Kevin Trudeau
From SkepticWiki
- “[P]eople can’t make money on all-natural cures.” – Kevin Trudeau
- “Since I read Kevin Trudeau's book, I am starting a new way of life…. I am now starting to eat the right foods and I am starting to reverse my diabetes so I could get off these pills … Thank You Kevin” – "S.B", in a testimonial at Trudeau's web site
Kevin Trudeau is an author, multi-level-marketing executive, and infomercial spokesman, who specializes in alternative, natural, and homeopathic health products. He has hocked such products as “Exercise in a Bottle”, “Fat Trapper Plus”, “Mega Memory System”, “Hair Farming”, “Addiction Breaking System”, “Action Reading”, “Mega Reading”, and “Eden’s Secret”.
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[edit] Criminal History
Behind his stylish silk shirt, sincere manner, and dashing good looks is a long criminal history. In 1990, he pled guilty to depositing $80,000 in worthless checks. In 1991 he pled guilty to making unauthorized use of customer’s credit card numbers obtained through his memory-improvement course. He served two years in federal prison.
[edit] FTC Entanglements
In 1996, he was banned from doing business in Michigan, after violating Multi-level marketing laws in that state. The FTC fined him $500,000 for making false or misleading claims relating to “coral calcium” supplements. In 2004, he was fined $2 million for continuing to make false claims. As part of a settlement, he agreed to a ban on advertising any dietary or medicinal product in infomercials. [1]
[edit] Natural Cures
In 2004, Trudeau published Natural Cures “They” Don’t Want You To Know About [improperly used scare quotes in the original title]. The book quickly became the #1 New York Times bestseller. Trudeau continues to run infomercials, now advertising his books, since publications are outside the scope of his agreement with the FTC. The infomercials, book, and his website make many false, unsupported, and dangerous medicinal claims, as well as ridiculous paranoid assertions about his persecuters.
A remarkable feature is a chapter entitled “Cures For All Diseases”, which contains only a single short paragraph claiming that “This entire chapter has been censored by the FTC.” This may be a reference to his agreement with the FTC not to advertise products, however, that agreement does not forbid him from making general health claims that do not mention a branded product.
[edit] “They”
One of Trudeau’s persistent claims is that drug companies have economic motives for suppressing medical cures – indeed, for promoting disease-causing products, to increase the demand for drugs. This premise ultimately depends on the existence of a massive conspiracy, involving the FDA, the entire drug industry, the entire food industry, as well as countless independent medical practitioners, and the institutions that train them. One might expect that one conscientious person within such a massive conspiracy might spill the beans. Or that there would be no cancer deaths among the bigwigs within the FDA who know about secret cancer cures. Or that one drug company might stage a coup and release its cancer cure to the public, making a hefty profit and putting its competitors out of business.
It is not unreasonable to credit the success of Trudeau’s provocatively titled book to a widespread distrust among Americans with the medical profession and drug industry.
