Crime & Safety

Kevin Trudeau, TV Pitchman from Oak Brook, Ordered to Jail

Trudeau has failed to pay any of his $38 million fine for misleading buyers of his diet book, "The Weight-Loss Cure 'They' Don't Want You to Know About."

Infomercial personality and Oak Brook resident Kevin Trudeau is being sent to jail by a federal judge for allegedly hiding assets that could be used to pay a large outstanding fine, according to a Chicago Sun-Times report.

Trudeau is facing a $38 million fine for making false claims in his infomercials for his diet book, The Weight-Loss Cure "They" Don’t Want You to Know About, the Sun-Times reports. He hasn't paid any of that fine to this point and has told the court he's living in poverty.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), meanwhile, has obtained records from a number of sources that showed Trudeau was "in control of multiple lucrative business ventures that funded a lavish lifestyle, replete with luxury automobiles and stately homes," according to ABC News.

Trudeau spent one night in jail last month, also as a push to get more information about his assets, the Sun-Times reports.

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The fine, according to ABC News, stems from U.S. Judge Robert Gettleman's 2010 ruling to side with the FTC, which had alleged Trudeau had misled buyers of his book by describing a rather intense diet that included "periods of extreme calorie restriction, off-label injections and high-colonic enemas" as easy. 

Trudeau was convicted of felony fraud in the early 1990s and spent nearly two years in prison, ABC News reports.

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