Kevin Trudeau Violates Federal Trade Commission Injunction

Kevin Trudeau is a weasel. The man is an outright liar who is taking advantage of people's fears and vulnerabilities. Everyone who is overweight -- or otherwise not healthy -- wants to believe there is a miracle cure-all. Trudeau has no problem selling his snake oil to these desperate people.

He first came to fame with the coral calcium scam. He was selling a five dollar bottle of calcium for nearly $50, and claiming it could cure everything under the sun, including cancer. The FTC banned him from selling supplements and making false claims in his infomercials, but they couldn't stop him from writing misleading books.

His Natural Cures ‘They’ Don't Want You To Know About promised to provide readers with cures for just about everything, but the book really contained little more than some well-known herbal approaches to common illnesses. In order to get the "secrets," you had to join his web site for a substantial amount of money.

Now he's pushing a book that promises an easy and permanent weight loss cure. But it isn't so easy, and this where the FTC comes in -- he's violating the permanent injunction against misleading the public.

From MSNBC:

Trudeau has a long history as an infomercial salesman, and as a legal adversary of the FTC. He was sued by the agency in 1998 and again in 2003. A 2004 order settling charges that he falsely advertised the use of coral calcium as a cure for cancer banned Trudeau from appearing in infomercials, but included an exception for book advertisements. But the order specifically prohibited Trudeau from misrepresenting book content, and the FTC argues that is what he is doing in his current TV ads.

"Trudeau is once again demonstrating his disregard for court orders by making blatant misrepresentations about the ease and restrictiveness of the protocol described in his weight loss book in violation of the current Permanent Injunction," the FTC said.

Trudeau is best known for his prior book, "Natural Cures ‘They’ Don't Want You To Know About," which the author claims sold millions of copies.

Trudeau began hawking his new book on TV in December, the FTC said. His infomercial was among the top 10 most frequently aired long-form ads in February, March and July, it said.

The FTC's legal challenge hinges on Trudeau's claim in the ads that the weight loss program is "easy" and requires "no deprivation."

The book describes a three- to six-week regimen that requires the dieter to take daily injections of a prescription drug not approved for weight loss use by the FDA, the FTC said. Readers are also told to stick to a 500-calorie-per-day diet.

“Trudeau’s book describes a four-phase protocol that is a far cry from the infomercials’ promise of ‘the easiest method known on planet Earth. Indeed, the weight loss plan revealed in the book is hardly easy, mandating such onerous requirements,” the FTC alleged.

Tags: Kevin Trudeau, FTC, scams, injunction, infomercials