In a blistering opinion, judges of the federal Appellate Court here in Chicago told famed TV pitchman Kevin Trudeau that the ten year sentence he is serving for criminal contempt is more than appropriate.
“Trudeau’s bag of tricks contains something to relieve almost any ailment or burden,” Judge Diane Sykes wrote for the court. “Based on the size of Trudeau’s fraud and the flagrant and repetitive nature of his contumacious conduct, the ten year sentence….was not unreasonable,”
Trudeau’s infomercial career spanned a wide range of products, from miracle cures, to weight loss schemes and memory courses, many with what the court somewhat charitably dubbed “dubious efficacy.” The Federal Trade Commission sued him for violating consumer protection laws and Trudeau agreed not to misrepresent the content of his books in any more television commercials.
But a few years later, he published “The Weight Loss Cure They Don’t Want You To Know About,” and immediately began hawking it in a series of infomercials. He was cited with civil contempt, and sentenced to ten years in prison.
The court noted products ranging from “Biotape” to cure severe pain, to “Coral Calcium”, a cancer cure, and “Kevin Trudeau’s Mega Memory System.”
“Trudeau’s pitches are factually indefensible” Sykes wrote. “The FTC has repeatedly pursued him for violating consumer protection laws.”
Trudeau has been imprisoned since 2014, in the Federal Prison Camp, in Montgomery, Alabama. He is scheduled for release in July of 2022.
