Convicted TV pitchman Kevin Trudeau has written a letter to the judge who found him in civil contempt, begging him to intercede with a fellow judge, when he is sentenced next week.
Insisting that he is humbled, desperate, and changed man, Trudeau reminded Judge Robert Gettleman that when he sent the case to fellow Judge Ronald Guzman for trial, he recommended a maximum punishment of 6 months in prison. This week, the government filed a motion, asking that Trudeau be sentenced to a ten year sentence, declaring that he was the perpetrator of a "massive consumer fraud", and that he was motivated by "simple greed".
"Being incarcerated under these circumstances has been the most life-changing experience in my life," Trudeau wrote Gettleman from jail. "We have been wiped out financially, effectively homeless, and both my wife and parents have had major health breakdowns."
Beyond that, Trudeau insisted he is not the same man who continually defied the courts, and that he takes 100 percent responsibility for any harm he has caused.
"I see now that I have made many mistakes along the way," he said. "I have learned my lesson in more ways and at more levels than you could ever know. If I could do it all over again, I would do things very, very differently."
Trudeau was cited with contempt, in connection with infomercials for his book, "The Weight Loss Cure They Don't Want You to Know About." The government argued that his commercials suggested the weight loss program was not a diet, when in fact it required an almost impossible to follow caloric regimen, hormone injections, and a lifetime ban on foods that many Americans eat every day.
In their filing this week, prosecutors suggested they continue to have doubts about Trudeau's character.
"He has funded and protected a lavish lifestyle by bilking consumers and defying court orders," they wrote. "If defendant had described his book accurately in the infomercials, book sales would have been close to zero."
Calling Trudeau an "inveterate fraudster and liar," prosecutors reminded the court that he had continued to enjoy a lavish lifestyle, even after he was ordered to come clean.
They wrote that after he was ordered to pay a $37 million judgment, Trudeau refused to rein-in his high-living ways, spending at least $12 million from June 2010 to March 2013, on everything from $4000 draperies, to gym memberships, first class airfare, and a $340,000 Bentley, purchased by his company.
The filing says that during that period, Trudeau racked up at least $3 million in credit card charges. But in his letter to the judge, Trudeau insisted he has learned from his mistakes, and wonders now if he has any future at all.
"I have made a promise to myself, my wife, my parents, and God, that the future will be different," he wrote. "As I am now homeless, if I am allowed to leave prison, I will go and live with my parents (and with my wife if she regains her health and is able to travel), and we will take care of them in the time they have left."
Trudeau is to be sentenced Monday.
