Best-selling American author Kevin Trudeau, whose name became synonymous with late-night TV pitches, has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for swindling consumers through infomercials for his book about weight loss.
As he imposed the sentence prosecutors had requested, district judge Ronald Guzman portrayed 50-year-old Trudeau as a habitual fraudster from early adulthood. So brazen was Trudeau, the judge said, he once even used his own mother's social security number during a scam.
'Since his 20s, he has steadfastly attempted to cheat others for his own gain,' Guzman said, adding that Trudeau was 'deceitful to the very core'.
Trudeau showed little emotion as the sentence was handed down at a hearing in Chicago.
Addressing the judge in a 10-minute statement, Trudeau apologised and said he had become a changed man. He had meditated, prayed and read self-help books, he said, while locked up at Chicago's Metropolitan Correctional Center.
'I have truly had a significant reawakening,' said Trudeau, who was dressed in orange jail clothes. 'If I ever do an infomercial again ... I promise: no embellishments, no puffery, no lies.'
Jurors convicted Trudeau of criminal contempt in November for defying a 2004 court order barring him from running false ads about the weight-loss book, The Weight Loss Cure 'They' Don't Want You to Know About. Despite the order, he aired the infomercials at least 32,000 times, according to prosecutors.
He sold more than 850,000 copies of the book, generating $39m (£23m), prosecutors said.
Asking for a sentence of less than two years for his client, defence attorney Tom Kirsch said the harm Trudeau caused was minor compared with frauds in which people are cheated out of their life savings.
'A 10-year sentence might be appropriate for a defendant who destroyed lives,' Kirsch said. '[But] Trudeau - if he swindled anyone - swindled them out of $30 [the price of the book].'
Another defence attorney, Carolyn Gurland, added that Trudeau's legal troubles had already cost him his businesses and his home.
But Guzman showed little sympathy, appearing angry as he said Trudeau had thumbed his nose at the justice system by violating multiple court orders since the 1990s.
'He has treated federal court orders as if they were mere suggestions ... or impediments to be sidestepped, outmanoeuvred or just ignored,' the judge said.
Trudeau's weight-loss book describes a gruelling, 500-calorie-a-day diet, as well as hormone treatments. The deception, Guzman explained, came in Trudeau's infomercials, which misrepresented the contents of the book as laying out 'a simple, no hunger ... diet-free method of losing weight' that enticed more people to buy the book.
Trudeau became rich selling millions of books with titles including Natural Cures 'They' Don't Want You to Know About and Debt Cures 'They' Don't Want You to Know About, touting them in commercials with news-interview formats.
As legal scrutiny intensified over the years, Trudeau claimed the US government was persecuting him, and accused agencies and other vested interests of conspiring to suppress low-cost, common remedies for diseases including cancer.
His weight-loss book, which once topped bestseller lists, was the focus of the criminal conviction for which he was sentenced. It also was the subject of a related civil case brought by the Federal Trade Commission, in which Trudeau was ordered to pay a $37m judgment.
Post By http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/18/kevin-trudeau-jailed-10-years-swindling
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