Despite Jail Sentence, Scammy Pitchman Kevin Trudeau’s Infomercials Still Running

Last month, a court sentenced bestselling author, TV pitchman and scam artist Kevin Trudeau to 10 years behind bars for repeatedly lying to and defrauding consumers. And even though Trudeau is locked up for years to come, his infomercials continue to air.

Alas, Trudeau has not had some sort of jailhouse awakening leading him to release the next Caged Wisdom. No, the Chicago Tribune reports that these are just the same tired ads for his book Free Money “They” Don’t Want You to Know About.

How can this happen? It’s a number of factors.

First, the get-rich book pedaled in this particular ad was not the one that landed Trudeau in jail. The multiple Federal Trade Commission complaints that ultimately led to his being sentenced dealt mostly with another book, the similarly titled The Weight Loss Cure “They” Don’t Want You to Know About.

And it wasn’t the claims made in his books that got Trudeau in trouble with the law; it was the claims made in the ads and marketing of the weight-loss book… like not revealing to consumers that the “easy” weight-loss program he sells actually requires, among other things, prescription injections of hormones found only in pregnant women.

So his books continue to be sold, and infomercials can continue to run, so long as those infomercials don’t contain misleading information.

Additionally, Trudeau no longer directly owns the rights to those books. Those have been sold to another company that pays Trudeau a royalty (which now goes to to the U.S. government to pay down the $37 million debt the convicted scammer owes for his crimes).

Thus, the ads will continue so long as they continue to sell books or until someone proves these infomercials are also misleading and should not be allowed to air.

by Chris Morran via Consumerist