natalia is about to learn is that Kevin is the danger in her life and that while he's fighting off the federal government, he's going to try to take her down with him.

• 47:39Sarah Hagi?

  It's November of 2013, and in an Illinois courtroom, Judge Ronald Guzman is watching Kevin take the stand. Ronald has kind eyes hidden behind wire-rimmed glasses, a stern expression, and a very thick mustache. He's also a US federal judge, and he's had enough of Kevin's bullshit. For years, Kevin's battles with the FTC were handled by a different judge, a guy who gave Kevin a lot of stern lectures, but kept the case limited to a bench trial, which meant the maximum jail time Kevin faced was just six months. Kevin wasn't scared of him, not even after he ordered court-appointed receivers to take charge of Kevin's assets and businesses.

• 48:23Sarah Hagi?

  The receivers were supposed to sell off Kevin's stuff so he could start paying back his massive fine. But Kevin stalled and refused to send the receivers key pieces of information they needed. The judge got so frustrated that he threw Kevin in jail for a day. Even that didn't change Kevin's attitude. In fact, his lawyers actually lodged a complaint against the judge. But it backfired on them. That judge, who was probably sick and tired of dealing with Kevin, handed off the case to Ronald. And Ronald is considerably less willing to entertain Kevin's bullshit. One of the first things he did was rule that Kevin's case would be a jury trial. Now he's watching as Kevin takes the stand

• 49:06Sarah Hagi?

  and government prosecutors ask him about his business and finances.

• 49:12Scaachi Koul?

  I guess I'm relieved to hear that there is finally someone taking any of this seriously because so far, it seems like everybody Kevin has encountered in the legal system has been like, "You're gonna be good, right? You promise? You promise you'll be good?" And now he has someone who's like, "I already know you're a liar."

• 49:29Sarah Hagi?

  Yeah, and the truth is that ever since he was ordered to pay that $37 million, Kevin's been frantically hiding his assets anywhere he can think of. According to Natalia, he forged her signature to make her the official owner of Gin and many of his other businesses. Finally, he filed for bankruptcy in the spring of 2013, claiming he had no money left.

• 49:56Sarah Hagi?

  But Ronald has seen the evidence, and Kevin's credit card bills tell a different story. Between 2010 and 2013, Kevin racked up $3 million in charges. He bought everything from groceries at Whole Foods to expensive haircuts, first-class flights, luxury hotel suites, and a brand-new Bentley. He's got a butler and two personal chefs. He spent $30,000 on a single rug. He also paid $5 million to the lawyer who helped him set up his new offshore accounts and shell companies. After a week-long trial, a federal jury convicts Kevin of defying the FTC's orders. The courtroom is filled with his followers,

• 50:40Sarah Hagi?

  some of whom leave with tears in their eyes. Kevin's sentencing hearing is four months later, in March of 2014. Without his expensive salon visits and fancy clothes, Kevin looks rumpled and sad, with thinning gray hair and an orange jumpsuit. He tells the judge he's finally seen the error of his ways and begs for mercy. He even says, quote, "If I ever do another infomercial again, I promise, no embellishments, no puffery, and absolutely no lies."

• 51:14Scaachi Koul?

  At some point, one of his supporters stands up

• 51:16Sarah Hagi?

  and starts yelling at the judge. When officers try to carry him out, he goes limp in a gesture of nonviolent protest.

• 51:25Scaachi Koul?

  Just like Martin Luther King.

• 51:27Sarah Hagi?

  And also, he's like, "If I ever do another infomercial, why do you still have to do them at this point?

• 51:36Sarah Hagi?

  Why is that the only option, Kevin? This is the only job he's ever had, so he'd really have to rethink his life." Well, unsurprisingly, none of this sways the judge. He calls him deceitful to the very core and sentences Kevin to 10 years in federal prison for criminal contempt. For most people, this would be the end of the line. But as they say in infomercials, but wait, there's more. In 2015, the receiver in charge of untangling Kevin's assets submits a forensic accounting of everything he's found. By their estimates, Kevin made more than a half a billion dollars between 1999 and 2013. Kevin serves eight years in prison,

• 52:20Sarah Hagi?

  and then, in 2022, he gets out on supervised release. But there's one last twist. A few months after getting out, Kevin has a hearing to determine if he's following the rules of his release. There, the feds reveal emails showing that he was secretly trying to ship and store 300 pounds of gold bars back in 2013, right when he was claiming bankruptcy and telling the court he couldn't pay the FTC judgment. They also have evidence he was looking into legally changing his name once he moved to Switzerland.

• 52:56Scaachi Koul?

  He's just so sloppy. He's just so clumsy and sloppy and stupid. But I am curious, uh, who told them all of this?

• 53:09Sarah Hagi?

  Because I suspected someone in his orbit. Well, that is the best part. The feds have all of this new evidence because Natalia gave it to them. After Kevin sent her back to Ukraine and went to jail, he wouldn't tell her why. He just kept saying it was a government conspiracy against him. The more she asked, the more angry he got, until he finally took her off his jail contact list, cutting her off completely. In 2015, Natalia came back to the States and restarted her studies at NYU. She applied for naturalization. When she went in for her immigration interview, they asked her a bunch of questions about Kevin, then told her her application was on hold pending a "security check."

• 53:54Sarah Hagi?

  So Natalia decided to take matters into her own hands and figure out what Kevin had been doing over the course of their marriage. She started requesting government and court documents from Kevin's many legal proceedings and realized pretty quickly that he hadn't just been lying to her, he'd also allegedly been forging her signature on legal documents and using her to hide assets from the government. Eventually, she took eight suitcases' worth of materials from one of Kevin's storage lockers in Zurich and turned them over to the authorities. Good for her. Yes.

• 54:28Scaachi Koul?

  Good for her. I'm glad there's someone in this who's willing to hold him accountable.

• 54:33Sarah Hagi?

  Absolutely. But Kevin, he always lands on his feet. As of last year, he finally paid off that jumbo FTC fine. Now, he's got his own YouTube channel where he's promoting everything from crypto to the right way to manifest. The FTC's chased him off the airwaves, but they can't stop him from being on YouTube, at least not yet. And right now, over on the Gin website, there's an ad for a six-day cruise in 2028 where you can rub elbows with Kevin, who's featured as a guest speaker. Rooms start at just $2,800, and if you recruit some friends to come, who knows where the opportunity might take you?

• 55:20Sarah Hagi?

  Sachi, we need to talk about Kevin. We've covered infomercial, snake oil-type people in the past, but their claims were a bit more sophisticated and not just like, "Hey, I have this coral that will cure everything right now." I feel like he was preying on people who were at rock bottom because that's the only way you could possibly believe in anything Kevin has to offer.

• 55:47Scaachi Koul?

  Yeah, his infomercial claims were targeted to people who were already weak. The claims themselves were kind of nonspecific and like, had already been established before. But he just like, did it really well. Just kept getting away with it.

• 56:02Sarah Hagi?

  You know, he really struck while the iron was hot for him. His YouTube channel is like, still kind of hawking the same thing, but he's not doing that well. Like, if you look at his YouTube views, he's getting, you know, maximum like, 20K views for a video.

• 56:21Scaachi Koul?

  You know, Kevin was able to be successful because he was coming of age around a time when not everybody could be on TV. And so it was kind of a big deal when someone was on television, if somebody had an infomercial. But now, we have democratized that so much. Anybody can be on TV. And it doesn't actually mean anything anymore in terms of your authority that you're saying something to the public. Anybody can say anything to anybody now. And so you can see that he's trying to pull the same scam, but it's not going to work because the thing that made him seem like an authority figure, which was being on television, is not actually that compelling anymore, nor is it that impressive.

• 56:58Sarah Hagi?

  Yes, that is exactly it. And also, I don't know what the new thing will be to make someone an authority figure. I think it has to be that you are already like, super famous and hot.

• 57:11Sarah Hagi?

  And then you pivot to the scam. Like, the fame can't be the scam anymore. This is basically the same stuff Gwyneth Paltrow says sometimes, as far as like wellness and that type of thing goes. Yeah, you gotta get famous first, and then you can scam now. So my advice, get famous, establish trust, and then slowly pivot into lying, and people will believe you. His first like, little claim when he was younger about paying him $10 because he was abducted by aliens for the wish, I think that proved everything he needed for his whole life. The second he realized people would read that he was abducted by aliens and therefore could grant them wishes, how could you stop yourself if you're someone like him?

• 57:56Scaachi Koul?

  Yeah, I think he realized pretty fast that people were willing to believe him. I think he realized that. About all of his wives. I think he thought that about everybody he worked with. I mean, he is really arrogant. He's been really arrogant.

• 58:08Sarah Hagi?

  I hate to ask, but any lessons here?

• 58:12Scaachi Koul?

  The main lesson that I've taken from this is how redundant this story is and how we're still doing this. There's still people who are taking an argument that the government might not have your best interests at heart, which is true, and that pharmaceutical companies may have some vested interest in you staying sick, which is also true, and mutated it into it being that he had all the answers and you just need to give him money and then he'll cure you. You really have to be suspicious of anybody who's trying to sell you something by telling you that other people are trying to hurt you.

• 58:43Sarah Hagi?

  Obviously, something that will never go away and only just evolve. There will always just be people like Kevin who are finding new ways to capitalize off people's misery and make them do colonic.

• 58:55Scaachi Koul?

  You know where all of this has migrated to, Sarah? It's TikTok shop. That's what's really crazy about this is that like, we no longer look to like an authority figure on TV in the middle of the night who's going to tell us what we need to buy. Now it's on our phones, in our pockets. It's a stranger trying it on, showing it to us, like this QVC-ification of social media. All of this stuff is still happening. It's just happening on a smaller level with like random TikTok creators. I mean, we're still playing this game.

• 59:22Sarah Hagi?

  Yeah. Yep. I guess the lesson is if something's elite and you as an old person found out about it, it's not elite anymore and therefore it doesn't work. It's not elite. Yeah. Like, you're not going to be let into a secret society, ever. It's never going to happen. And if you are, something terrible has happened if you are. Something terrible's happened and also you're not going to want to tell anyone because you want to be exclusive. Why would a regular person ever know about the secret

• 59:50Scaachi Koul?

  society? I would also be less offended by this if he was selling anything real, like if he was selling like the slap chop. At least that's a tangible product. He's like, selling hair loss things and like nonsense. Like, where is the Snuggie? Where's Kevin's Snuggie? That's a respectable item that I definitely did not buy.

• 1:00:11Sarah Hagi?

  Yeah, I agree. It's also awesome that he was like, ah, I can cure baldness from all of human civilization. And he obviously didn't, but I think because he had a full head of hair and knew he wasn't going to go bald, he was like, sure, I'll say it.

• 1:00:26Scaachi Koul?

  Hey, it works 100% of the time, most of the time. And that's all you need to know.

• 1:00:34Scaachi Koul?

  Follow Scamfluencers on the Audible app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to all episodes of Scamfluencers ad-free by joining Audible.

• 1:00:43Sarah Hagi?

  For Audible Originals, this is Kevin Trudeau, as schemed on TV for Scamfluencers. I'm Sarah Haggy.

• 1:00:51Scaachi Koul?

  And I'm Sachi Cole. If you have a tip for us on a story that you think we should cover, please email us at [email protected]. We use many sources in our research. A few that were particularly helpful were "That's Not All," "Kevin Trudeau: The World's Greatest Salesman Makes One Last Pitch," by Erin Gell in Business Insider, "Wait, There's More," by Libby Copeland in The Washington Post, and "American Greed, Season 9, Episode 9," from CNBC.

• 1:01:14Sarah Hagi?

  Emma Healy wrote this episode. Additional writing by us, Sachi Cole and Sarah Haggy. Olivia Bryley is our story editor. Our senior producers are Sarah Enne and Ginny Bloom. Our associate producer is Charlotte Miller. Our managing producer is Desi Blaylock. Fact checking by Gabrielle Drolle. Sound design by John Lloyd. Additional audio assistance provided by Augustine Lim. Our music supervisor is Scott Velasquez for Frieson Sync. The executive producer for Audible is Jenny Lauer-Beckman. The head of creative development at Audible is Kate Navin. The head of Audible Originals North America is Marshall Louie. The chief content officer is Rachel Kiatza. Copyright 2026 by Audible Originals LLC. Sound recording copyright 2026 by Audible Originals LLC.

• 1:02:04Speaker 03

  Ghosts aren't real. At least, that's what journalist Tristan Redmond always believed. Sure, odd things happen in his childhood bedroom, but ultimately, he shrugged them off. Until he discovered that he wasn't alone, that everyone who lived thereafter him also had bizarre experiences they couldn't explain. And it gets even weirder. It just so happens that his wife's great-grandmother was murdered in the house next door. Is this ghost somehow connected to her murder? He decides to go where no son-in-law should, digging up a cold case and asking questions that nobody wants answered. Like, could his wife's great-grandfather have gotten away with the perfect crime? This is a podcast about family secrets, overwhelming

• 1:02:46Speaker 03

  coincidence, and the things that come back to haunt us. For the best bingeable series like Ghost Story, listen to the Audible True Crime Podcast wherever you get your podcasts. Audible subscribers can get all episodes early and ad-free right now. Join Audible in the Audible app or by subscribing on Apple Podcasts.