King of Informercial Scams Avoids Jail for Spamming Judge

Sleazy informercial king Kevin Trudeau’s 30-day jail sentence has been stayed by the courts. He was slammed with it for orchestrating a spam email campaign designed to influence the judge in his case. He’s currently on trial in Civil Court fighting a complaint by the FTC that the advertising for his “natural cures” book is misleading. He was first sued by them in 1998 and banned from making false claims in the future, ordered to pay $500,000 in consumer redress and pay another $500,000 for a performance bond to ensure compliance. In 2004 he was sued again for ignoring the order and making false claims about a product called Coral Calicum. He was ordered to pay $2 million in fines and damages and banned from doing informercials except for informational publications like books, provided he make no misrepresentations. He again ignored the order which is why he is in court again. Trudeau has long been hawking his natural cures as the answer to everything from obesity to drug addiction.

In an effort to avoid further prosecution Trudeau urged his supporters to email the judge to tell him what his cures did for them and to urge him to find in his favor. The judge said his inbox was overwhelmed with spam and demands that the complaint against Trudeau be dropped and found him in contempt of court. Trudeau was scheduled to report to jail today. The court gave no reason for the change of heart but said the stay was contingent on no more spam campaigns being aimed at the judge or the court.