Kevin Trudeau: passport pleas and a piss-poor movie

May 12, 2014, 2:13 pm

≫ Next: Some Whirled snippets while we're waiting for real news

≪ Previous: WIN, GIN... I just phoned this in

So goodbye Yellow Brick Road
Where the scammers and predators howl
They've planted me in the jailhouse
There isn't much to do now

Maybe you'll get a replacement
There's plenty like me all around
Predators hungry for money
Sniffing for marks, who are easily found.

With apologies to Bernie Taupin, Elton John, et al.

Even though he's behind bars, serial scammer Kevin Trudeau continues to provide entertainment for those of us who are easily amused -- even if he provides it unwittingly or in the most tangential way. But before we get to the rollicking fun, I should mention that as of the time I'm publishing this, people who object to the sale of the Global Information Network (GIN) assets to AXS Investment Group (or AXS Consulting, LLC) -- a group consisting of some of Kevin's bestest, most loyal buddies -- have less than an hour to file their objections with the court. Deadline is today (Monday, May 12, 2014) at 5:00 PM Central Daylight Time. I'll keep you posted.

Mama mia, Katie wants his passaporto!
Last week I found out, and shared on Facebook, that Katie wants his passports back -- both his U.S. and Italiano passports. Or his lawyer does, anyway. The lawyer filed a motion with Judge Guzman's court on Thursday, May 8. Maybe it's for sentimental reasons. Or maybe Katie wants to put them in a scrapbook or on a vision board. Except I think they probably don't have scrapbooking and vision boards at the MCC.

Click to enlarge.

The gummit has till tomorrow, May 13, to respond to this motion. Katie's lawyers will be in court this Thursday, May 15, at 9:30 AM to present Katie's passport plea before Judge Guzman.

Naturally we are having some fun with this on Facebook. My friend Bernie O'Mahony of GINtruth.com wrote, "Maybe he needs them in order to get from Cell Block B, to Cell Block D?" Tim Donohoe wrote: "In an unrelated motion, his lawyer has asked for his release from prison pending his appeal. Nothing to see here." In a subsequent remark Tim wrote, "Another idea is that maybe his lawyer needs access to some offshore accounts when his next bill is due."

I thought that there might be a specially infused seekrit magnetic strip in the passports that can override the biometry in that biometric safe in Zurich where all sorts of seekrit things are hidden. As you may recall, last year Katie told the courts that he couldn't surrender his passports because they were in that safe in Zurich, but a little while later the passports mysteriously turned up anyway in Chicago. But suppose they really do contain some magickal seekrit strip and can help open that safe. What manner of treasure may be hidden therein? Next up: court docs demanding that whoever has his $6,400 cufflinks return them to his lawyers immediately.

By the way, on that passport motion Katie's lawyer, Thomas Kirsch, got the date of his client's criminal conviction wrong. It was November 12, 2013, not November 7, 2014. November 7, 2014 hasn't happened yet. But I guess I am not too surprised that Kirsch would get that detail wrong; he was the one who bungled Katie's criminal trial by opening with that lame "cheesy moon" argument, and later on in the trial he and his team made the judge kind of mad.

UPDATE 13 May: The government responded with an opposition to Kirsch's motion. Here is a link to that document. The government points out that the usual procedure with convicted criminals is to return their U.S. passports to the State Department, and any foreign passports to Homeland Security. It hasn't been done yet but the government expects that to happen. It also points out that by the time Trudeau is out on supervised release, his passports will have expired anyway.

Maybe this is much ado about little; perhaps it is just a routine thing for criminal lawyers to file to get all of their clients' documents back from Pretrial Services. Or... maybe Katie needs his passports to return to Oz.

Good buy Yellow Brick Road? Well, not so much.
The long-awaited animated movie, Legends of Oz:Dorothy's Return, was finally released theatrically across the US on Friday, May 9. This project was one of the "investment opportunities" offered by a couple of GIN members to other GIN members. My friend John Foster, an ex-Katie fan, former founding member of GIN and author of a new book about his GIN experiences and the scam GIN was, wrote on Facebook, "Investors spent around $100 million and [the movie] is opening in 1800 movie theaters. If it makes money it will be the first GIN opportunity that was promoted that made money."

There was a lot of skepticism about this movie when the discussions came up on Facebook last year, and one reason for the skepticism -- beyond the obvious fact that the "investment" op was being offered within the framework of GIN -- was that the folks involved with the production firms, Summertime Entertainment and Alpine Productions, have been involved in some dodgy business deals and have had some complaints made against them (more on that in a moment). People were even getting spam phone calls from folks asking them to invest in the project. (Here is another link about that, from the same thread.)

But now that the project has indeed come to fruition, I would like to know if any of the GIN members who "invested" -- either the ones originally offering the opportunity to GIN members, or anyone else in GIN who took advantage of the "opportunity" -- will actually be making any money from the movie. My email box is open!

Of course they are buzzing about it on the GIN Facebook pages: "In case you are not aware, a group of GIN Members utilized their training to help manifest the money to partially fund this movie."

Um-kay. But will they make any of that money back? Or was that even their intention in the first place? Inquiring minds want to know. I don't even know how to begin to pursue this matter because I don't think I ever knew the names of the GIN members who were pushing it. Can anyone help?

Brief update: A person in the know sent me a message clarifying that the Oz movie had nothing to do with GIN (which I knew), but the connection was simply that there was one GIN member pitching the project from the time he joined. He was able to pull a little money from a few members but nothing major. My source noted that on a conference call last week, Chris "Voldemort" McGarahan (one of the members of the group who is buying GIN) apparently gave GIN credit for raising all of the money for the film production -- which isn't even close to true, but even if it had been...well, it was nothing to brag about. And that gives this story double snarkitude points: for the fact that the GINvestors are claiming credit that they don't deserve, as well as for the fact that the movie they're taking so much credit for is an embarrassment (see next paragraph). Nice job, guys! [NOTE: See May 13 updates and addenda below. ~CC]

In any case the GINvestors who pitched in a few bucks should be very proud of themselves, because the movie is just getting splendid reviews. That is, if you define "splendid" as being "[An] eyeball-gougingly ugly, charm-free animated musical sequel, which is inexplicably opening in thousands of theaters instead of going direct to video." Or a movie that feels "like the cheaply made knockoffs you find in a dollar store: garishly shiny, flimsy and not built to last." As another reviewer wrote, "The bricks are still yellow, but the road doesn't lead anywhere special."

My friend Kenneth, another ex GIN member, said he went to see a movie this weekend but the show he wanted to see had sold out for the show time he wanted. He inquired about other movies and was told that aside from Spiderman, which only had a few tickets remaining, Legends of Oz had only a handful of people in it. "Needless to say, people had no interest in it whatsoever," he noted.

THIS JUST IN:Record breaking lousy debut at the box office (even worse than Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil).

But it's all sweetness and light on the official pages: the one for Summertime Entertainment and for Legends of Oz.

Still, there were hard feelings along the way to production and release, as I suppose there often are in the movie biz. Someone wrote a nasty note to Ripoff Report in October 2012.

And guess who wrote the rebuttal? One Marc J. Lane, whose law firm represented Summertime's Ryan and Roland Carroll and the production team behind the film.

As you may recall from reading this Whirled and various court documents and forums, Marc Lane was the asset protection lawyer who, as it happens, was hugely instrumental in helping Katie create and structure GIN.

Marc participated in social media buzz about the film while it was in production last year.

He was responding to this March 2013 post on "The Royal Blog of Oz," an Oz enthusiast blog. (By the way, after the fanfare on that blog, the actual movie review by one of the blog's team members was kind of anti-climactic.)

Marc also participated in one of the discussions about the spam phone calls that I mentioned above. Here's another page on that scam phone call thread. (It's basically the same spiel he wrote on the Ripoff Report thread.)

But Marc has been curiously silent about the movie on Facebook since its release, but he has "liked" several Oz-movie related pages... among other things. My goodness.

I can't say that I think Marc is a bad guy. I mean, lots of folks like porn; I don't think that's really that big a deal as long as it all involves consenting human adults. Besides, maybe the porn site people are clients of his. Or maybe a mischievous member of his household got into his Facebook account and "liked" that naughty page. There could be any number of explanations.

And judging from some of his Facebook posts Marc has a social conscience, or at least wants to make it appear that he does. In fact, when it comes to several issues regarding social and economic justice he appears to be embracing a side that is contrary to that embraced by most of the one percent. I like that in a person. But I have to wonder what sort of "conscience" or moral compass allowed him to participate so extensively in helping Kevin Trudeau create a scammy scheme such as GIN. I'm told by those who seem to be in a position to know that Marc gave Kevin sound advice that was well within legal frameworks, but that Kevin chose to ignore a lot of it and did as he pleased, and that was what caused all the trouble. I'm only halfway buying that. Because, really... Kevin Trudeau? Well-known lifelong scammer? Seriously, Marc, what were you thinking?

At any rate, my understanding is that various investigations are still ongoing. I've alternately been told that Marc isn't out of the woods yet regarding the Trudeau investigations, and that he is out of the woods because he cooperated with the Feds and didn't do anything with criminal intent. That story is still unfolding. I know only small parts of it and have reported what I know.

But I would not be surprised to learn that Marc Lane may have somehow been involved in the push for GIN members to invest in that animated boondoggle. If anyone has any insights into this I'll be glad to add that info to this post, and of course you can remain anon if you wish.

Speaking of Oz, which also happens to be another name for Australia, I wonder if the investigators were ever able to uncover any more of Katie's hidden assets Down Under, which the receivers were going on and on about last September.

And partly because my mind is jumping around all over the place today, but mostly because so many of these stories are interrelated in some way (because they are all part of the same, much larger and grimmer story), I'm reminded of another Oz character and Katie b.f.f., the late Rene Rivkin, who offed himself in 2005 and whose assets were also mysteriously hidden. He and Katie had a few things going together, for a while.

I think the authorities finally gave up looking for Rene's riches. But something tells me that if the right authorities did a little more digging, they might be able to find some more Rivkin assets as well as some more Katie assets -- in some cases, maybe even under the same rocks. [Although someone who knew Rivkin just told me that it's very doubtful if he had anything left, which may have been one reason he ended his life. Tragic story, there.] Anyway, I really should get off of my duff and finish that half-finished Rivkin post that's been in the hopper for a year or so. But I'll leave you with a pretty picture for now -- Rene and Katie and someone else (maybe one of you can tell me who it is?) in happier days. Rub-a-dub-dub!

Update: Someone just tipped me off that the other guy in the tub is the UK's Andrew Malcher, currently of High Street TV, "the leading multi channel retailer of direct response TV products."Here's a July 2012 article about him in the UK's Financial Times). From the article:

If the mark of a great retailer is not selling you what you want but selling you what you didn’t know you wanted, Andrew Malcher must be a great retailer.

And here's a November 2013 article about High Street and Alliance Health Care signing a lucrative As Seen On TV-ish agreement. High Street has also signed deals with Disney and Hasbro.

So Andrew is basically an infomercial mogul. My correspondent says he's a super nice guy.

More updates and addenda, 13-14 May 2014:
Return to Oz...
Since I published my post yesterday, I've heard from a couple of people. I inserted a brief update in the body of the original post above (in green text), but here's more.

One person wrote to me:

The name of the [GIN member pushing the investment in the Oz movie] is John King. He is listed as one of the Co-Executive Producers. If gin people raised more than $1M I would be impressed. There were a bunch who invested, but gin wouldn't have had anything to do with it other than John pitching it to people he met there.
The movie may stink but I wouldn't hold any negativity toward it because of GIN.

Another friend, an ex-GIN member, wrote to me, also mentioning John King, who was the head of his local GIN chapter:

He is an executive producer on the film. ...I got to know him and his wifepretty well.

He never pitched the movie to any of the GIN folks in [our local] group, as far as I know. And he and his wife seemed like pretty nice folks.

Apparently he was in great despair, with a failing career and marriage (this is public knowledge as he said it on stage), when he came across Your Wish Is Your Command. He truly believes that GIN and KT turned his life around. As far as I can tell, he is not simply a sociopath, nor do I think he sought any gain other then typical commissions and the chance to go "Hollywood."

There WAS misleading info. On stage he implied that HE had raised 100 million for the film.

In a subsequent email my friend wrote:

...We were all impressed by his Platinum status and by the fact that he had raised millions of dollars as a venture capitalist, under the GIN rubric, to "make" a movie. One takes a person for their word, or should. And words can mean everything and nothing. When someone states, "we just raised the most money in the history of independent films, $100 million, I just got word as we were boarding the ship"... and if that person is someone whose house you had visited, and whose friendship you wanted, why wouldn't you trust them?

Why, indeed? Well, at least my friend wasn't suckered into investing in this lemon. What I find interesting is that according to THIS article (which I also linked to above), Summertime Entertainment says they spent only $70 mil on production, and the author of the piece speculated that they may have been exaggerating because "smaller production companies often inflate budgets to make a production appear more legitimate." So where did that other $30 mil or so go? Well, maybe to promotions and parties -- who knows. If I were a GINvestor, though, I'd be asking some serious questions rather than crowing about this bloated cartoon on their Facebook pages.

Anyhow, as far as I am concerned, the Whirled angles specifically in regard to the movie remain the same:

Some GIN folk are taking undue credit for this flick
It's a stinker -- so those who invested and are so GIN-proud of it probably won't see any decent ROI... meaning that once again GIN fell flat as a networking op.

In other words: I am not the one who spiked this insipid punch with GIN. Various GINfolk did this themselves.

Then there is the Marc J Lane connection, however tenuous it may be. As noted on my post, Marc was hugely instrumental in helping Katie structure GIN to hide money from the Feds. It's all there in the court docs. Marc was also an attorney for the production companies responsible for the Oz debacle -- and he even wrote a rebuttal on their behalf on Ripoff Report, threatening to sue the anonymous complainant for defamation. It could, of course, all just be a big fat coincidence. Or it could be something as simple as a common hometown connection. Marc is a Chicago lawyer and Summertime Entertainment's Carroll brothers were born, raised, and went to school in the Windy City. Maybe they all knew each other from back in the day. As I said, I welcome insights from others.

By the way, the friend I quoted at length above also reminded me that a Trudeau entity called TruStar Productions, Inc. -- an enterprise in which Marc Lane was also involved -- had invested in a failed movie project called Hellbenders. It was noted in the Receiver's Third Report (17 March 2014), and I mentioned it on this blog post.

You can find a lot more about the Trudeau/Lane/TruStar relationship -- and their other business relationships -- in various court documents, such as Document #713 from Katie's civil case, filed on July 15, 2013, titled, "PLAINTIFF'S PROPOSED FINDINGS OF FACT AND CONCLUSIONS OF LAW." I've written about and inked to this before, but here's a handy link on the receiver's web site.

For more, check out this link and the individual name links on Advanced Background Checks.

Not surprisingly, on Marc's Wiki page there is no mention whatsoever of Trudeau or any of the Trudeau entities, or of Marc's involvement in this high-profile case.A shame, that, since Marc worked so hard on his client's behalf, including trying to get data under the Freedom of Information Act regarding some of the ongoing investigations of the various Katie companies. Here's some interesting correspondence from 2011 and 2012. It's in .txt format and you'll need to scroll down to the bottom and work your way up.

I have put all of this on my Whirled and have included links in order to raise legitimate questions and encourage others with more resources than I have to continue the investigations.

At any rate -- getting back to the current cinematic flop -- here are some more links. This one handily lists all the major folks involved in the Oz project:
http://www.screendaily.com/reviews/the-latest/legends-of-oz-dorothys-return/5071489.article

Here is John King's Facebook page. He doesn't seem to be very active, except for a few nods to the Oz project, which currently dominates his cover photo and profile pic:
https://www.facebook.com/john.king.14019338

Here's John King's IMDB link, which links back to the IMDB page for the project: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm6359182/

Here's John King's stik.com link: http://www.stik.com/king_john2

And here is a link to Elevate Entertainment, one of whose principals claims to have been involved with John's "110 million dollar private equity raise" for the Oz movie.

Natalie King - CEO
After graduating cum laude with a degree in Finance from Jacksonville University, Natalie moved to Los Angeles to work with Executive Producer Greg Centineo and Co-Executive Producer John King on a 110 million dollar private equity raise for an upcoming movie Franchise titled Legends of Oz - Dorothy’s return. It is set to be released worldwide in May 2014...

...Natalie enjoys bringing her analytical and creative side to develop powerful content that will reach a diverse audience.

But wait... there's more! Other peeps are claiming credit along with John King for raising some of those millions for the Oz thing. Here's one Franco Rosado, who describes himself as a "Youth Empowerment Specialist,"on Linkedin:

Excited to be brokering our first motion picture deal with Mr. John King and Summertime Entertainment COMING SOON - MAY 9TH - OVER 3000 THEATERS LEGENDS OF OZ, DOROTHY RETURNS (3D Animation Film) MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! We raised the $5 million needed for our film! Stay tuned for more to come! Franco Rosado CEO, Deep Sea Innertainment Youth Empowerment Specialist [email and phone number redacted ~CC]

So I'm sure there's a whole tangled story here. I don't know much about the film biz, but what I do know is that many movies go through a long and sometimes contentious process in their journey to release. So no doubt there were a lot of the normal Hollywood egos and financial struggles, which ordinarily would not interest me all that much. But when there is even a marginal Scamworld connection --- when, in other words, it intersects with my beat in some way -- you can bet your last flying monkey that I will jump on it, especially if it's a slow news day.

By the way, here is the link to page 1 of what is currently a 15-page, five-and-a-half-year-long thread about the efforts to get people to invest in the Oz movie (I linked to a few pages in this thread above). http://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-818-909-6800.

↧

Some Whirled snippets while we're waiting for real news

May 25, 2014, 1:52 pm

≫ Next: Death Ray hones his comeback shtick, while sister of one of his victims pleas to Oprah to break her silence

≪ Previous: Kevin Trudeau: passport pleas and a piss-poor movie

I've been remiss this month -- only one May-dated post so far (although several of the April posts have various May updates, and I have been adding info and links to the most recent post in the comments section). It's not that it's been such a slow news month; there's always something on this beat, even if one of my favorite snargets, the lunatic not-doctor from Germany, has been rather quiet-ish on the Facebooks since he got his Krautsack kicked in court by Salty Droid.

Well, technically, the little Teutonic twerp's civil defamation case against Salty (who was mistakenly identified in the legal papers as another blogger, Omri Shabat at Glancing Web) was dismissed on April 17, 2014, "for want of prosecution." That basically means that no one showed up during the scheduled hearing to argue Loony C's case (the lawyer who filed the suit, Dennis Kellogg, withdrew from the case fairly early on, which didn't stop Loony from boasting on Facebook about how he was going to decimate Salty in court). Anyway, ever since the dismissal the Loonmeister has been relatively silent; either that, or he just has all of my peeps blocked so nobody in my circle can see his manic blathering. But oh, well, there are plenty of other things to keep me amused.

Not surprisingly, jailed serial scammer Kevin Trudeau has been one of those diversions, providing rich fodder even when he presumably wasn't directly involved in the items in question. One example of something that doesn't overtly have Kevin's stamp on it, but still seems to be one of those guilt-by-association things (particularly since, as I noted here previously, his former asset protection attorney Marc J Lane seems to be involved) is the animated movie flop, Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return. I wrote about Oz-gate at length on this post, and in the comments. The Katie connection -- apart from possible(until proven otherwise) Katie connection Marc Lane -- is that certain members of Katie's big boondoggle, the Global Information Network, or GIN, were flogging this project to other members as an "investment opportunity." And as the initial release date neared, some GINners were boasting that the impressive amount of money raised for the film was an example of a few members putting their GIN training to work. Uh-huh.

I guess that could ultimately be true, regarding GIN "training"; in its less than five years of existence so far, GIN has taught many people the hard way that liars will tell any lie in order to get you to give them money. Some of the screwed "investors" may yet come to embrace Ozgate as a valuable lesson, while others, no doubt, will stay in denial. For now, one of the film's executive producers, Greg Centineo, the guy who reportedly got GIN member John King involved with bilking the GIN rank and file, has been busily rationalizing the floppiness of the project. And "investors" who each paid $100,000 or more are embracing the theory that a Hollywood conspiracy destroyed the film. This fits right in with the mindset of GIN members, whose willingness to believe all sorts of nutty conspiracy theories made them easy marks for Trudeau in the first place. There's a lively discussion of the Ozflop on the 800Notes.com web site; the thread has been going on since 2008 and currently has 19 pages. Here's the link to page 1. In particular, pay attention to the comments on some of the more recent pages from a person going by the moniker "Legends of OZ Scam Expert."

Meanwhile, the fate of GIN itself seems to be sealed. People have been speculating about this since long before the court-appointed receiver took over GIN and other Trudeau assets and business entities in early August 2013. Self-proclaimed "GIN destroyers" (bolstered by the likes of the aforementioned Loony C) have announced the death of GIN and the "final nail" numerous times, but AXS Investment Group, a small band of investors and Katie buds with money, earned the receiver's approval to purchase GIN. Their proposal will be presented to Judge Robert Gettleman's court this coming Tuesday, May 27, 2014 at 1:30 PM Central Daylight Time. Although protestors had a right to file their objections in the court (that deadline was May 12), the sale is expected to be approved.

And while all of this is going on, Trudeau's proxy continues to spew bits of inspirational "wisdom" on his official Facebook fan page. Katie is due to be transferred to a new facility soon, where he will be serving the rest of his ten-year sentence, but I haven't seen any particulars about this yet. But at least his parents' home is officially safe; on May 21, Judge Ronald Guzman finally signed an order to exonerate the bond that had been holding their home hostage since July 2013.

While we're waiting for news about the GIN sale finalization and Katie's new address, here are a couple of tidbits to snack on.

A WIN-Wynn situation?
On Sunday evening, May 18, Perry Kiraly, the executive director of the WIN (World Information Network), one of the newest GIN ripoffs, sent an excited email to the membership.

WIN Family-Reunion Event
Wynn Encore Resort in Las Vegas
With keynote speaker: Gregg Braden
October 31^st thru November 2^nd 2014
Dear WIN Members & Supporters,
It wasn’t easy since he was booked solid for the remainder of 2014 but when WIN asked Mr. Greg [sic] Braden to be the keynote speaker to launch its major event on October 31^st he went out of his way to make it happen.
Mr. Braden’s biography includes being a New York Times bestselling author whose works have been publish in 27 languages and 30 countries. The following are some of the many books/CD’s he has published:
The Spontaneous Healing of Belief
The Divine Matrix
Deep Truth
The Turning Point
The Isaiah Effect, Fractal Time
Beyond Zero Point
Please click here to read Gregg’s biography: http://www.hayhouse.com/authorbio/gregg-braden
Please click on the following YouTube links to view some of Gregg’s seminars:
The Spontaneous Healing of Belief:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8DeBePK3Wg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLPahLakP_Q

The Devine [sic -- unless he's talking about prospective GINvestment group member Jeff Devine ~CC] Matrix
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyCiL8ql7bs

This event will take place at the fabulous Wynn Encore Resort Hotel in Las Vegas. Click on this link to view the Resort: http://www.wynnlasvegas.com/

The event package will include:
2-night stay in a Wynn/Encore resort suite (Oct. 31^st/Friday & Nov. 1^st/Saturday)
Keynote speaker Gregg Braden ( on Friday Oct. 31^st /Event starts at 7 PM)
Other speakers (to be announced) on Saturday/Nov. 1^st
An exclusive private banquet/party for attendees on Saturday evening at the renown Wynn Resort Nightclub The Tryst (please click on this link to view): http://www.wynnlasvegas.com/NightClubs/Tryst
In addition to WIN Members this event is being made available to all who wish to attend to accommodate those that follow Gregg Braden’s work as well as other interested guests. Please consider also that seating & rooms are limited so this event is likely to sell out quickly. Register now to reserve your seat. If you register before May 31, 2014 you will receive a $100.00 discount on the package price.

You will want to be at this event!

For reservations, questions, and further details please call: Beverly Weaver (WIN Events & Member Services) at [redacted].

Thank you and have an excellent day,

Perry Kiraly,
Executive Director, World Information Network

Admittedly, Braden is a bigger "name" in the biz than some of the speakers GIN has been parading around at their recent pathetic events, such as the "Family Reunion" in DC in October 2013. But, alas, he is still full of New-Wage crap. In fact I wrote about him years ago; this is from February 2007.

At first I wondered what sort of deal WIN was giving him and/or vice versa. Maybe, I thought, Braden's star is fading and he is desperate for attention. But then I went back and looked more closely at Perry's letter and noticed that bit towards the end, where he said that in addition to WIN members, the event is being made available to all who wish to attend, in order to accommodate Gregg's fans and "other interested guests."

So, obviously, Braden wants to be ensured that he will have an actual audience that will make the appearance worth his time. In any event, he seemed to have a fairly long blank spot in his busy schedule, judging from the listings on his web site. After October 26 and before November 13, he doesn't really seem to have anything going. So far the WIN/Wynn thing isn't listed on his page. It kind of looks as if WIN and Gregg are exaggerating about the momentous nature of this event. I know, I'm as shocked as you.

Natural Cures is feeling poorly these days
If you've been following this blog, or for that matter, the press about Katie, you probably know about his Natural Cures scampire, and how its creation was sort of a big turning point for him. Salon.com published a good article about the phenomenon back in July of 2005, nearly a year before this Whirled was born. Katie's first Natural Cures book was the tool used to suck thousands into his sales vortex; it was lauded by co-creator and marketing strategist Reno R. Rollé as a breakthrough that "could revolutionize the book publishing industry." (And yes, I know I've mentioned this before, but sometimes it's good to review.)

It was Reno Rollé who initially urged Trudeau to combine his extensive experience in infomercials with the book business. “I suggested he focus less on hard products, ingestibles, and more on information and newsletters,” he says. “That way he could find a safe harbor under First Amendment protections.” They teamed up to see if, and how, it would work. “No one knew how a book would behave,” he says. “Initially we treated the book as just a product that shouldn’t behave differently than a stomach exerciser or kitchen utensils.” It’s a strategy that paid off handsomely.

“The infomercial business is very standardized,” Rollé continues. “You put the product on TV first to create awareness and sell a large number of ‘units.’ Then, after a period of time, you pull trigger and head out to retail.” And once a product hits retail, as “Natural Cures” did just four weeks ago, Rollé says, the industry standard is to sell two to 10 times as many “units” as were sold on TV.

See, Kev had already been in trouble with the Feds for years; he'd been out of prison since 1993 but had gotten himself into trouble again in short order. Essentially Reno helped him with strategies that would allow him to keep on telling lies without getting into more trouble. Ultimately that didn't work, but Reno apparently jumped out before more serious troubles began and the Feds really started turning up the heat. In fact he was Trudeau's CEO for a while, but spins his resignation from that position as his discovery that Katie was doing some dodgy things. Somewhere along the way, some of the ill will Katie is known to attract got stuck to Reno too, and he felt obligated to defend himself on Ripoff Report. This is an excerpt from his defense, which for some reason was published in triplicate:

I have never in my life been convicted of a single crime. I have never partnered with a convicted felon.

I believe the author [of the complaint]has the false idea that I am some how "partnered" with Kevin Trudeau. I was employed briefly by Kevin Trudeau as his CEO and resigned almost immediately. He and I had very different philosophies with regard to handling his legal challenges with the US Government. These challenges had NOTHING to do with me and were the result of actions that occurred prior to my joining his company.

After resigning as CEO, I stayed on as an INDEPENDENT executive consultant. I had moved my family across the country. Yes, I was involved and even co-created Kevin's best selling book but I did NOT write the book.

And now, as I've noted here before, Reno is a co-producer in a fictionalized film project about Katie and GIN, The Platinum Bonus. I wonder what sort of fund raising shenanigans are going on with that project. I wonder if it will ever be completed, much less released.

But I digress.

One of the bad things the Natural Cures book did, besides luring the unsuspecting masses into Katie's sales funnel, was to elevate nut cases like Coldwell -- and for that matter, this guy-- to prominence, by virtue of Kevin recommending their frauducts and flopportunities. But it gave me more blog fodder, so there's that. Although the book was widely panned by reviewers, real-as-opposed-to-fake health experts, and customers, that didn't stop Katie from perpetrating a Natural Curessequel (without Reno) and numerous other books, all of which were promoted in infomercials, and one of which, The Weight Loss Cure "They" Don't Want You To Know About, ultimately landed him in the slammer for civil and criminal contempt (the ten-year sentence is for criminal contempt; he still faces a $37.6 million fine for the civil matter).

The Natural Cures web site thrived for several years. But now, alas, it seems that the site is down for the count. A friend forwarded an email that was sent out earlier this month.

From: support@emailnaturalcures.com
To:
Sent: 5/7/2014 10:23:04 A.M. Central Daylight Time
Subj: Latest news for Diabetes | NaturalCures.Com site down

As regular visitors to our Natural Cures site you will have noticed the site is currently down. I’m sorry to say it’s a combination of factors. Firstly, a minor technical glitch, secondly a more sinister one, for which I can’t go in to too much detail, but sadly will probably involve lawyers & regulators. Clearly the information we are providing for free is causing some issues out there.

The technical side also impacts our support email addresses, so if you have emailed in over the past few days, you will receive a bounced email. This also looks like it will take some time to resolve.

Social media: How to reach us

If you need to reach us, you can visit our Social media sites which we will be monitoring. You’ll find us at:

Facebook.com/NaturalCures
Twitter.com/NaturalCures

If it is a private matter, be sure to use the message service on both platforms rather than an open post otherwise everything is visible. For Twitter, you can’t Direct Message (DM) us if we don’t already follow you. So if that happens, just tweet us from your account that you’d like to DM us and we’ll follow you to open up that function...

The rest of the email was a promo for some "natural" something-or-other for diabetes.

As you may know if you've been following this blog, long-time Trudeau bud and UK resident Lee Kenny is the current "owner" of Natural Cures. He bought it for a mere $100k towards the end of 2012.

So why is the site down? Beats me; the best I can do for now is read between the lines of that email. I have a feeling that Natural Cures -- or, more specifically, Lee Kenny -- is being investigated because he is a good buddy of Kevin's and he probably knows a lot that he hasn't told the investigators yet. Even the receiver noted that they thought Lee wasn't being completely forthcoming about "where the money is." Plus, he has been promoting Katie's $997.00 baccarat scam through Natural Cures (and he was processing the proceeds through Future Transactions Company, aka the FTC (ha, ha, get it?)). I've been ragging about this matter on this Whirled for months and months.

I have mentioned this a few times on this Whirled (most recently here, and I wrote about it last August), but here it is again, because you know how I love to repeat myself. Natural Cures was set up in the first place to feed KT's legal defense fund. Here is a direct link to some August 2013 court documents that clearly state when and why Natural Cures Health Institute (NCHI) was set up.

Anyway, judging by the recent-ish email to the Natural Cures mailing list, it appears that Lee Kenny is trying to get a good Trudeau-style martyr thing going: "Clearly the information we are providing for free is causing some issues out there."But that's the way the alt-health hucksters roll; the aforementioned Loony C has the martyr thing going too, even claiming that Big Pharma thugs have shot at him and tried to kill him with a car bomb.In 2012 he was quoted by a natural health blogger as saying, "I have death threats -- about twenty a day -- but I do not have any fear."

In any event, another site called The Natural Cures Store is still open. It sells all sorts of health fruaducts, including those to support the various phases of Katie's infamous "Weight Loss Cure." But it claims not to be connected with Katie or his companies in any way. (Prolly like the GIN Store is a separate entity from GIN... sort of, anyway.)

The NaturalCuresStore.com is dedicated to bringing you high quality products recommended by Kevin Trudeau and health care practitioners, Dr. Thomas Hohn[a Leonard Coldwell buddy ~CC], Dr. James Rotello and others.

The NaturalCuresStore.com is in no way affiliated with these health care practitioners, nor with Kevin Trudeau, Natural Cures, Inc. or Alliance Publishing.

We are just the a "One-Stop-Shopping" store for all the products recommended in his various books and newsletters.

Although we do not know Mr. Trudeau personally, nor agree with all of his conclusions, we appreciate his labors in bringing such valuable information to the public.

Items sold on the site include all sorts of cleanses, including a "Heavy Metal Cleanse" (I don't think it involves music, though), a "Colon Cleanse," and something called "Dr. Coldwell's Stress Reducing System" for $99.99, which is also listed in the site's Bookstore.

On the promo page for the Coldwell product, we're told that "Dr." Coldwell of Germany has "treated over 35,000 cancer patients, and has the highest cure rate in Germany. That's a version of his amazing bio that has been published elsewhere on the Net as well. It is, as you may have noticed, somewhat different from his other common claim, which is that he cured over 35,000 cancer patients, "many in a terminal state," and has the highest cure rate in the world. But like most narratives in Scamworld, Loony's stories have never been consistent.

The Natural Cures Store, which lists one T. Payne of Dover, Idaho as the registrant and admin contact, doesn't seem to be wildly popular. But I guess it -- and the official NaturalCures.com social media sites -- will have to do till the NaturalCures.com main site comes back...if that ever happens.

That's it for now, and I'll be back soon with some more substantial fare.

↧

Death Ray hones his comeback shtick, while sister of one of his victims pleas to Oprah to break her silence

May 28, 2014, 11:46 am

≫ Next: Kevin Trudeau: GIN sale approved, Katie's in Alabama, still crying poor, and still selling coaching sessions

≪ Previous: Some Whirled snippets while we're waiting for real news

Looking a bit chunkier than before, and sporting a scruffy-chic long-haired look, star of The Secret and convicted killer James Arthur "Death" Ray is honing his comeback shtick (previously covered on this Whirled here and here). He is exploiting the hell out of the fact that he served a (much too short) prison sentence for cooking three people to death in a phony sweat lodge at an October 2009 event in Sedona, Arizona. As he has been doing almost since it happened, Ray is still framing the deaths of Kirby Brown, James Shore, and Liz Neuman as HIS tragic story. But now he has turned it into an actual Live Event dog-and-pony show (no offense to dogs or ponies), promoting the whole thing as an inspirational tale of how anyone can successfully battle the slings and arrows and come up smiling (if a little more red-eyed).

Here is a link to the promo clip; nausea advisory in effect.

"Let me tell you...how much labels DON'T mean anything," he says in a croaking, fake-heartfelt voice towards the beginning of the clip. What about labels like "KILLER who served a ridiculously short sentence and is hot on the comeback trail?" This is disgusting, of course, but not unexpected. Once again...
No Neat and Tidy Endings.

Here is another perspective, published yesterday (May 27, 2014) by Jean Brown Allison, the sister of Kirby Brown, one of the three Death Lodge victims. Jean takes Oprah Winfrey -- a big promoter of The Secret and its "stars" -- to task for Oprah's roaring four-and-a-half-year silence about the tragedy in Sedona.

You helped make this sham of a man what he was. In fact, it was after seeing him on your show that my sister, Kirby Brown, read “The Secret” and became a fan of James Ray. I remember, when we were together for my wedding at my parents’ house in July 2009–3 months before she’d die of heat stroke in a plastic tent in Arizona–I remember Kirby telling me that I had to read this book, that it was amazing, that James Ray was amazing, that he’d been on Oprah, that she was looking forward to the Ray event she’d be attending a few months later… That’s right. She mentioned YOU by name.

Why am I getting on this, nearly five years later?

James Ray is out of prison and has quickly jumped right back into the self-help world. He is positioning himself as a man who has seen the greatest heights, and then fallen to the greatest lows, and is now climbing his way back up. He is telling/selling the story of how life has been so hard on him, and how these challenges are what make him the man who can help others. He is selling this story of a tragedy that happened to HIM, just like days after the deaths when he called our house and told my mother that this was the worst thing that had happened to HIM and he was sorry that it had happened.

But it does not appear that he has learned anything. He talks of the deaths of my sister and the other victims in Sedona as an “accident,” saying nothing of his role in what transpired. It’s the same tack he took right after the incident, passing blame to others, or worse, trying to spin the deaths as something that was meant to happen, something that the victims brought upon themselves...

Jean follows by mentioning SEEKSafely.org, the organization founded by Kirby and Jean's parents, Ginny and George Brown. I've written about it a few times, including here. One of the first things Seek Safely did was to create the Seek Safely Promise, a simple document that encouraged self-help leaders to agree to basic principles and practices to ensure the safety and dignity of participants in their events.

As of this writing, 34 have signed the Promise (pretty much all of them are B- and C-listers at best):
http://www.seeksafely.org/seek-safely-promise/who-has-made-the-promise/

And 167 have not signed it (including all of the A-listers who were approached -- and that includes Oprah):
http://www.seeksafely.org/seek-safely-promise/who-has-not-made-the-promise/

Are you surprised? Me neither.

But I applaud the Browns for their efforts, and I will continue to support and promote those efforts. Apropos of that, the organization will be holding a summit in Sedona on June 6, 2014; click here for more info.

My pal Salty Droid, who has been much too quiet lately, wrote a blog post last week about the word "retarded" and his decision to stop using that word. This is relevant here because, of all the bloggers in the blogosphere (and all the media on the Interwebz, for that matter), Salty has, in my opinion, provided the best James Ray coverage over the past four and a half years. In his May 22 post he mentioned, and linked to, the Seek Safely Promise.

But I’m the one who’s learned the big lesson here :: primarily … that making progress is really … really … really … super duper fucking hard. You think just because you’ve noticed something terribly wrong with the world :: and pointed at it with bells on … that people will care and shit will change. But it ain’t like that at all. People mostly care about themselves … and inertia is a belligerent bitch.

I don’t think eliminating words is the right way to earn #respect for kids with disabilities. Just like I don’t think trying to get cartels of intentionally vicious manipulators to sign the SEEK Safely Promise is the right way to get self-help reform.

But what the hell do I know? Almost nothing. My bright idea was insane-a-tron fake robot asshole … not exactly a catchall solution.

There is no right way to do the impossible :: there’s only trying … and I can sympathize/relate to anyone attempting to accomplish a hard thing against long odds.

Just do :: something … anything.

Yeah, what Salty said. Just do something.... anything. One thing you can do is to keep an eye on James Arthur Ray. Watch for any organizations that book him as a keynote speaker, and/or might be promoting him in any way. And if you see that Ray is being showcased somewhere, say something to the promoters. Call them on it. They might not care, but if they don't, you can publicize that. Write emails, notify the media, stage protests if you're so moved.

Ray may very well try to go it on his own and hold solo events, with no other scammers and psychopaths involved. But no Scamworld guru is an island; there's a lot of cross-promotion in Scamworld. For instance, I've written numerous times on this blog about the promotional relationship between now-jailed serial scammer Kevin Trudeau and James Ray -- here and here, for starters. (I have commemorated it pictorially as well.) If you don't feel like following those links, here's a recap: Trudeau defended Ray on his radio show a few years ago, and later, while Ray was in prison for killing people, his organization was busily promoting Your Wish Is Your Command, the 14-CD upsell for Katie's Global Information Network (GIN).

In addition, for quite a while, some of Ray's products were being sold in the GIN Store. There's a bit of discussion about that here.

And since Ray got out of prison, Trudeau's former marketing guy, Peter Wink, who now has a GIN ripoff of his own (in partnership with one of this Whirled's least favorite lunatics, Mocktor Lenny Coldwell), apparently made overtures to Ray. I've mentioned this before, but it's worth mentioning again. This is from August 3, 2013.

There are no neat and tidy endings in Scamworld, but I believe that building awareness is a good and helpful thing to do.

Just do something.

↧

Kevin Trudeau: GIN sale approved, Katie's in Alabama, still crying poor, and still selling coaching sessions

May 29, 2014, 6:19 pm

≫ Next: The "new" GIN: as summer tunes up, Scamworld hums on

≪ Previous: Death Ray hones his comeback shtick, while sister of one of his victims pleas to Oprah to break her silence

So it's time for more of the latest news on caged serial scammer Kevin Trudeau, aka KT, Whirled name Katie. I would have blogged about all of this yesterday, but that whole Death-Ray-on-the-comeback-trail video thing had me kind of upset. It's important to continue to keep our focus on the entire context of Scamworld, and James Arthur Ray is such a huge, horrible, glaring example of that. But still... there's Katie. And there's his big boondoggle GIN, the Global Information Network. And the fact that there are no neat and tidy endings in his or any Scamworld story. So here goes.

GIN sale: Motion granted on 27 May 2014
As expected, the court appointed receiver's motion to sell GIN to a group of Katie buds, the AXS Investment Group, was granted on May 27. It seems that GIN, despite the best efforts of the GIN destroyers, will live on. Below is the notification of docket entry; that's all that's up so far. But I'm sure the judge's signed, dated order, and possibly other docs, will be up soon. I will share as soon as I get them.

UPDATE, 30 May, 2014: Judge Gettleman's order approving the sale, which was signed and filed on May 27, is finally available on PACER (I did check every day, and now here it is).Word is that the GIN sale was actually finalized yesterday (May 29) and all but three staffers were let go... which is pretty much as expected. My pal Bernie has details on GINtruth.

I've also heard that the women who work for new GIN co-owner JeffDevine (who months ago had told me he wasn't in the market to buy GIN) are safe because they are on a different payroll -- Jeff's company, The Hybrid Group.

Word is that in an effort to get back some of the best ones they let go, GIN has dangled the carrot of a promise of a job, at reduced salary and commission-only basis, which is consistent with the buzz we'd been hearing for months. Reportedly, though, they can only get their jobs back if they can lure people back into the club. I don't know if they were given quotas or not, but in any case I've heard that at least some of the fired staffers aren't biting, and are actually relieved to be out of the drama. They are realizing that it is time to start a new chapter in their lives. I wish them well. I hope they can find good jobs outside of Scamworld. Despite what some of the GIN principals have told me, and despite their efforts to convince me that GIN is just another professional org like thousands of others, in my view GIN is part of Scamworld, and always will be.

Sweet home Alabama: Katie's new digs
As you may have heard, Katie has finally been moved to his new home-for-the-next-decade-or-so. He's now in a federal prison camp in Alabama, FPC Montgomery. You will be delighted to know that it has been rated as THE best prison camp in the United States. "Way to manifest, Kevin!" wrote his proxy on a May 28 Facebook post(which was met with the usual round of "likes" and adoring responses).

FPC may be cushier than your normal everyday max-security lockups. But it's still prison.

But still.

So now with his big club GIN in control of his loyal buddies, and Katie staying in a prison camp that's about as good as prison can be in the U.S., and thousands of fans still adoring him and thinking he's a hero and a martyr... Well, you know what that obnoxious Cosmic blogger likes to say: "No neat and tidy endings." Personally I'm glad he's in a nice place, because if I'm going to end up in the same cell with him due to my criminal blogging activities, as Loony Coldwell predicted a few months ago, I'd rather it be a nice place than a not-nice place.

Anyway, if you want to write to Katie, here's his new addy:

Kevin Trudeau -- 18046036
FPC MONTGOMERY
Federal Prison Camp
Maxwell Air Force Base
Montgomery, AL 36112

And the poor boy drama continues...
There's another Katie drama that I have previously mentioned here and on Facebook, and I thought it was more or less over, but no, it continues. This has to do with Trudeau's criminal case -- or rather, the appeal, which is now a separate case, Case no. 14-1869. Ever since his conviction, Katie and his lawyers have been going back and forth with the courts trying to convince them that Katie is too poor to afford the $505 filing fee for his appeal. The court has already denied him the right to waive the fee, per the government's request; the government has cited all of the money that Katie has had in his prison account since his confinement, and has spent.

But Katie -- or rather his law firm Winston & Strawn, who have said they will now represent him pro bono -- wouldn't give up, and tried again. They are the ones who were pushing to have the filing fee waived, and they also wanted to be reimbursed for their travel expenses and whatnot. At the very least, though, they want the court to appoint a new lawyer, Christopher M. Bruno, as counsel of record. (Bruno is with Winston & Strawn and is a winner of the 2012 Capital Pro Bono Honor Roll, High Honor Roll.)

Anyway. Here are two of the latest appeals documents, filed May 21 (the government) and May 23 (Katie's lawyers).
Trudeau-criminal-appeal-14-1869-Documents-12-and-13-re-In-Forma-Pauperis-etc-05-21-and-05-23-14.pdf
(Note: this is a Facebook download. If you can't access it don't worry; here is the Scribd link.)

But... personal coaching from Katie is still available!
Someone forwarded an email to me announcing that Katie is still doing in-person or over-the-phone "coaching" sessions, now for the bargain-basement price of only $2,000.00 for two hours (formerly $5.000.00 for one hour):

Spots still available for coaching with Kevin Trudeau
You still have an opportunity to buy a 2-hour coaching session with KT, either in person or via energy work for $2,000. This offer has previously been sold for $5,000 for one hour. It is only being offered to those in our company.

KT is now in Montgomery, Alabama.

Please respond if you are interested or have more questions.

Brenda Maetzold
The Secret To Life Coaching

That's right... the man behind bars, who claims to be too darned poor to afford a $505 filing fee for his criminal appeal, will teach YOU how to be successful. Heck of a deal!

Here's the link to a page on The Secret To Life Coaching company, which is run by long-time Katie bud Coral Thomas. You'll see Coral's bio and Brenda's as well. I've mentioned Coral a few times on this Whirled. A couple of C.I.s have told me to watch out for her and her pals, because they're still actively involved in enterprises that will benefit Katie. Coral and gang reportedly have an agreement with Katie to raise a certain amount of money -- $100k or so, according to some sources -- for his legal defense in exchange for rights to market some of his frauducts and flopportunities and/or other benefits. (A few months ago I was also told that Katie's old ITV Direct buddy Donald Barrett is somehow involved in some of the enterprises as well, but haven't followed up on that line of inquiry.)

Interestingly enough, although Coral's company has reportedly made claims that they will have $200 million in revenue, The Secret to Life Coaching Company is listed on Facebook as being "Permanently Closed. Hmmm.

The road goes on forever, and the scamming never ends.

You know... no neat and tidy endings.

↧

The "new" GIN: as summer tunes up, Scamworld hums on

June 16, 2014, 4:32 pm

≫ Next: Coldwell rolls out hilarious new bio site, tightens rope around his own neck, Part 1 of 2

≪ Previous: Kevin Trudeau: GIN sale approved, Katie's in Alabama, still crying poor, and still selling coaching sessions

Tempus fugit, y'all! I just noticed that June is more than halfway over, and I've yet to make a June entry on the Whirled, except for a June 5 update on my May 29 post about imprisoned serial scammer Kevin Trudeau (plus a few remarks in the comments section on various posts). It's not that there's nothing to write about, because there is. There always is. I blame my lack of activity on a heat-induced torpor caused by summer bearing down upon my part of the planet. But a blogger's work is never done, so let's get busy.

Voldemort holds court
As reported earlier today by my friend Bernie at GINtruth.com, Kevin Trudeau's largest and arguably most successful scam, the Global Information Network, or GIN, has hit the ground running with its first pow-wow since the new owners took over. "And," Bernie writes, "it all starts with ChrisMcGarahan."

Ah, yes. Chris "Voldemort" McGarahan, loyal Trudeau buddy, one of the hard-sell spokes-thugs in GIN, and long-time MLM huckster. (Here's an older "new" GIN page listing Chris as a "faculty member" -- it still lists Katie too, so is obviously not updated.) Numerous ex-GIN members have said they think that Chris is just as culpable in the GIN scam as Katie. But so far, everyone except Katie has gotten away with it.

Good for Bernie for providing this GINtruth update. I confess, though, that when I first started reading his post, I thought he was being far too kind to Chris just because he'd met him on a GIN cruise and Chris seemed to be a likeable bloke. Bernie called Chris' efforts to talk to the GIN members "commendable." I suppose that in light of the elitism of some of the New-Wage scalawags who were shining stars in GIN -- including Katie himself -- that sociability was somewhat noteworthy. But Bernie also noted that McGarahan practices what he preaches, and sticks with what works. From my perspective, what this really means is that McGarahan sticks with what works to extract money from people's pockets.

Indeed, numerous ex-GIN members have said that Chris was always one of the most aggressive pushers of the GIN Kool-Aid and was sometimes abrasive, nearly to the point of being abusive. Yet he apparently had his charms, and what he did was quite effective. Here is what a former GIN Level 6 candidate wrote to me recently:

The more I’ve thought of it, the more I see Chris as incredibly dangerous. He was always the one to sell at events, the one on stage who could get more people to buy more crap than you can imagine. And he was always called The Bearer of Good News because his offers came as 'deals.' He has a gift with crowds and bragged about that to us, as if we were part of the inner circle.

Lesson: Beware of nice blokes bearing gifts.

This person had also spoken with some GIN folks who had been persuaded to join MLM scam Vemma under Chris' son, Chris Jr., who seems to be one of the poster children for Vemma "success" (and, I'm told, drives a Vemma Mercedes). Chris Sr. has also been pushing Vemma. Anyway, just after the GIN Leadership Cruise in January 2013, Chris Sr. reportedly told select people to stop upgrading in GIN. Yet Chris -- and the rest of the GIN leadership, such as it was -- apparently continued to urge others to join and upgrade, as if nothing were amiss.

According to reports, at one of his exclusive, invitation-only, $5,000.00 (excluding airfare and hotel costs) scam-shows in spring of 2013, Chris Sr. boasted that he had purchased an island in Belize with another, much bigger Scamworld player, Jack Canfield. Canfield, as you may know, is co-creator of the Chicken Soup series, star of the New-Wage moviemercial The Secret, and founder of the Trained Liars Cartel... oops, I mean, the Transformational Leadership Council (also known as the Transformational Leadership Council of Death).

I'll say one thing for the TLC, as they sometimes call themselves: at least they had the good business sense to kick founding member James Arthur "Death" Ray out of their org after the sweat lodge thing happened. But who knows, they might let him back in again now that he's out of the clink.

In case you're interested, according to the TLC official web site, Chris Sr. is not currently on the membership list. But I digress.

Chris Sr. reportedly told the attendees of his 2013 flimflamboree that in 2014, exactly a year from then, he was going to fly all of them down to Belize to "change their lives." Well, last month he sent out emails inviting attendees to a follow-up seminar taking place from "Friday July 25 through Sunday July 28." (Never mind that Sunday is the 27th.) This follow-up event is only $495 plus an extra $100 if you want to have dinner with Chris on Saturday night, "which you will," he assured his recipients.

There was apparently no mention in the email of Belize; only if you RSVP "yes" will you get directions to the wingding. Some of the invitees suspect that it's just going to be a three-day Vemma pitch. If anyone has any other details about this, or about Chris' supposed co-purchase of an isle in Belize with Chicken Soup Jack, drop me a line, okay?

Incidentally, the Voldemort wallet-drainer overlaps with the time that the Trained Liars Cartel will be holding its summer meeting, July 23-27 (location not announced on the TLC web site; for some reason they never announce the location publicly in advance). There's also a Death Ray "Live Group Mentoring" event in Seattle on July 25 & 26. And July 25 is the five-year anniversary of the day that Colleen Conaway, another James Ray vic, died at a Ray event in San Diego.

But, once again, I digress.

The Yellow Brick Road to nowhere
Speaking of Chris M the Elder, it seems appropriate to mention again that he's one of the folks who just last month was gloating over the claim that some GIN members "used their GIN training" to help raise $100 million dollars for the animated box-office bomb, Legends of Oz, Dorothy's Return. As you may recall, I wrote about this at length on my May 12 post (see "Good buy Yellow Brick Road? Well, not so much," as well as the various updates that follow, and several of the comments following the post).

Though some GIN members, most notably "co-executive producer" John A. King (a venture capitalist type who reportedly lives in luxurious digs in Florida; one visitor to his home said he served dinner on plates made of gold) were laying claim to raising the $100 mil, executive producer Greg Centineo, a non-GIN member, claims that he was the one who orchestrated the big raise. King was reportedly working under Centineo and was able to sucker several other GIN members into coughing up some bucks. Long before the movie's release, Centineo was boasting about the big money he'd raised; here's a mention on the bio page on his main site. And yes, I know I've mentioned and quoted this before, but it is so deeply worthy of revisiting and quoting once again:

In 2008, as the funds for Legends were coming in, his role in the operation grew. The investment presented multiple ancillary opportunities due to its being a multi-industry franchise, and people could see the potential that a typical live-action movie didn’t offer. Captivated and undaunted by Greg’s honest approach (“This is the greatest opportunity of a lifetime in which you will lose all your money.”), client after client bought in—and eventually bought in big—to what has now become a $110 million unprecedented global phenomenon.

As the first phase of the Legends project draws to a close, the Brooklyn, N.Y.-raised father of two reflects on what he calls his greatest accomplishment of his lifetime by far and his multi-faceted career. “As a leader, I was looked to for answers, and then as I matured, I came to understand that true leadership is about helping people ask better questions and letting them lead themselves,” he says. “I approached this project, building a serious community of investors the way I built everything else. Whether it was leading large constituencies, opening the coffee shops or educating people on money, I have learned to apply the same universal assumptions.

“In everything I have done in my life, I had the privilege of creating it with others and giving them a different paradigm of the world we live in.”

Uh-huh.

Alas, a week after the movie was released, Centineo was making excuses for its failure. It was, he 'splained, a conspiracy by the mainstream movie industry. Why, of course. A couple of days later, some of the "investors" who were required to contribute a minimum of $100k shared their take on the "conspiracy."

But I guess that the Global Information Network's May issue of the GIN Report had already been published and distributed before it became known that the movie was such a stinker. A friend of mine shared this the other day:

Nice work, GIN!

I am still wondering how much Katie's asset protection lawyer and co-creator of GIN, Marc Lane, was/is involved in the Oz project. He certainly came to the defense of the movie's producers, his Chicago home boys the Carroll Brothers, on the discussion about this "investment" op on the 800notes.com site -- which has now expanded to 24 pages. People are royally pissed off about this thing. A couple of examples...

According to one participant who wrote in on June 15, the large entertainment site The Wrap is working on a story about the Oz investment scam and and wants to talk to investors. If you have information, contact Jordan.Zakarin@TheWrap.com.

New chapter, same old story
I think we already know where the GIN story is going: it's the same old scam under new ownership -- all of whom just happen to be Katie buddies. And I think Bernie made that pretty clear in his GINtruth post.

But at least now that GIN has been liberated from the receiver, they've taken down that disclaimer they had about the non-existence of Trudeau's big marketing lie, the fabled "GIN Council."

Speaking of which, in case you haven't visited the GIN site lately, you haven't missed too much. The MLM is still dormant -- for now, anyway -- even though the Legal Member Agreement has yet to reflect its absence. Moreover, as many are aware, the "initiation" fee has been even more deeply discounted from the old days; it used to be $1,500 if paid over time, but it was $1,000 if paid all at once, then it went down to $600, and now, "for a limited time only," it's $500. But if you're poor like Katie-in-a-cage and can't even cough up half a grand...

...you may choose to pay the initial fee over time. We are currently offering a $250 payment plan for 6 months. This includes $100 towards the initial fee along with the $150 monthly Membership dues. After 6 successful payments, you will only be charged $150 per month for Membership dues. A credit card is required for this payment option.

Or, you can sign up as a free Associate Member (a membership that is only good for twelve months and will be automatically cancelled when your time is up). If you successfully sucker four paying members into joining under your personal Invitation Code, you will have enough Reward points to join GIN for free. Heck of a deal.

Most notably, after the receiver took over in August 2013 the site was pretty well wiped clean of its Trudeau presence, although the current descriptions of "benefits" -- particularly the "Lifestyle Experiences" -- are rife with mentions of events that took place while Katie was still at the helm.

As for the rest, it's the same old "you have to be there to understand it" b.s., promising exclusive, confidential, never-before-released information.

Some of the Member benefits are described on the Global Information Network website. Most Member benefits, however, are confidential and revealed only to Members in good standing. When you understand all the privileges and benefits you receive by being a Member, you will grasp that this invitation is truly the opportunity of a lifetime. If you have goals and dreams, if you imagine being financially secure, maybe you would like to start a business of your own, maybe you have a dream car you've always wanted, or you've dreamed of traveling first class to exotic locations all around the world...

we believe you could make more of your dreams come true with the Global Information Network than you could ever imagine. Imagine being your own boss and having total freedom and time to do what you want and when you want. Imagine being able to associate personally with almost anyone from around the world. Imagine having access to experts in various fields, VIP events, and knowledge and information that is not available anywhere else. You can now join a worldwide private group that can help build your success in life.

Yes. Just imagine. And the GIN "leadership" hopes you will keep on imagining, because apart from greed, envy, fear, desperation, longing, boredom, and a lot of hot air, imagination is one of the forces that keeps the Scamworld balloon aloft.

↧

Coldwell rolls out hilarious new bio site, tightens rope around his own neck, Part 1 of 2

June 30, 2014, 2:14 pm

≫ Next: Leonard Coldwell goes too far: lies about me poisoning his dog

≪ Previous: The "new" GIN: as summer tunes up, Scamworld hums on

Not-doctor Leonard Coldwell has outdone himself, stupid-wise, with his new, lie-filled bio web site. That's the first thing you need to know.

The second thing is that this is one of those long-ish posts, and if you have grown bored with reading about Coldwell and wish I would write about someone else, feel free to skip this post altogether. You won't hurt my feelings. However, if you've wandered over here because you want more information about accusations on that loony new web site, you've come to the right place. Just be glad I am merciful enough to write this post in two parts. As is always the case with my long posts, if you're reading this on your computer and your eyes get tired easily, feel free to print this out and highlight the links you want to follow later.
~CC

Gosh, June is almost over -- it's already gone, on some parts of the globe -- and I've been neglecting my Whirled again. Sorry about that. Let me tell you, though: there's nothing that can shake a Whirled blogger out of her summer snooze like a big burning (or Bernd-ing) pile of stupidity. Imprisoned serial scammer Kevin Trudeau's ex-b.f.f. Not-Doctor Leonard "Loony" Coldwell, the former Bernd Klein of the Republic of Germany and in recent years a fairly frequent unwilling guest on this Whirled, has surely outdone himself in the stupidity department. In a laughably transparent attempt to shore up his reputation (a rep totally built on falsehoods anyway, since he's pretty much a nobody in his native land and his entire U.S. platform was created by mega-liar Trudeau in the first place), he has just damaged said rep even further, while committing some of the most blatant acts of defamation against some of his critics that I've ever seen. Earlier this month he rolled out a comically defensive and hilariously garbled -- yet seriously defamatory -- web site to counter the growing body of criticism and questions about his credentials and his credibility.

Though I just found out about the site a few days ago, he actually announced it on June 20, 2014. I took these screen shots from Bernie O'Mahony's GINtruth.com post about Loony's new site, because they were already pre-redacted (pre-dacted?). I'm lazy that way.

Coldwell obviously intended for the new site to vindicate and validate him, while increasing his martyr/hero creds by playing on that whole lunatic "conspiracy to destroy" theme. And indeed, a few Coldwell loyalists and obviously clueless knee-jerk responders jumped on the martyr thing by immediately sharing his announcement post on Facebook. Oh, woe is us, the medical establishment is out to destroy all good natural-cures "doctors!"

Nice work, Peter Wink! You and some of
Coldwell's other close buddies
know full well that Coldwell is LYING about me on that site.
And you probably know his other allegations
about other critics are desperate lies too.
And yet you support him and call him a "warrior."

But in the sane world, which I like to think still includes the majority of thinking human beings, all Coldwell has really done is vindicate his critics by shining a harsher light on his own inanities and outright lies. And he has gone beyond the pale in committing the very types of lies and defamation of which he has long accused critics. I will have more on that in a moment.

As noted above, I didn't find out about the new site until a few days ago, when some friends of friends of friends stumbled across Coldwell's June 20 Facebook announcement of the launch. There's sometimes a bit of an info gap because Coldwell has me -- and most of my Facebook buds -- so thoroughly blocked that it's hard to see anything he writes. Evidently he keeps the vast majority of his Facebook posts pretty private, even on his "public" page. Many people who are not blocked by him have observed that he hasn't written much at all on Facebook over the past year and a half or so, but that's apparently not the case. It's just that few people can actually see his screeds. It's hard to be a "public figure" when you hide in such a cowardly manner from the public. But it appears that his aim is to set things up so he can talk about his critics behind their backs on Facebook like a junior high girl, and the critics won't be able to join in the conversation or even defend themselves. That's his typical sniveling way of handling things.

Of course, I talk about people here too, often snarkily and, some have said, mean-girlishly. But my posts are public and the subjects are all welcome to join in the conversation. Few ever do.

So let's take a leisurely look at Loony's new site, which ispublic. Please note that everything I am writing about and sharing screen shots about is current as of the time I am publishing this post: Monday, 30 June, 2014, at 4:14 PM CDT. This being the web, where things are subject to change, and Loony's site being filled with actionable lies, it is possible that some of the content may not be there for long. But for now, it's up there and it has been duly recorded.

Fighting imaginary defamation with real (and disgusting) defamation
My pal Bernie at GINtruth was on this one first -- here's that link again -- and I don't blame him because he was the target of some of the most egregious defamation on the new site. On Coldwell's DEFAMATION page -- aptly named, as it happens, though not for the reason Coldwell intended -- he posted a picture of a very beaten-up Bernie, accompanied by an outrageous lie. (Can't Lenny even feel the noose tightening around his fat little neck?)

That picture of Bernie was actually taken during the New Year 2013, after Bernie was beat up by a group of young Japanese thugs. Being New Year's Eve/Day, alcohol may have been involved, but the egregious crime of which Coldwell accused Bernie emphatically was not. Bernie explains the true story on his blog post and links to his original Facebook post. (If you are on Facebook you should be able to get to that link; if not, suffice to say that LEONARD COLDWELL WAS LYING. Again.)

In addition, as Bernie noted on his blog post, he isn't "hiding" in Japan; he has lived there for 15 years. He isn't being paid for his blog, and as far as I know he has no criminal record. His main "crime" seems to be trying to get to the truth about Loony.

By the way, if you follow that link you will notice that the "Leonard Coldwell Defamation" page is supposedly written by "Nicolas Coldwell," who claims to be Loony's brother. Actually Coldwell's 12-years-younger half-brother does sometimes go by the name "Nicholas Coldwell" (with an "h"), but his real and legal name is Jens Wilhelm Anskohl. I wrote about him here. At any rate the "Defamation" screed was very obviously written by Lenny himself.

Anyway, I guess you can't blame Lenny for being a little sore at Bernie, who in addition to GINtruth.com has several other blogs and sites related to some of his areas of interest. But GINtruth is the blog that gets Loony's little pink panties in a bunch. (Note: I don't actually know if his panties are pink, but he does like to wear pink so I am just assuming that his panties match his shirts and socks.)

For the next few paragraphs I'm going to be going over a backstory that you may already know. Be patient; I'll get back to newer stuff very soon.

Bernie started GINtruth in spring of 2012 when the Kevin Trudeau/Global Information Network (GIN) sh-t started hitting the fan big time. He wrote in detail about Trudeau's lies and broken promises as they became more apparent, and he wrote about some of the other speakers and principals in GIN. He shared stories and opinions from ex-members and members who felt they had been taken by Trudeau's extravagant promises and lies. Bernie's blog has been a great resource for those with questions about GIN, since Bernie himself was a GIN member and is still in contact with many current and ex members and insiders.

And for a while, thanks to that "common enemy" factor, he was in alliance, more or less, with the most vociferous anti-GIN voices, including one Abe Husein, self-proclaimed GIN Destroyer and media star, and even Leonard Coldwell. They were all bros back then. Abe even made sure that Emmy Award winning journalist Ryan Kath mentioned GINtruth.com on his first story about KT/GIN (the mention is on the last page of the article).

But then as more information came out about Coldwell throughout the summer of 2012, and particularly as Bernie got wind of the infamous 2007 Mount Pleasant, South Carolina police report (and no, I did not send it to him; apparently someone else did), he began writing critically about Coldwell on GINtruth. By December of 2012 it had dawned on Coldwell that Bernie was not going to back down on calling out Coldwell on his lies, lack of credibility, and general ickiness. So Coldwell began threatening Bernie. This is from a private message exchange between Bernie and Coldwell, circa December 13, 2012.

(Here's a brief May 2013 blog post, with picture, about some of that cash that Lenny showed Peter.)

And this is from a public post, also from December 2012, when Lenny was trying to get Bernie to "pick a side":

And here are two of the follow-ups (same date):

Okay, that's enough of that. You get the idea. (And if you're new-ish here and are puzzled by the talk about prostitutes and so forth, keep reading.)

The point is that by December of 2012 Bernie had clearly drawn his line in the sand, separating himself from Coldwell and not long after that from Abe Husein, who continued to vigorously support, defend, and even promote Coldwell. As indicated in one of the shots above, Abe was and presumably still is in business with Coldwell, selling his overpriced BePure "cleanse."

So that's the origin of Coldwell's beef with Bernie. It also explains why Abe has also made a point of trying to discredit Bernie to various producers and reporters, who nonetheless seem to have no qualms about reading GINtruth. (Or about reading my blog either, for that matter. Or Salty Droid's.) While all of this background may seem trivial, and probably is in the larger Scamworld picture, I recounted it here because I think it is vital for people who care enough about this matter to research to see why Coldwell has gone after Bernie so viciously. Very simply, it is because people read Bernie's blog, and I think that scares Lenny big time.

But on his new site, Coldwell didn't stop at lying about Bernie. He posted a picture of one of his former ghostwriters (and yes, he uses ghostwriters for his English language books because his written English is so comically bad). He wrote:

Here is a women [sic] that Never ever even meet Dr Leonard Coldwell in person, but filed a false police report that she is sure, if he ever would meet her, he would want to rape her.

Coldwell seems to be implying that she was having rape fantasies about him, but with his garbled writing it is difficult to tell. In truth, this person wrote an email to the Mt. Pleasant Police Department back in July of 2012, and that email became part of Coldwell's permanent file, added to that 2007 police report I mentioned above. But the email itself was not a police report. And the ghostwriter did not say she thought Coldwell wanted to rape her. Here is the context of the rape mention in the email:

Dr. Coldwell is a dangerous person, very narcissistic and mean-spirited... Dr. Coldwell's former [employee] warned me, "It's a good thing that you never met him face-to-face -- he would have tried to rape you!" [Former employee] told me stories about getting his college friends jobs at [a company run by Dr. Coldwell's former partner]. These were friends straight out of college, with no work experience. It was tough for them to find jobs... so they'd start working for Dr. Coldwell. Eventually, they would all quit, one after another... and when [the former employee] followed up with them, each story was the same...

You get the drift. I may have provided more context than necessary, but maybe not. And by the way, although I redacted names, all of the ellipses, with the exception of the ones I inserted at the end of the passage, were in the original email, so I wasn't leaving anything out.

I think it is pretty clear that the ghostwriter's email was not a formal complaint or "false report" filed with the police. It was an opinion based upon her own experiences working with Coldwell, and with her impressions from conversations she'd had with others who had worked with him. The email simply became part of Coldwell's file at the Mt. Pleasant Police Department. For more information see here.

Incidentally, I have not and will not publish the police report, and I will not send it to you if you ask. I do not want to compromise the safety of the alleged victims or of anyone else whose names and contact information appear on the very poorly redacted report.

Lenny didn't stop at posting his accusation and a picture of his former ghostwriter. He also posted pictures of her minor children -- all without her permission. Bad, bad move, Loony.

And then there's Omri Shabat at the Glancingweb blog, who, though neither named nor pictured on the new site, was also slammed by Loony. Lenny, claiming that the cancer industry hired Omri to defame him, described Omri as a gay Jew, and he accused Omri of the same heinous crimes against children as he'd accused Bernie of committing. That accusation seems to be a new obsessive theme with Lenny. We can only speculate as to why.

What seems apparent is that Coldwell thinks that being Jewish or gay is on a par with sexual crimes against children. I have seen several posts that indicate Coldwell is both anti-Semitic and homophobic. He has been known to make crude homophobic jokes and remarks, even at his live events where presumably he is supposed to be playing the role of a leader, worthy of emulation. And Coldwell's hatred and suspicion of Jewish people has been reflected in some of his Facebook rants -- as well as in private correspondence to which I was made privy but am not yet at liberty to share. I'm sure that the Jewish screenwriter who had been hired to do the screenplay for the fictionalized Kevin Trudeau movie (currently titled The Platinum Bonus) -- and whom Lenny had boasted that he spoke with to give her his valuable input for the project -- was really impressed with some of the stupidly anti-Semitic things he wrote on Abe Husein's page on the Facebooks.

And then we have the artist formerly known as the Cosmic Slut. AKA Cosmic Connie. AKA your Whirled host. On his "Defamation" page on the new site, Lenny writes:

There also is a Woman out there that tried everything to have sex with Dr. Coldwell and because he refused, she started to post lies, libel, slander, and defamation against him. She posted hundreds of hours’ worth of posts on her own, created websites and web addresses under fake names to verify her own fake posts with other fake posts on fraudulent websites she herself created. If you see how many posts she made with the help of her buddies creating fake Facebook pages pretending she was Dr. Leonard Coldwell, and the hundreds of hours’ worth of hateful posts and absurd attacks, you can easily conclude on your own how obsessed she is with Dr. Leonard Coldwell. There could not even be another reason, besides jealousy and feeling rejected by Dr. C, since she does not even get any money or benefit out of the hundreds of hours’ worth posting hateful posts.

Though the little twerp was careful not to call me by name or to post my pic, it's pretty clear from context that he was talking about me. After all, there's a precedent, as I've noted here before. This is from November 6, 2013; Coldwell's remark, by the way, is completely out of context with the rest of the conversation:

Coldwell also recently told a reporter that I had hit on him. So I think we can all conclude that he's talking about moi on that new site. And I have just this to say to him:

Really, you pathetic little twerp?!?
Coldwell, you and I have never met in person and I hope to Goddess we never do. So just how would I be "trying everything" to have sex with you? Where are the emails, snail mails, voice-mail messages, Facebook posts, private Facebook messages, or whatever I supposedly used to convey my undying lust for you? Surely you would have those, if they existed, and you would share them with the world if you did. They would be right there on your demented new web site. But they aren't, because they don't exist. Moreover, even if I were in the market for a new partner, which emphatically I am not, it would be someone of my own species.

As for the rest of the lies in that paragraph... as I explained in my comment on Bernie's post, I have never made up any accounts or written any posts pretending to be Coldwell, and I write all of my posts about him either on Facebook under my real name, or on my blog, which also displays my real name. However, someone pointed out that he may be claiming I have been impersonating him so that if I decide to pursue any action against him because of some of those screen shots that bear his name and pic, he can say they were either a result of hackers or of my spoofing his account.

As I also noted on my comment to Bernie's post, Coldwell's lie that I sexually harassed him is a relatively new angle. Previously he claimed I was an ex-prostitute (with AIDS and other STDs) being paid by Big Pharma. He also said I am a "cancer tumor of society" and need to be "eliminated." This is from late October 2012:

If you are completely new to my Whirled and/or to this part of the Loony Coldwell saga, you might be saying, "But he still didn't mention you by name, Connie! And there is actually a Cosmic Slut on the Interwebz!" Why, yes there is, which I discovered as soon as Loony began rambling about the "cosmic slut" back in October of 2012. But clearly, from context, he was talking about yours truly, because I do use the moniker "Cosmic Connie" on this blog (though my real name appears right below that moniker on this blog, and I use my real name on Facebook). And I am the Cosmic one who has written about Lenny; to my knowledge, the group of creative artists/musicians using the name Cosmic Slut haven't even heard of the pervy little skeev who named me the "cosmic slut."

And he carried on the slut/prostitute/paid shill theme for well over a year (references were made to that in those December 2012 Facebook shots I shared above). At some point this year he dropped the "cosmic," and I was just "the slut." This is from early March 2014:

At some point prior to that, he had apparently decided I wasn't being paid to write posts about him, so he began formulating a narrative that the only reason I could possibly have for writing about him was sexual obsession. Uh-huh.

But given what he wrote about Bernie, Omri, and his former ghostwriter on the Leonard Coldwell Defamation page on his new site, I'd say I got off pretty easy. Even so, he told nothing but lies on the entire page: SOP for that SOB (no offense intended to mother dogs or their progeny). Here's another lie...

The imaginary Katie conspiracy
Kevin Trudeau, aka KT, aka Katie, gets a category of his own here. And it's well deserved, because it was Katie on whose scam-encrusted shoulders little Lenny stood for a few brief shining moments, and whose GIN scam gave Lenny a platform he never would have had in the U.S. (and for that matter, didn't really have anywhere in Europe, near as I can tell, despite his numerous boasts that he is the most well-loved motivator and healer of our time).

Here's what it says on the new site:

Other defamation was ordered and paid for by Kevin Trudeau who acted for decades like he was my brother’s best friend. The now 3-time convicted felon who is sentenced to 10 years in federal prison, Kevin Trudeau, founded a great organization that was helpful and was a great idea, to educate people every weekend with the best speakers on earth for just 150 dollars a month and he involved Dr. C as the leading motivational speaker. As soon as Dr. C found out that greed took over the thinking and the actions of Trudeau, and that Trudeau built the entire organization with lies, fraud, false and misleading advertisement, Dr. Coldwell, contacted the FTC, wrote to all the members he could reach about the fraud and also made sure the FBI and the US District Attorney’s office were informed about the potential crimes Trudeau committed. Instantly, Trudeau paid people, enticed his followers and ordered many of his employees to use every lie and attack possible to discredit Dr Coldwell
.
Here is just one of the emails Trudeau himself send out.

Well, that was a less than impressive piece of evidence, I must say. To begin with, the email in question was sent out in March 2013, as a result of Trudeau being spooked by ABC's reporters showing up at his luxury digs in Zurich. If Trudeau had "instantly" begun a defamation campaign against little Lenny, as Lenny claimed, you would think that Lenny would have some earlier emails to share with us. After all, Lenny was jettisoned from the GINtanic some time in May 2012.

Moreover, the email is heavily redacted. Here is the full email, as well as another one sent out by Kevin around the same time.

Now compare that top email to the one shared by Coldwell. Notice one of the lines in that email that Coldwell redacted on the version posted on his new site. He totally blacked out the penultimate line on the 11:01 AM email: "-send him dr c email proloting [sic] HIS deal... showing his TRUE motives for lying about me and gin." (Kevin is apparently as bad a writer as Lenny is.)

Now, I'm not saying that I automatically agree with liar Katie that liar Loony was lying about Trudeau and GIN. They're turds of a feather to this day; both are liars, in my view. And I don't know what if anything Loony told ABC; Coldwell was not mentioned at all on the final story. But if Loony simply said that Trudeau was a liar and GIN a lie, then yes, even I have to side with Loony. So I just wonder why Loony would want to redact that line on the email. Maybe he didn't wish to draw any attention on his new site to the thing to which Trudeau was no doubt referring, the IBMS Master's Society scam, a GIN ripoff that provides a painfully obvious motivation for Coldwell to try to turn people against GIN. Or maybe he just got carried away with his redacting. At any rate, his shot of a single heavily redacted email written by Kevin Trudeau to Trudeau's staff in March of 2013 does not prove anything remotely resembling a paid defamation conspiracy against Lenny.

You may recall that I wrote about those Katie emails and their context in the PS to a December 2013 blog post. In case you don't want to follow the link and wade through the verbiage, here is what I wrote:

PS ~ Self-proclaimed GIN destroyer Abe Husein is excited because he, Peter Wink and Loony Coldwell were mentioned in a March 2013 email from Kevin Trudeau to some of his cohorts. Katie apparently panicked and clumsily tried to do some damage control after ABC News showed up outside of his luxury digs in Zurich in March. It was apparently those "ambush journalists" who spooked Katie into trying to discredit some of his detractors. It's almost as if he didn't really realize what they were up to until he got shaken out of his complacency by ABC's visit. More than likely he was also inspired by his looming court cases and upcoming hearings and trial. But his main concern besides discrediting his detractors seemed to be to get tons of pro-GIN testimonials into the right hands. In fact, he seemed more concerned with getting those testimonials than with discrediting Abe, Wink, and Loony. Word has it that no one in the GIN offices actually embarked upon a campaign to discredit the Three Stooges, reasoning that the Stooges did their own self-discrediting better than anyone else ever could.

Following that, I posted a shot of the emails that I just shared above.

I continued:

Obviously any efforts at damage control that may have been made in the wake of the ABC "ambush" were ineffective; ABC aired their episodes of The Lookout, one in May and a followup in August, with, it must be noted, a segment featuring Abe (but with no mention of Loony or Wink). I think that most journalists who have had any interaction with Loony or Wink, particularly Loony, can sense that showcasing them as sources would not be the best move, credibility-wise, for any news media outlet...

I actually had spoken to a former GIN principal who was still with GIN at the time Trudeau sent out those emails. This person said nobody at the GIN offices bothered to try to discredit Lenny, Peter, or Abe "because they did such a good job discrediting themselves." And I stress that this source wasn't necessarily anti-Coldwell; in fact this person had previously told me that Trudeau was actually becoming envious of the attention Coldwell was getting in GIN, and in this person's informed opinion, Katie's resentment of Coldwell's growing popularity was a secondary reason for Trudeau's decision to remove Coldwell. (The primary and overriding reason, according to this source, was that Coldwell and other speakers were costing GIN too much money -- money that Katie wanted to put towards his legal defense.)

The point here is that in the wake of the ABC reporters "ambushing" Trudeau in Zurich, Trudeau's people were apparently much more focused on getting pro-Trudeau testimonials for ABC than on getting anti-Coldwell information. Technically, however, Trudeau was paying the people to whom he sent the above emails, because... um... they were working for him.

But was it a conspiracy? Only in Coldwell's twisted little mind.

As for the rest of the narrative, it's patently absurd that Coldwell makes himself out to be the hero who exposed Trudeau's fraud after he "found out" about it. He was fired from GIN, pure and simple. He didn't give a crap about the lies; in fact, later he insinuated that he knew for a long time that there was no GIN Council, and so forth. No doubt he would still be happily promoting or at least defending Katie even now had he not been booted out. The truth is that Coldwell lost a very hefty income stream when he was fired from GIN. Granted, the income stream would have dwindled by now anyway, due to the investigations of Trudeau that had begun long before GIN did. But Coldwell would have had at least another year and a half of raking in money from GIN and Katie, had he not been booted out.

An accuser recants, raising more questions
One of the hot-button items on Coldwell's new site is his sharing of an affidavit by one of the women whose accusations against him were recorded in the aforementioned 2007 Mount Pleasant, South Carolina police report. Although the report did not result in any charges against Coldwell, and although under South Carolina law the most serious charge against him would have been "forcible fondling" -- NOT RAPE -- it's still pretty disgusting. (Salty Droid wrote about it first, back in September 2012. Here is that link again.) The woman, whose first name Coldwell had the enormous bad taste not to redact when he shared the screen shot of the affidavit, apparently recanted her accusation. Lenny crowed about it:

The main false accusations and lies are usually based on the payments from the enemies of Natural Cancer Cures, and are told to use and make up, or to create on their own. One of the usual accusations they use are sex related accusations, so they created a false police report to destroy Dr. Coldwell’s reputation and at the end of this article you see that the person that made the false police report did retract it and confirmed that she was forced to make these false accusations against Dr. C! Another women they used could not even live with her false accusations and took her own life. This is what these criminals and special interest groups are causing- people going to jail for the lies and false accusations they made and others even kill themselves. (You can get the names and addresses of these people and groups if you write to [EMAIL ADDRESS REDACTED]. [More on that last sentence at the end of this post. ~CC]

Interestingly, although the woman's original complaint was filed in 2007, her affidavit was dated April 23, 2014, a mere six days after Coldwell's stupid Cook County lawsuit was "dismissed for want of prosecution" (see the section immediately following this one). Probably just coincidence. Maybe Coldwell had actually been pressuring her for months or even years to recant, and she finally folded.

But even if she did recant her accusation, there were several other women who made accusations as well, so this does not render the police report invalid. And it's just horrible that Coldwell would say that a young girl who was murdered not long after her alleged experiences with Coldwell killed herself because she could not live with her "lies" and "false accusations." Moreover, Coldwell's claim that the "enemies of Natural Cancer Cures" was behind the police report is... well, I hope the Mount Pleasant, South Carolina police department is reading this. They'll get a good laugh out of it.

Again, I want to stress (as I have on previous posts) that this report did not result in any criminal or civil charges against Coldwell. But Coldwell's implication that only one woman filed a report about him and that because she recanted, the entire report is fake, is absolutely false. And that old saying, "Where there's smoke there's fire" seems to apply here. In my opinion.

One more thing: I heard from what I believe to be a reliable source that Coldwell or someone representing Coldwell had approached a couple of the women last year, offering them money if they would recant their accusations. I have not followed up on this. But I can't help but wonder if instead of making her accusation under duress, the woman who reversed her accusation was recanting under duress. Perhaps it is a matter worth looking into.

Timing + context = everything
Some might be wondering why Lenny chose to roll out this smarmy scrapbook of misinfotainment after spending years clumsily and defensively dodging the very questions he pretends to answer on his new site. I'm not the only one who sees the new site as a clear sign of desperation, but I find the timing and context interesting. I'm thinking that a combination of factors finally drove him round the bend.

The Whois information indicates that the domain was actually registered in March of this year, but the site itself was apparently not completed and launched until just last week. And again, Coldwell has been dodging these questions for years. Why is he finally trying to "answer" them now?

I can't help thinking that it might have something to do with his recent lawsuit humiliation, which has been well covered on several blogs, including this one (here and here); as well as Salty Droid and GINtruth and GlancingWeb. In the event that you don't feel like taking the time to follow all of those links, but you want to know the background, I'll give you a relatively abbreviated version.

On February 10, 2014, Coldwell filed a defamation per se complaint in a Cook County, Illinois court (because he thought that Jason Jones, aka Salty Droid, still lived in Chicago). One problem with the lawsuit was that it named, "Omri Shabat, aka Jason Michael Jones," because Lenny stupidly thought the two men are one and the same. The other problem was that at the time the complaint was filed, nobody named in the complaint lived in Cook County. And though the defendant address listed was indeed Jason's former address -- which Jason himself had posted on his web site back when he really lived in Chicago -- all of the blog posts cited at length in the complaint were Omri's, from his blog, GlancingWeb. Needless to say, it was impossible to serve papers on the defendant(s), as one was in another state and one was in another country entirely.

No matter. Shortly after the suit was filed, Coldwell was all over Facebook bragging that he had sued Salty and that Bernie and I were next. Clouding the issue, Abe Husein posted on his Facebook page that Coldwell had sued Salty and Bernie. (I guess Abe got confused because his buddy had only threatened to sue Bernie.)

As it became more apparent that serving process was not going to be easy, Coldwell wrote a series of little rants about how Salty had found out Lenny was suing him and had gone into hiding -- a total lie, of course. But Lenny vowed that his private investigator and/or his loyal fans would hunt Salty down so he could be served.

On February 27, 2014, a little over two weeks after the suit was filed, Loony's own lawyer, Dennis Kellogg (a personal-injury attorney whom Coldwell apparently got through one of those Lawyers R Us monthly-fee services) filed a motion to withdraw from the case "for professional reasons." The motion was granted by the court on March 17.

Shortly after the lawyer's motion to withdraw was granted, Coldwell was on Facebook saying that he had been informed that the case was a criminal one and involved multiple jurisdictions, so he would be seeking a new lawyer and filing new criminal cases against all of us bloggers. He continued to figuratively shake his chubby little fist, warning that we "criminal" bloggers might soon find ourselves in a jail cell with Kevin Trudeau.

Meanwhile, Salty/Jason, who had become aware of the lawsuit only because a loyal friend notified him and another one obtained copies of the complaint from the courthouse, responded properly. (I do not know any details about Omri's responses, although apparently he did respond, according to the LexisNexis summary page.) Jason filed a motion to dismiss the case (due to its utter stupidity) as well as a motion for sanctions against the lawyer and Loony (due to their utter stupidity). Those motions became moot, however, when on April 23, 2014, the case was dismissed for want of prosecution. Obviously, Lenny had not found a substitute lawyer, and nobody from the plaintiff's side showed up -- including Lenny, is my guess. So the judge duly dismissed it and said, "Next!" I imagine that Jason still has an option to pursue sanctions if he so desires, but at this point he's busy chasing down other bad guys so he probably has other things on his mind.

Of note, during the back and forth about the case, Jason had asked Lenny point-blank about his degrees and was prepared to bring his lack of credentials up in court if it had come to that. Perhaps Lenny was growing increasingly uneasy about someday being pressed to prove his creds. In any case, the lawsuit was a major fail -- not exactly a feather in the cap of someone who so frequently boasts, "I will not start the fight, but I will finish it!" and "I have never, ever lost a fight!" In this case, he started the fight, didn't finish it, andhe lost. So there's that. Of course the ending of this saga is not mentioned on his new web site, or on any of his sites, including his Facebook page.

Maybe Lenny's desperation was further escalated by the fact that a few mainstream journalists have been poking around his business in the past few months, asking him those uncomfortable questions about his credentials. And perhaps it also has to do with the cumulative effect of the questions that people have been asking him for more than two years now via blogs and Facebook posts.

What's clear is that his new site is indeed an expression of deranged desperation.

Echolalia and projection
As I have noted here before, when it comes to his critics Leonard Coldwell has a history of taking accusations that have been leveled against him, and turning them right back around to the accuser. It's like a written form of echolalia, or echophrasia, the automatic repetition of vocalizations made by another person. My husband Ron has a simpler explanation: it's the Pee Wee Herman defense: "I know you are, but what am I?"

For instance, as I have mentioned here before, shortly after Salty Droid published his September 2012 blog post about the 2007 Mount Pleasant police report on Coldwell, longtime Kevin Trudeau buddy and frauduct peddler Fred Van Liew (Whirled name Fred Van Loony) posted a link to that post on Facebook, tsk-tsk-tsk-ing about the allegations that Coldwell had exploited his position as a fake doctor and health "expert" to take advantage of numerous vulnerable women.

Fred Van Liew Thursday at 7:01pm

This is not good news regarding Coldwell. Sorry to have to post, however my radio program and my life is about health, and this man evidently represents anything but. The article will keep you from going anywhere near this man.
http://saltydroid.info/dr-leonard-coldwells-handson-healing/

An extended discussion about the allegations followed. I wrote about that and other aspects of the Coldwell-Van Liew pot-and-kettle saga on this September 2012 post.

Very shortly after Fred "exposed" Lenny on Facebook, Coldwell was on Facebook accusing Fred of molesting women while pretending to "test" them. This is from October 24, 2012:

And a year later he was still accusing Fred of putting his hands on the ladies and practicing medicine without a license. I wrote about that here.

That is just one example. Coldwell also seems to love threatening his international critics -- that would be Bernie and Omri -- with Interpol. Bernie has some hilarious things to say about that, and has actually contacted Interpol to find out if they really are after him, as Coldwell claims. He will be keeping us posted on his blog. I imagine that the purpose of Lenny's Interpol meme is partly to impress his more dimwitted followers, who might be taken in by the air of international intrigue that the word "Interpol" lends to his lunatic rants. But I also know from reading the police report that Interpol and other international organizations have been contacted during investigations into Coldwell's activities. Once again... echolalia. Or projection: scenes from his own life, projected outward.

Now, as for Coldwell's false claims that I am an ex-prostitute, on first glance that seemed to me to be just a gratuitous tactic to further discredit me. I don't think the echolalia factor applies here, as I do not believe anyone has accused him of being a prostitute (though I could be wrong). But the projection factor may apply. I have heard that he has an affinity for prostitutes and paid escorts; I really don't know and don't care. Perhaps he has some sort of love-hate relationship going on with that profession. Many men do.

As for the pedophilia accusations he has leveled against others, I really don't know where that's coming from. However, Bernie did share a screen shot on his first post about Coldwell's new web site. Someone who knows Coldwell very well wrote this:

...he is obviously really desperate...this info is coming from a pedophile which is why he calls everyone else pedophile. He projects who he is in all that he says...Desperate is my conclusion the walls are closing in!

It would appear that Coldwell's statements about his critics reveal a lot more about him than about them.

Slithering idiot
For all you herpetologists and serpent fans out there: when I use the word "slithering," please know that I mean no offense to snakes, which actually serve a useful purpose in nature. On his "Defamation" page, Coldwell seems to be taking his usual tack of indirect directness, apparently attempting to slither his way out of any liability for the content by (1) pretending his brother wrote the screed on the "Defamation" page; (2) not actually naming any names in his lies about his critics (although those pictures he posted of Bernie and of Coldwell's former ghostwriter would seem to open him up to liability should the owners of those pictures choose to pursue legal action); and (3) claiming that (in the case of his accusation against Bernie), a "source" sent him the beat-up picture and told him the supposed story behind the picture.

Just like "sources" told him that I am an STD-infected ex-hooker.

As I have noted here before, Lenny has a long history of giving himself what he thinks is an easy out should anyone actually come after him. On several occasions he has claimed that his Facebook account and/or web site were "hacked." He has blamed his "assistant" for some of the rants on Facebook. And then, as discussed here previously, there is the disclaimer at the bottom of the page on his main site:

The Dr Leonard Coldwell Foundation e V is responsible for the content of this website, all legal issues have to be addressed to Dr Leonard Coldwell Foundation e V Germany. Due to a hack on our sites we cannot retrieve the origin of some articles used on this website. We apologize for that. Articles are also from our friends, colleagues and fellow freedom fighters like: www.rense.com, www.seedsofdeception.com, www.goodlifefoundation.com, www.robertscottbell.com, www.healthfreedomusa.org www.dorway.com, www.prisonplanet.com, www.nvic.org, www.naturalnews.com and www.mercola.com. We appreciate the great work and research of Jeff Rense, Dr. Rima E. Laibow, Dr. Betty Martini, Dr. Thomas Hohn, Jeffrey Smith, Dr. Mercola, Mike Adams - The Health Ranger, Alex Jones, and others.

Yakaru, a friend and fellow blogger who lives in Germany and is familiar with the way things are done there, says that the Dr. Leonard Coldwell Foundation e V seems to be a nonexistent foundation. You can read Yakaru's take on it here (scroll down to find "The Dr Leonard Coldwell Foundation e V").

But it is quite possible that Lenny's slithering won't get him out of any liability should someone choose to pursue action. I understand that several complaints have been sent to the host of his new site, and there may be other actions taken as well, so it is quite possible that some of the content discussed above will be removed at some point. But as I mentioned above, I am telling the truth here about the site as it exists at the time I am writing this post. In other words, as one of my long-time favorite humorists Dave Barry always likes to say, "I am not making this up."

Who's defaming whom?
I have been told by more than one attorney that I have a very good case against Coldwell based upon the lies he has written about me. I imagine that the other critics he's slammed have a pretty good case too. These attorneys have said that Coldwell's statements -- falsely accusing critics of prostitution, of having sexually transmitted diseases, of committing criminal sexual acts -- are the very textbook definition of unprotected speech.

In my case, these attorneys were referring specifically to First Amendment protection, which of course only applies in the United States. But I imagine that there are equivalent points -- related to freedom of expression as opposed to defamation -- that would apply in international litigation. I have not made any decisions myself about pursuing action against Coldwell and I do not know if his other targets have made any decisions. But at this point, this poorly worded statement on his site -- at the bottom of his main bio page -- seems to be tempting fate:

Defamation, Libel, Slander and the Conspiracy to Destroy Ground of Business: To preempt any form of doubt creation: Dr Leonard Coldwell has never been sued, arrested, indicted, trialed [sic] or convicted of any crime.

Is Coldwell trying to incite vigilante "justice?"
Coldwell's perverse sexual fantasies about his critics are disturbing, but even more disturbing to me is the fact that in the context of lying about some particulars of the 2007 police report, he invites people to write to him at a certain email address, and he promises that he will give them all of the names and full contact information of everyone who is involved in his purely imaginary “conspiracy” to “destroy grounds of business” and to “defame” him.

Because of the context in which he wrote this, I believe that this list includes the numerous women (and as I noted earlier, there wasn’t just one) whose accounts appear in the police report, as well as bloggers and journalists who have done nothing more than raise legitimate questions -- questions that he has still not answered with anything except another round of ungrammatical lies, though admittedly this time those lies are enhanced with jpegs of spurious credentials and old German newspaper clippings.

By threatening to share our contact information it seems clear that he is trying to incite vigilante justice -- one step below actually posting all of the names and personal information on a public web site, as, for example, certain extreme groups have done, with the results that some of the groups’ targets have been stalked and murdered. The fact that reportedly Coldwell has also -- with apparent seriousness -- talked about sending hit men after people should also be considered, as should the fact that he has previously threatened me -- and others -- via private message on Facebook (once again pretending to be his brother, and using still another fake name: "Rudi Kauder").

Ron and I take his invitation to his fanatical fans as a bona fide threat and we are taking appropriate actions.

You might think that after all of the above, there's not much more to be said about the pack of lies on the Leonard Coldwell bio site. But if you are thinking that, you don't know me. I'm not quite finished. On the next post we'll take a closer look at some of those "certifications" of which Mocktor Coldwell is so unjustly proud, as well as other odd bits and pieces on his new site.

Meanwhile, here is Bernie's followup GINtruth.com post about Loony's new site. Enjoy!

↧

Leonard Coldwell goes too far: lies about me poisoning his dog

July 16, 2014, 3:02 pm

≫ Next: Kevin Trudeau news: Banjo David comes out of hiding, and government issues sentencing memo

≪ Previous: Coldwell rolls out hilarious new bio site, tightens rope around his own neck, Part 1 of 2

Fake doctor Leonard Coldwell, ex-b.f.f. of imprisoned serial scammer Kevin Trudeau, has finally gone too far in his attempts to silence me. He has publicly and falsely accused me of poisoning his pit bull Blue, or of being somehow behind the deed, and is running a campaign on social media to get people to pity him and rally behind him against me. Most dangerously of all he has published my name and address in conjunction with these false accusations. The picture above speaks for itself, and deserves addressing here on this very public blog, since I am not allowed a voice on the social media forums on which it appears.

The screen shot shows a July 15, 2014 re-post of one that was originally put on Facebook on July 14, 2014. The post was put on his new page, The Only Answer to Cancer, as well as his personal profile page, Leonard Coldwell Nmd PhD., which have a combined following of several thousand. The post was shared by numerous people on their Facebook pages, including a fan page for a conspiracy-nut radio show. Several folks complained about the original post to Facebook and Facebook took it down, and then Coldwell's gang put it right back up, and Facebook took it down yet again.

This did not stop him. Sometimes pretending to be his brother "Nicolas" (though his brother's real name is Jens Anskohl, aka Nicholas (with an h) Coldwell), sometimes pretending to be someone named "Barbara," and sometimes writing as himself, Coldwell continues even now to spread the lies about me on other Facebook posts, without my address but still stating my name and saying I had something to do with the poisoning of his dog. And I am blocked from participating on these public conversations.

Unfortunately, some people apparently believe Coldwell's lies. I am getting emails from people asking me if I poisoned the dog or know who did. But most aren't even questioning me; they're simply rallying to Coldwell's side and making all sorts of speculations about me and implied threats. Nevertheless I hold out a little hope for rationality, so here is my open letter to any Leonard Coldwell fans who have the broadness of mind to read it. (And I promise I'll get back to my intended and mostly-finished posts soon!)

Dear unquestioning Leonard Coldwell fans who believe Coldwell's lie about who poisoned Coldwell's dog Blue:

I respectfully ask that you read this blog post-- and follow all necessary links -- and perhaps then you will see why Leonard Coldwell, whom I've never met and never tried to meet, is on a rampage against ME, rather than the other way around. Everything he has been telling you fans about me is a lie and he knows it, and everyone who knows me or has followed my blog knows it too. As a lifelong animal lover who has several dogs and cats, I would NEVER poison a dog, condone poisoning a dog or be part of anything so atrocious.

Moreover, I have no idea what Coldwell's home address is. He keeps that very private and wouldn't even give it to the courts in his recent major fail of a lawsuit against another blogger (Salty Droid). More than likely, if the dog was indeed deliberately poisoned as he claims (and we only have Coldwell's word for it at this point), it was one of his neighbors. Unfortunately many people hate pit bulls, a breed I happen to be quite fond of (though I am fond of all dogs).

In fact, I've written about my dogs and cats a few times on this blog. I've deeply mourned the ones I lost, though I have yet to write about our sweet Layla, a pretty hound-terrier mix who died last August as a result of eating tainted dog food (I still need to blog about that. It's hard.). It was a terrible death, the worst dog death I have ever seen, and I have seen too many four-legged loved ones through their final hours over the years. The sounds of Layla's cries and the smell of her blood (she was hemorrhaging from both ends) will haunt Ron and me forever. I would never wish such an experience on an innocent dog or on any of the people who love that dog -- no matter how vile the people themselves are.

As for some of the other lies...
Coldwell has accused me of hacking into his new web site, a site that I wrote about at length in my previous blog post. I am too technically inept to hack anyone's web site, not even my own. I do not condone hacking because I do not believe in playing dirty. So Coldwell's and his little web-girl's claims or insinuations that I had ANYTHING to do with "hacking" are simply absurd. His pages were no doubt removed because of numerous complaints from the people he lied about, such as Bernie O'Mahony, whom he falsely accused of being a child rapist (as well as falsely accusing him of hacking into his web site). Bernie has some more about that; his link is at the end.

Anyone who has been following Coldwell for any length of time knows that "hacking" is his most frequent defense. If you're to believe him, that man's sites get hacked more than all of the banking, government, military and other major sites in the world. He must be a very important man!

And for the benefit of those of you who aren't familiar with me or my blog -- and if you believe Coldwell's stories, you obviously are not familiar with me or my blog -- I am a professional writer but I blog as a hobby. I have been blogging since July 2006 and have written about many Scamworld artists, not just Coldwell. Coldwell came on my radar only because of his close ties with now-imprisoned serial scammer Kevin Trudeau. In fact if it hadn't been for Kevin Trudeau promoting Coldwell's shtick in Trudeau's first Natural Cures book, and then later elevating him to such lofty status via Trudeau's huge GIN scam, Coldwell would still be scrabbling around in obscurity. Coldwell deeply owes nearly his entire platform and any prominence he might have in the U.S. to Trudeau -- and when Coldwell was fired from GIN in spring of 2012 his wallet took a huge hit from which he is clearly still trying desperately to recover.

The point I wish to make is that I have only ever written about Leonard Coldwell on this very blog, which as you can clearly see has my real name, and on various Facebook forums, also under my real name (my current avatar is the well-known symbol for marriage equality), and on other people's blogs, usually under the name "Cosmic Connie" because that is an online name used on my blog, but everybody knows it is I. So when Coldwell says I have created hundreds of fake accounts and spent thousands of hours "defaming" him, he is lying. Well, maybe he really believes that is true, but I think not. He is desperate and searching for any way to silence me.

By the way, Alexandra Nouri (not "Nuori," as he spells it) is a real and separate person who runs her own blog and writes books and helps people deal with the narcissists and sociopaths in their lives. She wrote one blog post about Coldwell -- one! -- and he intimidated her into taking it down. But her blog is still up there, big as life. At first Coldwell said Alexandra was Bernie O'Mahony. Now he says she is I. Go figure. It's not the first lie he's told, or even the worst lie, and it won't be the last.

And oh, my goodness, his implication about that "false police report" is truly daft. He cites one woman who very recently retracted her accusation against him (failing to mention that she was just one of numerous women filing complaints). And he says she admitted it was a false report that she filed under pressure, adding, "guess from whom?" By context, the clear implication is that I pressured the woman to file the report at the Mount Pleasant, South Carolina Police Department (case number 2007-04652) in the first place. Really, Leonard?!? That report was filed in 2007, years before I'd ever even heard the name Leonard Coldwell. Back in those blissful days I was occupied with joyfully skewering The Secret. I had no idea of the evil that was in my Whirled's future.

What is truly awful is that on his "Bio" web site and in a subsequent Facebook post he mentions another woman who supposedly committed suicide because she could not live with herself after making the false accusations against Coldwell. That is codswallop, and one of the crassest and most cynical things he has ever written. This woman -- actually a teenage girl -- was murdered under mysterious circumstances a few months after the alleged incidents with Coldwell. Reportedly she was never the same after her alleged encounters with him, and she started hanging around a bad crowd. The full story of her murder has not been told.

And here's an important point that you Lenny fans need to assimilate: The only reason I am "obsessed" with Coldwell is that he provides so much easy material. To suggest that I have any sexual interest in him whatsoever is a lie -- a highly amusing one, but a lie nevertheless.

The thing is, though, I cannot defend myself on the forums he is using to incite people to hate me and take action against me. He has blocked me from seeing them or from participating in any way. He does not want to give me a chance to speak up for myself and provide links that tell the truth about HIM. To me that reeks of cowardice. That is what bullies do. So much for the courageous "Dr." Coldwell.

Again, read this blog post and try to consider what you are doing by supporting the man who is spreading these outrageous lies about me and several other people. Coldwell is angry because ever since May 2012, when I wrote my first blog post about him, I have been asking questions he does not want to answer. Questions about his credentials, his medical qualifications, his cure claims, and the REAL reasons that he changed his name from Bernd Klein (aka Bernd Witchner) and moved from Germany to the United States.

The first lies he told about me were that I am an AIDS-infected ex-prostitute who gave bad STDs to her clients, and am now being paid by Big Pharma to discredit and defame him. When nobody believed those lies (not even his closest fan-girls) he switched to the story that I tried to have sex with him. That tale first surfaced last November. At first he said I tried to bed him for more than two years. Soon after he changed that to nearly three years. He can't even be consistent with his lies.

He is also saying that I have been "defaming" him for three years now. I did not write my first blog post about him until May 2012. That has been only a little over two years. Maybe they do years differently in Germany.

The bottom line is that Coldwell's latest campaign to silence me -- by crassly and cynically using his dog to incite people to action against me -- has put me in serious jeopardy because he published my address in conjunction with the false accusations, and he all but invited people to come and get me. And most of his fans accept his baloney without question. You're all ready to come hunt me down and poison and shoot me (well, some of you are). Check out that deranged woman with the caps-lock problem in the two shots below:

(You've been reported, Haiah.)

You're all ready to condemn me as a crazed, sex-obsessed stalker -- or "a relentless zionist sub-human scum" (well, some of you are).

Later in the same conversation, a woman named Gloria Winters Anderson wrote, "I would LOVE to catch her and defame her the way she defamed Blue!" Duly noted and reported, Gloria. I may have to re-think the relatively respectful tone of this blog post.

And some of you are willing to believe beyond-the-pale, crazy stupid stuff (talk about being mentally ill):

And you guys don't even know me. If you believe what Coldwell is saying about me you are clueless about the real context here, and you won't even bother to try to do a little rudimentary research (well, most of you won't).

Instead you'll believe crap like this gem, where Coldwell imagines that I am some almighty controller who is making other bloggers, such as Bernie O'Mahony, Omri Shabat at GlancingWeb (the guy in Israel), and a "wannabe lawyer" do my bidding. In reality we're all independent bloggers who write what we want, when we want. We just happen to know scum when we see it..

I wonder if Coldwell was referring to his "4 lawyers" when he said, in the sentence immediately following the 4 lawyers reference, that "they are 4 crazy and criminal people." At this point any lawyer who takes any case that Lenny thinks he has against me would have to be crazy, criminal, or both, so maybe this is something on which Lenny and I can agree.

And incidentally, that "mentally ill wannabe lawyer without a license" who has been "hiding two years" is the above-mentioned Salty Droid, aka Jason Jones, whom Coldwell comically confused with Omri in Israel. Here is a direct link to the complaint. Coldwell has told numerous lies on Facebook about this, including the lies he is telling in his current social media campaign. For instance, in the shot above he says he has been trying for two years to hunt Jason down to serve him with court papers. In a subsequent post he said he has been trying for one year to serve him. Both are lies. As of now, it hasn't even been a full two years since Coldwell even heard of Jason/Salty Droid. Salty did not write about Coldwell until late August 2012. He wrote about him again -- a more damning post -- in early September 2012.

And in truth Coldwell couldn't serve Salty/Jason papers because Jason had moved to another state a little over a year before Coldwell filed the suit, but not to "hide" -- he just moved. People do. (Coldwell himself has moved numerous times since he came to the U.S. in the late 1990s -- he started out in Virginia but in the year 2000, according to an account on the 2007 police report, he felt he had to leave that state, and ended up in South Carolina, though he is cagey about his home address, of course.) His lawyer obviously did not bother to do any research to find out if the address Coldwell gave him for Jason -- which had previously been a valid address -- was still good. Nevertheless Coldwell went on Facebook and bragged about the suit. I got wind of it, and someone who is still in Chicago went down to the courthouse and got a copy of the filed lawsuit, which she forwarded to Jason. He promptly replied to the suit with papers of his own, even though all of the blog posts that Coldwell cited in his defamation complaint weren't even Jason's.

But that sham of a lawsuit that Coldwell filed was dismissed for want of prosecution on April 17, 2014. In fact Coldwell's own lawyer, Dennis J. Kellogg (actually a personal-injury guy that Coldwell found through one of those Lawyers-R-Us services) removed himself from the case early on, no doubt because he realized he'd made a major career blunder by taking the case in the first place. Here's Salty himself writing about it. And here's the Lexis-Nexis link indicating the thing was dismissed. So once again, Coldwell is lying. And he knows it.

But most of you fans probably aren't questioning his claims.

On the other hand, if you're here, and you've read this far, maybe you will be the exception. Maybe you'll be brave enough to open your mind to the possibility that Coldwell is lying about me, and about his other critics as well.

And if he tells such outrageous and extreme and blatantly desperate, legally actionable lies about us, what else is he lying about?"I'll take 'VIRTUALLY EVERYTHING' for $10,000, Alex!"

That $10,000 figure, incidentally, isn't just something I pulled out of my hat. Coldwell actually put a bounty on me on July 15. Or rather, on information about me that links me to whatever it was that happened to his dog (who reportedly and thankfully is now recovering).

Ya know, he could have actually used his dog's suffering in a positive way. If his dog truly was deliberately poisoned by someone -- and again, we only have his word for this -- he could have used this as a pulpit to raise awareness about the irrational hatred of pit bulls (if he had reason to believe that this was the impetus for the act), as well as awareness about the importance of keeping an eye on your dog. Similarly, he could have run an awareness campaign if his dog had been poisoned accidentally -- because the food he ate or a treat or chew toy he was given was tainted (it happens even with the most exclusive, expensive, made-in-the-USA brands). Or if the dog got into something around the Coldwell Mansion, such as rat poison or bourbon, Coldwell could have raised awareness about the importance of keeping toxins out of the reach of your precious pets.

Instead he chose to use his dog's suffering to make this about his suffering at the hands of the "criminal" forces who are out to get him. He chose to turn the spotlight on me and not just imply, but actually accuse me of doing this or being behind it. He chose to publish my address in this context. And it does not matter if my address appears on some of my other sites. The context in which Leonard Coldwell published the address shows a clearly malicious intent to incite violence against me.

That is unconscionable.

Thank you for your time, Coldwell fans. I realize there's probably no hope that some of you will be convinced, and I know of at least one Coldwell fan-girl who is deliberately promoting these lies even after she privately apologized to me for "accidentally" sharing the post that had my address.

And I know of at least one enthusiastic supporter and sharer of Coldwell's screeds against me -- including the ones with my address -- who has not blocked me from seeing the fan page for his conspiracy-nut radio show, but has blocked me from commenting. You've been reported too, Michael Vara of Late Night in the Midlands. I suspect it's your audience members who are behind some of the most threatening and disturbing comments about me.

Just one more thing: as promised above, here's Bernie O'Mahony at GINtruth.com weighing in. He goes more into the false accusations about the critics hacking Coldwell's web sites, and has screen shots to prove that Coldwell and his fan-girl are lying about the site being "hacked." I warn you that Bernie will not be nearly as kind as I have been, but then, he has been falsely accused by Coldwell of being a child molester, and his picture was pasted on Coldwell's new (and currently removed) site, in conjunction with that atrocious accusation, so he has every right to be angry.

Sincerely,
Connie L. Schmidt
aka "Cosmic Connie"

↧

Kevin Trudeau news: Banjo David comes out of hiding, and government issues sentencing memo

March 12, 2014, 11:12 am

≫ Next: Kevin Trudeau updates: court docs still flying, minions still crying, GIN ripoffs still trying

≪ Previous: Leonard Coldwell goes too far: lies about me poisoning his dog

Now, here's some good news. My friend Julie Daniel just noticed this today. The guy that many of us have known for a few years only as "Banjo David" has finally revealed his full name on now-jailed serial scammer Kevin Trudeau's public Facebook page. He is one David G. Bragman of Chicago, a recording engineer, bluegrass musician, radio host, and teacher of banjo, guitar, singing and sound recording. Go, David!

I had mentioned Banjo David on my blog a few years ago(see Addendum 19 July 2011); I linked to and quoted his 2010 post on The Straight Dope board. Over the past year or so, several of us on Facebook have linked to the same post.

Under the thread, "Did you spread your cheeks for Kevin Trudeau?" Banjo David wrote a "public apology," relating his experiences with Trudeau at motivational info-product purveyor Nightingale-Conant way back in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

On March 10, David copied and pasted his old comment on Trudeau's Facebook page. See the screen shot above (as usual, click to enlarge). Here is the direct link, which is good at this time, but you never know if and when it will be taken down:
https://www.facebook.com/TheKevinTrudeau/posts/636421049744287

And here again is the link to David's original (2010) comment on The Straight Dope.
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=554566

Although David's story hasn't varied between that 2010 comment and the one he posted two days ago -- except for the fact that he updated the number of years since he got "sh-t-canned" from Nightingale-Conant, -- you can see that some diehard Katie fans are claiming that he is just making it up, and they won't believe it till others come forth. Till others come forth?!? Um.... that train left the station long ago.

David, if you want to share your thoughts on this Whirled, feel free to do so. I've been writing about your old not-friend Katie for more than five years now. Or drop me an email at the address listed at the top of this page. Or just join the conversation on Facebook at GIN Network Truth.

I know that a lot of people will be interested in what you have to say.

And by the way, I love banjo music.

Meanwhile, in court... gummit asks for a min of ten
Here is a link to the latest document (plus exhibits) from Kevin Trudeau's criminal contempt case.

The actual pre-sentence investigation report is still sealed but this document, filed on March 10, 2014, is the government's Sentencing Memorandum. It recommends that Trudeau be sentenced to at least ten years in prison, based upon legal sentencing guidelines. Remember that it is still up to Judge Ronald Guzman to make this decision, however. Sentencing will be this coming Monday, March 17, at 2:00 PM.

The main document gives a good summary of Trudeau's misdeeds, but the exhibits -- particularly the emails from his former partner Donald Barrett -- are very revealing. I still think that if Katie is going to be caged, Barrett deserves it too, but then, so do many of Trudeau's other cohorts and former cohorts. But I guess that's not my call to make.

↧

Kevin Trudeau updates: court docs still flying, minions still crying, GIN ripoffs still trying

July 22, 2014, 8:02 pm

≫ Next: Eight misbehavin': Whirled Musings 8th Blogaversary

≪ Previous: Kevin Trudeau news: Banjo David comes out of hiding, and government issues sentencing memo

If you landed here hoping to (finally!) see Part 2 of my two-part post on the awful new up-again/down-again bio site of Mockter Leonard Coldwell, ex-b.f.f. of caged serial scammer Kevin Trudeau (Part 1 of the Loony C post is here), I'm sorry to say that this isn't that post. But don't worry: that will be coming up soon...prolly next. I just need to do a little more tweaking, mostly for word flow. As many of you may know, I got sidetracked by some really serious sh-t that Coldwell has been pulling since July 14, falsely accusing me of poisoning his pit bull Blue. But let's take a break from that little skeev for now. He is beginning to bore me.

Besides, there's a ton of amusing stuff about Trudeau, or KT as he likes to be called, or Katie as he is fondly known on this Whirled -- as well as some buzz about a few Katie wannabes. Let me catch you up...

Court case updates
Civil contempt case [1:03-cv-03904, Hon. Robert Gettleman presiding]
As you no doubt know, what is arguably Trudeau's biggest scam of all, the Global Information Network (GIN) was sold in May 2014 to a group of Katie's buds. And on July 7, 2014, Robb Evans & Associates, the court-appointed receiver, filed its fourth report and supporting exhibit, as well as a request to be paid for all of its hard work. The report is on Robb Evans' site, or you can grab it here. This doc provides a summary of the receiver's activities since they took over in August 2013. It's good catch-up or review for anyone, including you reporters and producers out there who might need to get up to speed on the case.

Here are some of the numbers from the receiver's report:

Closing the Receivership Estate and Distribution of Cash
The Receiver anticipates that after completion of the forensic accounting report in the near future, there will be very little in ongoing fees and expenses associated with collecting the amounts discussed above.

The Receiver is currently holding approximately $5.1 million. After collection of all of the funds, the Receiver estimates over $8 million will be available for distribution upon future instructions from this Court.

This money, or most of it, is supposed to go to help pay Katie's $37.6 million fine to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which is eventually supposed to distribute it to the consumers who complained about losing money as a result of buying Katie's weight-loss book years ago. But who knows where that cash will ultimately end up?

Apropos of the above, something that is not on the Robb Evans site is the document in which the receivers ask the court for approval of fees and expenses, and provide an account of their activities over the past few months.I shared this on Facebook on the GIN Network Truth group, but you can also find it here.On July 10 these documents were presented to the court, and the court, as expected, approved the payments to the receiver (Document number 867).

Criminal contempt case [1:10-cr-00886-1, Hon. Ronald Guzman presiding]
As reported here previously, Katie finally got the money together to file the appeal for his criminal contempt conviction, which resulted in a ten-year sentence in a Federal lockup. Currently he's at a minimum security sleepaway camp in Montgomery, Alabama, while it's all sweetness and light on his Facebook fan page as his proxies continue to pretend he's having a wonderful time on his "adventure." Frauduct peddler and GIN "faculty" member Mary Miller wrote on a post that was published on the Katie fan page July 20:

From Mary Miller...
Last week I had the opportunity to visit with Kevin. He looks very healthy and is very much at peace with his new home. He continues to grow and learn. All of us hit bumps in the road from time to time..Seeing Kevin reminded me that these are truly opportunities to change and grow...I left him reminded that I am only a victim of my life when I give over control of the driver's seat. It was just the right day to visit..Mary Miller

"Bumps on the road?!?" Is that what you call a ten-year prison sentence? But last time I checked, the post had 654 "likes" and more than 50 comments, most of them very supportive of Katie.

Even so, given the way that Katie's luck has been going with judges in the past year or so, I am thinking that his appeal will not be successful. And someone mentioned to me that it could backfire, noting that if an appeals court judge decides that a sentence wasn't harsh enough, he or she can change that. In addition, according to this piece on trial, sentencing, and appeal...

When appellate courts review cases, they may affirm the decision of the lower court, reverse the decision of the lower court, or affirm only a portion of the lower court's decision and reverse other portions of it. Although a reversal accomplishes the same thing, they also have the power to order the whole case dismissed, as if it didn't happen. More often, if this is the case, however, the appellate court will remand the case, which means that it is returned to the trial court and may be retried. If they feel strongly about what the ultimate outcome should be in a case, they will indicate reverse and remand. If the appellate court indicates that there was insufficient evidence to convict in the first place, the state trial court cannot even retry the case because double jeopardy protection kicks in. In any retrials the state cares to do, they cannot charge the defendant with anything other than what they were charged with in the original trial, but the sentence at the retrial can be harsher following a successful appeal.

In addition, today (July 22) I stumbled upon some letters to the court that appeared on the criminal docket since my last visit to PACER. I'm sure that hundreds if not thousands of letters and emails have been sent about this matter since Katie's sentencing, but the ones that just popped up on the docket are mostly anti-Trudeau.

One thing that people just can't seem to understand why Katie's infomercials are still on TV.

I've explained the infomercial thing here (see under the sub-head, "Katie is still on TV, and here's why"), and some mainstream journos such as Jason Meisner at the Chicago Tribune have too, but it hasn't sunk in.

Look, people, you all have a perfectly valid point, but what you need to know is that the big sick machine is so big and so sick that scads of other scammers will continue to find ways to make money off of the Katiescams, even though Katie's in a cage. NO NEAT AND TIDY ENDINGS, Y'ALL.

Point is, there's a lot of anti-Katie sentiment out there. Here's some more of it...

This is the one supportive letter that appeared on the docket.

If those five letters are representative of the ratio of anti- to pro-Katie messages coming in, it appears that sentiment is running 4 to 1 against him. But I can't say for sure.

At any rate, more than likely there won't be any decisions made on the appeal until some time in October at the very earliest. Katie asked for extra time to prepare his appeal brief, through his new lawyer, Mr. Christopher M. Bruno, Esq. (another attorney with Katie's long-time firm Winston & Strawn, LLP). Here is the link to the document requesting more time.

Bruno, who has primary responsibility for preparing this brief, explained:

Winston & Strawn LLP was trial counsel for Mr. Trudeau and has continued to represent him on this appeal on a pro bono basis. I was recently admitted to the bar of the Seventh Circuit and entered my appearance on July 3, 2014. On June 17, 2014, the Court notified Mr. Trudeau that all necessary fees for his appeal had been paid in full, after Winston & Strawn LLP paid the appellate fees.

To justify the request for more time, Bruno cited the complexity of the case, the unique aspects of criminal contempt, and the fact that Bruno has other projects whose deadlines conflict with the deadline for the Katie case. He also noted:

8. Finally, Mr. Trudeau is currently in the custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons at Maxwell Air Force Base Prison Camp. Given that he is incarcerated at a location far from my office [Bruno is in Washington D.C.], I do not meet with him in person. Accordingly, to provide him counsel, I am required to separately schedule calls with him and communicate by mail. Although the Bureau of Prisons has been accommodating, these realities create delays in the process of effectively preparing Mr. Trudeau’s appeal.
9. Transferring responsibility for this appeal to another attorney at Winston & Strawn, LLP would be an inefficient use of resources, given the time I have already spent researching the legal issues and reviewing the record in this matter.

Bruno anticipated that he could prepare and file Katie's brief by August 22, 2014. Just reading between the lines, it appears to me that Winston & Strawn, LLP does not want to spring for air fare for Chris Bruno, since they're already doing so much work pro bono anyway. But on July 14, 2014, the motion for extension of time was approved. So at least Katie was granted that much.

Meanwhile, Katie's supporters continue to try to raise money for his legal battle -- and they'd better work hard, because if the above is any indication, those bills will continue to pile up despite the pro bono stuff.

Meet me in St. Louis: Neo-stinkers rally to Katie's defense
The other day someone alerted me to a discussion taking place on the Twelve Visions Party page on Facebook. As you may know, the Twelve Visions Party (TVP) is an invention of Mark Hamilton -- real name Wallace Ward, Jr., Whirled name Mark Scamilton -- a long-time buddy of Kevin Trudeau and current head of the Neo-Think/Neo-Tech/NovaTech/Nouveau Tech/Society of Secrets Scampire. On July 9, Jill Reed, former U.S. presidential "candidate" for the TVP, shared the status of a Neo-stinker named Kenneth W. Townsend. Jill wrote:

Kenneth W Townsend was one of the original founders of the Twelve Visions Party Sunday Night Calls. I remember when he went to Chicago to meet Michael Dilworth and Jay Solether II to check out sites for 2009. I now am in those same shoes! Planning an event with the hopes that you will join me as we make the next leap into the Great Technological Revolution as this party's only goal is to "Make All The People Wealthy Including the Poor!" The computer dynamics (dropping prices and rising values) are here! Enjoy what Kenneth has to say.

And here's what Kenneth had to say:

In July 2009 Kevin Trudeau spoke at the first Twelve Visions Party national convention. Not sure whether he did it as a favor to MH or because he wanted to introduce the people who attended to GIN it doesn't matter which. You see I don’t know what I don’t know and I don’t even know if Kevin supports the Twelve Visions Party, but what I do know is that the Twelve Visions Party supports Kevin and everyone else who has been pushed around, put down, called names, or bullied because force and threat of force is unacceptable. With a Twelve Visions Party Government Kevin would never have been prosecuted for a crime he didn’t commit. Yes I said a crime he didn’t commit. You see Kevin never forced or threatened to force anyone to buy his book, The Weight Loss Cure “They” don’t want you to know about.
I bought the book, the information in the book was accurate and I lost weight therefore I believe the information in the book is not fraudulent. So Kevin ended up being sent to prison for a crime he didn’t commit. Those of you who “stand by Kevin” should be interested in knowing that with a Twelve Visions Party government in place Kevin will be granted a full pardon. I am taking action and doing everything I can to get the Twelve Visions Party in place.

Now, I am paraphrasing Edmund Burke here when I say, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men and women to do nothing.” You can continue doing nothing and go along with the ruling class government and you will see more and more injustices being done like what was done to Kevin or, you can Take Action and support the Twelve Visions Party which will end the rule of man and launch the wealth of mankind.
There is a Gateway to Prosperity Party in St. Louis Missouri July 25th and 26th. This event is the beginning of the end of the ruling class that put Kevin in prison. Please join us in St. Louis. You can register for this event by calling Jill at [phone number redacted] and even if you cannot attend this event I strongly encourage you to register and support a new beginning for America, a new beginning for America where the government does not use force, threat of force or fraud against the people. Help get Kevin a full pardon and help yourself to a wealthy and healthy America by supporting the Twelve Visions Party. You can learn more about the gateway to prosperity on Facebook @gateway to prosperity.

Take action now call Jill [phone number redacted] and register for this life-changing event, you will be glad you did the first one hundred people to register whether you attend the event or not will be sent a value worth more than what it costs to register after the event. Call now! Jill Reed [phone numbers redacted]
Thank You and I Hope to See You All There
With love Kenneth

Clearly, the Neo-stinkers are supporting and promulgating Kevin's martyr-to-the-government shtick, which I first wrote about back in August of 2011. The sad thing is that thousands of people apparently still believe Katie's spin.

But it's not surprising that Neo-stink would come out in support of Katie, although to my knowledge Scamilton himself -- who really cleaned up in GIN's defunct-for-now MLM, as reported here back in September 2013 -- has been mostly silent. I've heard he is expected to be at the St. Louis wingding later this month, though. Some ex-GIN folks, who are still loyal Neo-stinkers, intend to confront him about GIN. But something tells me he won't be very confrontable, provided he even shows up.

As you no doubt remember if you've been a Whirled visitor for any length of time, I've written about Neo-stink and Scamilton and Katie several times. Apart from the September 2013 post linked to in the paragraph above, there's this May 2013 post elaborating on the Neo/GIN connections, and this December 2013 post about a new Neo-stinkin' flopportunity.

And before that, way back in August 2011 (that was a busy month for me), there were these:

August 19, 2011 -- I first became interested in Neo-stink via a rather circuitous route -- reading about it in a book that had nothing to do with Kevin Trudeau. But even before doing any research I had this gut feeling that there was a connection between the Neo-scampire and Trudeau... and I was right. http://cosmicconnie.blogspot.com/2011/08/everything-old-is-nouveau-again-or-neo.html
August 28, 2011: This post has extensive info about Mark Hamilton and the Twelve Visions Party: http://cosmicconnie.blogspot.com/2011/08/everything-old-is-nouveau-again-or-neo_28.html
There is also a little bit about Neo-tech in this interim post from August 24, 2011:
http://cosmicconnie.blogspot.com/2011/08/calling-all-lazy-men-lets-build-pyramid.html

Everybody was Kung Fu fighting
If attending a Katie party in St. Louis in July won't work for you, maybe a martial arts flopportunity in Park Ridge, Illinois in August will make your qi quiver. On July 6, 2014, an invitation was issued on Katie's Facebook fan page.

Hello,

I am Grand Master Tsai and I am hosting a Life Changing Qi Gong workshop to help my dear friend and Kung Fu student Kevin Trudeau. I have known Kevin Trudeau for over 25 years. He is a very unique mentor to a lot of people. Although I taught Kevin Kung Fu I have also learned life changing knowledge from him.

I want to share the priceless life changing benefits of my Qi Gong studies experience and knowledge with people like you and take this opportunity to rally donations to assist Kevin Trudeau’s court case.

I believe my tiny effort with our workshop will show Mr. Trudeau our heartfelt appreciation for all that he has done for us.

The workshop will take place on Sunday, August 9th from 1p-5:30p in Park Ridge, Il. The exact location will be emailed once you have made a contribution of $200.00 or more at the link below. Just put "GMT" in the memo box. I sincerely look forward to meeting you there and supporting our dear friend!

[Link to KT Legal Defense page]

Here's a little bit about Grand Master Tsai. Here's a lot more about Grand Master Tsai. I'm no martial arts expert (truth be told, I'm one of the miniscule number of people on the planet who find the whole martial arts thing rather boring -- so shoot me), but one thing seems clear to me: Grand Master Tsai and Kung Fu Katie are practitioners of that most venerated martial art of all: Ka-Ching.

Lamp unto my feet
While Katie cools his heels in sleepaway camp and the minions cry for his release and think up new ways to try to get suckers to fork over to pay his legal bills, business goes on in the newly purchased GIN, which has apparently resumed its weekly calls to the suckers, and is excitedly planning the next Family Reunion in September in Phoenix, Arizona (any symbolism in that? Phoenix? (See January 24, 2014 update on this post.)). There's been some excited buzz on the Facebooks recently...

Bidness seems to be going on as well as in the GIN Store, which, besides selling the usual GIN-branded merchandise, is busily promoting its frauducts as per usual. For instance, a post from the GIN Storepopped up on my Facebook timeline in June. It was a promo for a frauduct called The Mind Lamp, "THE WORLDS FIRST MIND MATTER INTERACTION DEVICE," according to a promo pic that was posted on July 1.

"YOU THINK... IT RESPONDS," promises the copy on the July promo. The June 24 post from the GIN Store Facebook page 'splains it all:

What color is your chief aim?

For the first time ever in the history of GIN, we now have a device that PROVES and demonstrates before our very eyes that our minds really do affect matter! We have hinted about this here on Facebook before, but we felt this was so big that we weren't ready to divulge the details UNTIL NOW! We are thrilled to introduce THE MIND LAMP!

In case you're tempted to think this is some fly-by-night gadget, or something like the old "mood rings," we'll explain a little bit about the origins of the Mind Lamp. A team of scientists from Princeton University began exploring mind-matter phenomena several decades ago, and now have DECADES of extensive, documented PROOF that our thought vibrations really do affect the physical universe and can influence events in our lives! Basically, they are proving scientifically what we GIN members have known all along!

Known as The PEAR lab, or Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research, these Princeton Engineers began constructing devices called RANDOM EVENT GENERATORS (or REGs) which allow you to see in action how your mind can affect a physical machine. The Mind Lamp is just one of the devices that we have partnered with PEAR to offer to GIN members. PEAR's research was virtually unknown to GIN members prior to its discovery by one of GIN's Inner Circle members. The research they have published, and the products they have invented, we believe, are ESSENTIAL to understanding the concepts we are taught in GIN, as it firmly grounds it in quantifiable reality!

The premise of the Mind Lamp is simple: The lamp starts out white (neutral) and changes color when the computer inside of it picks up various thought vibrations. The lamp may turn a lighter color if the thought vibration is a little weak, or it may turn a deep, vivid color if the broadcast is really intense. One other observation is that with a bit of practice, the lamp seems to turn one specific color for a specific thought. One of our staff members observes that when he thinks about his chief aim, the lamp turns pink; another staff members observes the lamp turning yellow when he this about his chief aim. Because of this, the Mind Lamp is a PERFECT Intention Training device! Just think...if you can train your thoughts to turn the Mind Lamp one specific color, and hold the thought pattern as long as possible, using the Mind Lamp as your gauge, you could virtually train yourself to blast out 68 second vibrations virtually all of the time!

There are less than 200 Mind Lamps available and the manufacturer is not sure WHEN or IF they will be available again. Be sure to own one TODAY while supplies last, and take your GIN training to a whole new level!

And kids, it's only $249! And the words "quantum" and "nano" are used in the promo copy on the GIN Store web site, so you know it's real scientifical.

Because of the Mind Lamp's technology, its behavior is not predetermined, and is ultimately driven by probabilities derived from the nanoscopic realm.

The most interesting feature however, is that probabilistic devices and systems like the REG used in the Mind Lamp can be influenced by the human mind. In other words, our MINDS which includes our thoughts, intention, emotion, and our subconscious processes can influence the colors of the lamp.

And now indulge me for a little bubble-bursting. Contrary to what the June GIN Store promo copy implied, PEAR -- the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research Lab -- wasn't "virtually unknown" until a GIN Inner Circle member "discovered" it. In fact there's a lot of info about it online. Start with Wiki, which notes, "Despite the name, the project had little to do with engineering but rather was dedicated to the study of parapsychology."

Then there's this, from Skedic:

Perhaps the most disconcerting thing about PEAR is the fact that suggestions by critics that should have been considered were routinely ignored. Physicist Bob Park reports, for example, that he suggested to Jahn two types of experiments that would have bypassed the main criticisms aimed at PEAR. Why not do a double-blind experiment? asked Park. Have a second RNG determine the task of the operator and do not let this determination be known to the one recording the results. This could have eliminated the charge of experimenter bias. Another experiment, however, could have eliminated most criticism. Park suggested that PEAR have operators try to use their minds to move a 'state-of-the-art microbalance' (Park 2008, 138-139). A microbalance can make precise measurements on the order of a millionth of a gram. One doesn't need to be clairvoyant to figure out why this suggestion was never heeded.

Skeptical Inquirer/CSI published a couple of articles about PEAR as well, one in 2006 and one in 2007.

So there's that, for those who don't automatically filter out anything that contains the word "skeptic." In any case, I think my friends and I can out-lamp those GIN store hucksters. I have a lamp shaped exactly like that, and even though it doesn't change colors it's pretty cool. Ron bought it for me at Ikea for twenty bucks years ago. I leave it on at night in our office because it emits a soft blue glow for the dogs who sleep there.

I also have an LED nightlight that does change colors randomly, and that little gem has been going strong, 24/7, for more than seven years. I got it for 99 cents at a 99 Cent Only Store in Houston. It's plugged into a room in the cats' part of the house. I wonder if they use their nefarious feline brains to influence the color changes. I wonder if they know about quantum tunneling and whatnot! Oh, my, I think I could build an entire scam around this thing.

My Facebook friend Jonathan wrote that he has a pyramid salt stone lamp that changes colors randomly. It cost him $14 at Earthbound Trading Company in the mall. Another friend named Roger had some sage advice: "If you grab a single white glove, fill it with rocks, and slap yourself with it every time you do something dumb, it will influence your thoughts (you are guaranteed to be horrified of white gloves too). Info brought to you by my fake medical team."

Elron would be so proud... maybe: SciWINtology updates
One of my favorite GIN ripoffs, the World Information Network (WIN), released an update video on June 18, naming WIN's board of directors and regional directors. Head honcho Perry "I don't need no stinkin' combination" Kiraly has neither gained any charisma nor lost any of the creep-out factor since his last video update.

And as for that Scientology connection I've been blogging about (here and here, for instance), credible sources tell me that WIN is going to hook up with WISE, the World Institute of Scientology Enterprises, which, according to Wiki, promotes the ideology of Scientology and its wackadoodle late founder, Elron. One source told me:

The Church has a business branch called W.I.S.E. that allows businesses to become members or buy/sell church services. If a business becomes a member, depending on their membership level, they pay either a flat fee for services or ten percent of income. The course that Perry wants everyone to take is a $50.00 course. WIN would buy these in bulk, and then resell them to everyone. The church will eventually push to get people's personal information...When someone joins WIN, and wants to move up the levels, they will have to buy this course. They will NOT be told [beforehand] that it is from the Church of Scientology. They will see it is indeed from the C of S once they get the course pack as it is written all over it, etc....the church will give a 10% "commission" to Perry for each person in WIN that takes any service from the C of S.. Even Kevin Trudeau did this with GIN--- and was caught....I just wanted you aware that whatever is being put on your site is getting to Perry--and will eventually get to the C of S so that they can figure out PR on how to get around it all with the members...

'Nuff said. But y'all have been warned. And so have I. If any Xenu's pals come knocking on my Whirled door, I will let you know. For lots more about Scientology's wacky horridness and horrible wackiness, see Tony Ortega's fine site, The Underground Bunker.

Another Katie wannabe ends up behind bars
Finally, Eric Plantenberg, another "successful" GIN speaker, was sentenced earlier this month to a year in Federal prison for failing to report $1.3 mil in income. He wasn't really on my Whirled radar that much, but in any case the news wasn't all that surprising. Here's a vid Eric and his dear wife made about his "adventure."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hykAcMVNuqE&feature=youtu.be

Here's a blog post he wrote a few days before his sentencing:
http://www.blog.ericplantenberg.com/choice/
"Above all, find gratitude in each moment.
be free!
eric"
Here's his GIN Store page:
http://www.theginstore.com/category_s/121.htm

Here's an October 2013 story about the indictment.
Here's an April 2014 news story about Plantenberg pleading guilty.
And here's a July 8, 2014 story about his sentencing.

From the July 2014 story:

Starting in 2000, Plantenberg became involved in the Church of Compassionate Service, taking a vow of poverty to avoid paying taxes. Plantenberg’s income, and that of other church 'ministers,' was given to the church, which then gave the money back to its ministers.

Wow. Nice work if you can get it, eh? Those crazy kids and their "churches."*
Someone who told me about Plantenberg's sentencing said they had been to one of his workshops, promoted by GIN and costing $99, a discount from $495 (or so GIN said. But Scamworld is always offering those amazing "discounts."). This person also said there were rumors that Eric's company bought Mega Memory. I don't know if this is true but it does seem that many of Eric's infofrauducts are about memory and brain-training. My correspondent added, "Also in his video he claims he used the money for schools instead of taxes. What schools? His 4-day 'life changing' seminar that cost $4995 or so? I'm calling bullsh-t. He was simply greedy and got caught."

Yep, that sounds pretty accurate. Although this source (which exists to promote one of those Scamworld books about inspirational "heroes") says Eric started "a language school for children in Egypt."

Okay, so that makes it all right.

Le me say that in general, I do NOT believe in prison sentences for tax evasion. That said, this story is one more example of the M.O. of so many Scamworld players. (Maybe Eric should have run away to Thailand or some place.) But hey... a year in the clink and he can comer right back out and start hustling again, perhaps adding some "lessons learned in the lockup" content to his shtick.

Well, that's it for now (isn't that enough?). Stay tuned for more. Soon.

* Another example of a spurious "Church," which of course I have mentioned before, is The Church of Inner Healing: http://www.churchofinnerhealing.com/
THAT church may not have been a tax evasion thing so much as a way to dish out medical advice without getting into trouble. In any case it is apparently now dissolved as a corporation, according to this: http://www.bizapedia.com/nv/CHURCH-OF-INNER-HEALING-LLC.html. (BTW, Jens Anskohl is the real name of "Nicholas Coldwell" -- Lenny Coldwell's half-brother.) Also, regarding The Church of Inner Healing as a fake church, there's also this listing on the Universal Ministries site: http://universalministries.com/charter.php#SC

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Eight misbehavin': Whirled Musings 8th Blogaversary

July 27, 2014, 9:44 am

≫ Next: Leonard Coldwell's medical lackground and other hilarities from his new Bio website, Part 2 of 4

≪ Previous: Kevin Trudeau updates: court docs still flying, minions still crying, GIN ripoffs still trying

My posts have been less frequent
But don't be broken-hearted
My Whirled's not winding down
It's only getting started.
~CC

Put another way... Flip that "figure 8" 90 degrees, and you have something that pretty much looks like the infinity sign. Matter of fact, I'm thinking that theme needs to work its way into the sub-title of my book-in-progress...

No Neat and Tidy Endings:
The Infinite Loop of Scamworld
by Connie L. Schmidt

I sort of like the sound of that. And it has, after all, been a theme on this blog for a long time: No Neat and Tidy Endings, Or NNaTE, as some of my dear friends, such as Julie Daniel (who has been pushing and pushing me to get this book done) like to say.

Nothing lasts forever, of course -- except maybe scams, unfortunately, in one form or another -- but I'm going to continue to keep this Whirled turning for as long as I can, despite a few recent bumps in the road (most notably, a truly deranged snarget who recently accused me of poisoning his pit bull dog).

Maybe at some point soon I'll also finally switch over to Wordpress, as I've been nattering on about for years, or at least I'll update this raggedy old ugly Blogger template. It has outlived its usefulness. Maybe I'll even put another profile pic up, although I have to say that I am currently getting a kick out of the comment that the aforementioned deranged snarget made about how the pic makes me look like a druggy transvestite. While his attempt to dehumanize me by calling me "that thing" is disturbing, the rest of his comment is just typical silly Lenny stuff.

Lenny apparently performs his "professional diagnoses" just from looking at people's pictures. If he had truly been able to read pictures and people, he might have discerned that I chose that profile pic because... well... I like it. I like it because it was taken on a glorious day that seems longer ago than it really was. There was sun on my skin and saltwater in my hair and the sound and smell of the sea all around me. The only "drug" I was on (corny as it will probably sound) was love -- Ron was very much a part of that day, of course -- and possibly a Red Bull or two (straight up, no alcohol, since unlike some of my besotted snargets, I haven't had an alcoholic drink in decades). Life was good for Ron and me. It is still good, but back in those days we had lost less; people and four-legged kids who have since passed were still with us: my mother, Ron's "second mom" and "second dad," some clients who became dear friends (Ed, Margaret, Sterling, Jess, we miss you....), an old love of mine who had remained a friend in the years since, and died of cancer earlier this year... and in the fur-baby department, Rex and Layla and Bruce and Sabrina and Coca and Grace and Noelle... and neither Ron nor I had ever even heard of the most sinister snarget to ever inhabit my Whirled, nor had most of the rest of the planet... and even though I wasn't particularly young or naive, I was still mostly ignorant, in those days, of how evil the type of evil I now write about can be.

I should stop now, lest I sink to the same level of histrionics employed by some of my more noteworthy snargets. It really has been fun for the most part -- slinging words, making pretty pictures (or just pretty silly pictures... the graphic above incorporates today's Google Image results for Whirled Musings). All I want to add is this: Thank you to all of you for your continuing support. Feel free to take advantage of the Donation button on the upper left. And whether you donate or not, I appreciate you -- all of you (well, most of you, anyway) --- more than you will ever know.

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Leonard Coldwell's medical lackground and other hilarities from his new Bio website, Part 2 of 4

August 4, 2014, 1:37 pm

≫ Next: Sound and fury, Sturm und Drang: Leonard Coldwell's meaningless bluster (Part 3 of 4)

≪ Previous: Eight misbehavin': Whirled Musings 8th Blogaversary

Now we are going to take a closer look at alt-health cancer quack Leonard Coldwell's "medical credentials" and "cancer cure" claims. They are on his Bio site, which has been on the web since late June. In a previous post we took a detailed look at a page on that site on which he attempted to document ways that his critics were "defaming" him. However, the site contained legally actionable lies about the very people he claimed were defaming him. It was reported as abusive and that page is now gone. But the "credentials" and "cure rate" claims are still up there and beg for a closer look.

I suspect that some of you are profoundly bored with this subject, and I'm getting a little bored with it myself, but I promised a Part 2, so here it is. (There's even going to be a Part 3 and 4.) After that I intend to get back to more important topics, or at least more amusing ones. There really is a big horrid Scamworld out there far beyond the lunacy of Loony C, as I am reminded every time Salty Droid -- one of the bloggers Coldwell tried unsuccessfully to sue -- publishes a new post. (Like this one.)

And by the way, the fourth word in that title above is not a typo.
~ CC

In Part 1 of this originally two-part but now four-part series, we explored the spurious claims of "defamation" and some of the other outright lies that Not-doctor Leonard Coldwell -- the former Bernd Klein aka Bernd Witchner of Germany, and the former b.f.f. of jailed serial scammer Kevin Trudeau -- put on his new Bio web site. The site, clearly built to get even with Coldwell's critics, got its little nuts cut pretty early on because it contained some seriously defamatory lies about some of the very people Coldwell was accusing of defaming him.

In fact that site has been through quite an ordeal since its launch around June 20, 2014, with Coldwell falsely claiming that his most persistent critics hacked into it. Before we get to the main topics of this post, which include Coldwell's questionable medical creds and his lame attempt to "prove" his "92.3% cure rate," let's review what really happened with the site. If you already know most of this story from reading about it on Bernie O'Mahony's GINtruth blog, I apologize for the redundancy but as always, I think it is important to document things here as well, and in more detail than you probably need. I'm obsessive that way, you know. If the web site stuff bores you, go straight down to the big Bernd-shirt pink subhead for a closer look at the certifiable Coldwell's not-so-impressive certificates.

Coldwell's bio site glitches, and he lies that it was hacked
The controversial page on Coldwell's Bio site was one tagged, "Defamation." After complaints from several people about whom Coldwell wrote blatant lies that page -- people such as Bernie, whom Coldwell falsely accused of being a child rapist -- the web host, WIX, demanded that the site owners take the page down. Apparently the webmaster tried to comply.

But it seems there was a glitch somewhere. For a day or so, the entire site was down. Not long afterward it was up again, but the menu was missing, and the only pages you could get to were the home page, which had an abbreviated bio and summary; and the extended bio page, which you could get to from the home page only because there was a link on the body of that page. You could not get to the other pages except by typing in the direct links to them, if you happened to have saved the links.

There was one exception, however: the "Defamation" page -- which could not be reached even by typing in the direct link. That link would take you straight to the home page.

During this time Coldwell was all over his little Facebook universe, complaining that I had hacked the site and/or that Bernie had hacked it under orders from me.

Not long after the first flurry of accusations, the site was back up -- including the menu, and including the intact Defamation page that had been the target of the complaints in the first place. Oops! The only difference was that the pictures loaded a little more smoothly and didn't obscure the text, as had originally been the case. So it was much easier to read Coldwell's false accusations about Bernie, as well as his accusations about me and several others.

I will note again, as I did in Part 1, that my name was not actually mentioned on that Defamation page, nor did my picture appear. However, Coldwell wrote about a woman who had allegedly tried for years to have sex with him, and he wrote that because he had refused her, she went on a hate rampage against him. In light of the fact that this is one of his newest lies (or twisted fantasies) about me, and in light of previous things he had written about me on Facebook, as well as subsequent Facebook posts where he told the exact same story and posted my full name and address, it was very clear he was talking about me.

In addition, Coldwell wrote on the Defamation page that he would gladly share the full names, addresses, and contact information of everyone mentioned on that page; all one had to do was write to him at a specific email address, which he also included. To many of us this seemed like more than a veiled threat and a call for some sort of vigilante "justice" against Coldwell's critics. (Unfortunately he later made good on that threat with me, posting my name and address all over his Facebook platforms in conjunction with more actionable lies and false accusations.)

I believe Bernie complained again, as he had every right to do. Remember, Coldwell had falsely accused Bernie of being a child molester. My husband Ron also complained. (I never did, however.) And the entire site disappeared again, for a very short while. Once again Coldwell whined that Bernie and I had hacked into his site. At some point, hilariously, he also turned his wrath upon the Jewish people, simply because web host WIX is in Israel.

But that's not really all that surprising, for as violence in the Middle East has escalated Coldwell has once again let his inner anti-Semite out to play. Sooner or later, the hater monkey in this great "humanitarian" always comes out on social media. (Here is Bernie, weighing in on that matter on GINtruth, with some hilarious but disturbing screen shots.)

Meanwhile, as the July web shenanigans were going on, Coldwell's webmaster offered a little more perspective about the situation. She indicated that WIX had notified her of complaints about an abusive page on the site. She said that WIX requested that the page be taken down, and she complied. But after that, the rest of the site didn't function correctly. She reported that some of Lenny's other WIX-hosted sites were down too, but I never checked those so I don't know. The webmaster blamed WIX, but apparently not the Jews or Bernie or me.

Coldwell's lies continued, however. Even as he was blaming the Jews in Israel, Coldwell was also still blaming Bernie and me. He complained that Bernie and I had finagled things so that the single "Defamation" page disappeared, because we were afraid of the world learning "the truth" about us.

At some point while all of this was happening, Coldwell came up with perhaps the biggest whopper of all: he falsely accused me of poisoning his dog, and, as I mentioned above, he also shared my name and address. Some people believed his lies, even after presumably reading posts to the contrary. I'm still dealing with blowback from that. (Coldwell has seemingly tried to slink out of the situation since then; a little over a week after his first rants about his dog and me appeared, he used his main Facebook page to post a list of plants toxic to dogs, noting that he'd learned about this list while trying to save the dog's life. Again, there's more about that here, for those haven't caught up on the story yet.)

Were the sporadic disappearances of the entire Coldwell Bio site actually due to WIX's foul-ups, or to the webmaster's errors, or to a combination of the two? Beats me. I have a vague idea of how vexing web problems can be, which is why you don't see me messing much with web design. All I know for certain is that Coldwell's web problems had nothing to do with Bernie, me, or any of Coldwell's imagined "enemies." Coldwell knows it too, but lying is what he does best so that's what we can pretty much expect from him in response to any setback in his life. At any rate, as of this posting, the site is back up again, functioning marginally better than before, though extraordinarily slow loading.

Notably missing in action is the "Defamation" tab, which previously could be reached via the drop-down menu under the category "MORE." It has been replaced by a highly condensed version of itself, under a new title. As of this writing, there is a new tab under "MORE," called "Enemies." Presently it contains only one item from the original "Defamation" page: an April 2014 affidavit showing that one woman who had previously accused Coldwell of sexual impropriety in 2007 recanted her accusation. The affidavit makes mention of the woman having made the original accusations "under duress," but it's natural to wonder if it was the retraction that was made under duress. There's no explanation on the "Enemies" page, just a picture of the poorly redacted affidavit.

In short, Coldwell's Bio site was having problems not because Bernie "hacked" the site, although he and others did complain to the host about it -- in other words, they went through legitimate channels. It is not because I "hacked" the site or told Bernie to do it. I don't know how to hack sites and don't want to know. But I suppose there's no convincing the diehard Coldwell fans.

Here is Bernie's early take on some of Coldwell's recent lunacy-- the dog poisoning and hacking allegations -- and here's a subsequent post. Unlike me, Bernie doesn't mince words.

Certified... or certifiable?
For most people, questioning a person's credentials is a natural thing to do when that person makes extravagant claims, as Coldwell has repeatedly done. Perhaps his most famous claim is that he cured more than 35,000 people of cancer, though he has also posted modified versions of that claim on various sites, including his new one (more on that in a little while). And when someone claims to have four PhDs, or eight doctorates, or several master's degrees, and other similar claims -- all of which Coldwell has made at various times -- it's natural to want to find out where he got those degrees.
So it is not at all surprising that I am far from the only person to have questioned Leonard Coldwell's credentials. The snarky, opinionated (but NOT-me) writer of the RationalWiki page about Coldwell (I'll have more about that in Part 3) makes note of some of the various questionable creds Coldwell has claimed to have. This is from the "Qualifications" section:

Coldwell claims expertise in virtually any sphere where he thinks there's a quick buck to be made and backs up his 'expertise' with a variety of phoney or worthless qualification none of which are worth the Microsoft Paint and clip-art enhanced 80gsm they were ink-jetted on.

At various times Coldwell has laid claim to the following not-necessarily-exhaustive list of 'qualifications'.
ND – Naturopathic Doctor.
DNM – Doctor of Naturopathic Medicine.
LCHC – Unknown. Leonard Coldwell Health Certificate?
CNHP – Certified Natural Health Professional.
DIP.PHC – Unknown... Diploma in something or other? Diploma in Phoney Healthcare. Yeah... That'll be it.
PhD – Doctor of Philosophy. (Four of them).
'Doctor Degrees' (Four of them whatever they are supposed to be).
D.Hum – Doctor of Humanities. (Honorary).
Determining when or where this impressive hoard of qualifications were obtained is remarkably difficult largely due to the fact Coldwell is quite determinedly tight-lipped on the whole subject and the claims vary from one bullshit website to the next.

In written evidence for an ill-fated 1999 German defamation case... Coldwell uncharacteristically and probably unwisely let slip a few details about his credentials. He claimed to have a doctorate in psychology from Columbia State University which sounds impressive enough until you discover Columbia State University is, or rather was, a diploma mill operated by stage hypnotist Ronald “Dr Dante" Pellar. Columbia State University was closed by court order in 1998 when “Dr Dante” got 67 months in the big house on a string of dishonesty charges.

At the same time Coldwell was also claiming to be a professor at the Virginia Health University of Delaware. While absence of evidence is not necessarily evidence of absence in cases like this an internet search for the exact term “Virginia Health University of Delaware” produces exactly two hits both of which relate solely to a certain Mr Leonard Coldwell. Make of that what you will.

Coldwell is the proud holder of an honorary Doctor of Humanities award from the "Non Accredited, but very prestigious, Louisiana Baptist University." which is probably the nearest thing he actually has to a genuine qualification as honorary degrees do not actually require any academic work.

Where Not-A-Doctor Coldwell obtained his other three PhDs and his 'doctor degrees' from is anybody's guess.

Well, Mr. Unknown Writer, maybe we can clear some things up for you here, since Coldwell has become a little more loose-lipped about his creds.

The people who don't ask questions about Coldwell's credentials seem to be those who have a deep need to believe his tall tales. I'm sure they all have their reasons. Perhaps some need or want to believe that there is secret information about some simple, natural "cures" out there, and/or that other "forbidden" information exists that is being hidden from them -- and that only people such as Coldwell are brave enough to fight to get that information to them. Perhaps they are simply and justifiably fed up with mainstream medicine, having had a series of bad experiences in that area, and they are desperately seeking alternatives. What seems clear to me is that people seem to need their heroes, no matter how unlikely, and Coldwell panders to this deep need (I'll have more about that in Part 3).

In this passage from the 2008 print version of Instinct Based Medicine (a precursor to Coldwell's "best-seller,"The Only Answer to Cancer), Coldwell mentions a Ph.D. and a few master's degrees. But he doesn't answer any questions about where those degrees came from.

In Part 3 I will have more about Coldwell's history of defending himself and his degrees.

Wink tries to do damage control
Before taking a closer look at the individual creds, let's backtrack for a moment. I promise you that this is relevant to current issues. At various times in the past couple of years, Coldwell's bidness partner and good buddy Peter Wink has campaigned to get people to back off on their nonstop criticism of Coldwell. He tried it with me for a while, to no avail. (Peter, as you may recall, was formerly Kevin Trudeau's marketing director for GIN/Website Solutions, and before that, he worked for Whirled favorite snarget Joe "Mr. Fire" Vitale.)

Peter also tried his manipulations with Bernie at GINtruth. At one point in early 2013 he told Bernie that he, Peter, had seen Coldwell's degrees and certificates with his own eyes, and they were the real thing. This was around the time Bernie was publishing his first blog posts about Coldwell; on an early Coldwell post on December 15, 2012, Bernie questioned Coldwell's degrees -- and then some. Perhaps Peter thought that Bernie, who had previously been such an ally in the fight against GIN and KT, was still salvageable for Peter's and Lenny's purposes.

But by the time Peter began engaging, the train had already left the station. In fact Lenny had already fired off numerous angry private messages to Bernie the previous month, and had pretty much figured out that Bernie was not on his side. Apparently oblivious to all of that, Peter wrote a private message to Bernie on or about January 2, 2013 -- shortly after the New Years Eve/Day fiasco when Bernie was pummeled by a group of Japanese thugs and posted a picture on his Facebook page, along with the story of what had happened. In this January 2 Facebook conversation Bernie shares Peter's private message to him.

Apart from its relevance to the topic of Coldwell's "credentials," and the lame excuse-making about why Coldwell had been so cagey about those creds, Peter's comment about Bernie's injury indicates that Peter was very well aware of the story of what had happened to Bernie in early January 2013. Yet to my knowledge Peter said nothing in July 2014 when Coldwell posted that same pic of Bernie on the "Defamation" page on his Bio site, as well as on Coldwell's own Facebook page -- and wrote that it was a picture of Bernie after he had been caught raping a child and had been beaten up by the people who caught him. Not one word did Peter write in Bernie's defense.

I sense that he was a wee bit embarrassed about his lunatic friend and business partner and hoped the fuss would just die down and go away if he simply ignored it... or perhaps he just didn't care. Maybe he even feels that people who continue to criticize Coldwell get whatever they deserve. He's welcome to comment here if he wishes. Perhaps he could also say something about Coldwell's lies about me poisoning his dog and my so-called sexual obsession with Lenny.

In any case, Peter's efforts to head off Bernie's Coldwell criticism were as futile as Peter's earlier attempts with me. Bernie continued to publish critical posts about Coldwell, as well as Coldwell's and Wink's GIN ripoff, the IBMS Master's Society, which was also launched in January 2013. As of now, its web site still appears to be down for all practical purposes; I'm still getting a message from Firefox that the site is "untrusted."

Lenny's creds, such as they are
I was not convinced by any previous efforts to validate Lenny's credentials, and I am even less convinced now that I have finally seen those vaunted certificates and "degrees" with my own eyeballs, after Coldwell proudly and defiantly published them on his new Bio web site.

The creds are all showcased on Coldwell's Bio site on a page labeled "Accredation" [sic]. Nothing screams "legitimate credentials" like seeing the word "accreditation" spelled incorrectly. Although I suspect that soon after this blog post is published, the mistake will be corrected.

A quick glance at the "Accredation" page will reveal that the credentials of which Coldwell is so proud really aren't that impressive. For one thing, contrary to the blurb shared above from Instinct Based Medicine, they do not appear to be "master's degrees" or "doctorates." And there's no evidence of a doctorate in psychology, or any PhD at all. Or maybe those degrees are still being hidden, and Lenny will whip them out during the next incarnation of his Bio web site, or as soon as little Amy can get the ink jet printer fixed. I made Lenny a PhD that he can use while he's waiting. You're welcome, Lenny.

Those of you who thumb your nose at the medical establishment, as Coldwell does, probably will not care about the particulars of these "certifications." Those who disdain the educational establishment probably won't care either. So feel free to skip this whole part and leave it for those who are on the fence or who are suspicious of people with iffy degrees. Still, you might consider the fact that Coldwell, as well as many other faux-degree holders (particularly in the selfish-help/McSpirituality/alt-health industries) often make a big deal of exploiting their "degrees" in order to boost their credibility and authority. If degrees weren't all that important, why would they make such a big deal of them? I had written about that on this blog numerous times before I'd ever even heard of Lenny.

Let's look at Coldwell's credentials one by one, starting at the top of the "Accredation" page -- as it exists at the moment, anyway -- and moving on down. I will also provide contact information for each of the institutions in question, in case you want to write to them or call them and verify Lenny's standing (for whatever you think that is worth). I know you could easily look this info up yourself, but on this Whirled we're all about the one-stop shopping, though I've also provided plenty of links for further info.

Degrees and Diplomas

The "Accredation" page begins with a picture of two certificates and the implication that Coldwell obtained them on the advice of "Naturalization and Immigration Service experts" in order to have his "German Education" accredited in the U.S. He adds that the "German Education," combined with some mandatory courses in the US, earned him the "accredation." (Lenny doesn't name the "Naturalization and Immigration Service experts" who supposedly gave him this advice, but perhaps the point is irrelevant.)

In any case, the certificates pictured in this section are from two sister organizations, the American Alternative Medical Association (AAMA) and the American Association of Drugless Practitioners (AADP). Maybe they had a two-fer deal: Buy one certification, and they'll throw in one from the sister org for free. It's sort of like those BOGO deals at Payless ShoeSource, except without the shoes. Anyway, both certificates were sold to Lenny in November 2002.

On a Linkedin page of the American Association of Drugless Practitioners, Executive Director Donald A. Rosenthal, M.D., N.D., states:
Your professional affiliation with AADP can provide free patient referrals and an impressive AADP Certificate of Membership. Your name will be made available to the general public - allowing potential patient referral. The AADP will call or write to state licensing boards to inform them of a practitioner's qualifications. Licensed laboratories offering non-invasive patient testing will be made available. These laboratory tests can bring hundreds of dollars into your practice each month. Also, consultations on how to start a practice or increase an existing one can be provided.
(Of course Lenny has been careful to say that he "no longer sees patients," claiming that all of his creds were obtained so he can be a better "educator.")

Here is additional information about the American Alternative Medical Association -- basic info, as well as their Code of Ethics.

Further on down the "Accredation" page, Lenny displays laminated wallet cards from the American Association of Drugless Practitioners, stating he is a Board Certified Holistic Health Practitioner, and the American Alternative Medical Association, indicating that he is a Board Certified Alternative Medical Practitioner.

Here is the contact information for the two organizations:
American Alternative Medical Association
General Information
office@joinaama.com
membership Information
office@joinaama.com
To Find A Practitioner
office@joinaama.com
American Association of Drugless Practitioners
General Information
join@aadp.net
Member Information
members@aadp.net
To Find a Practitioner
referrals@aadp.net
To Update Member Contact Information
newsletter@aadp.net
Members Benefit Request
benefits@aadp.net

If you're interested in further insights about these organizations from a more skeptical point of view, here are some links that might interest you.

A 2007 article about a Denver teen whose death from late-stage bone cancer was apparently hastened by a "health practitioner" with bogus creds: http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2004024299_miracle20m0.html
Skeptic and retired doc Stephen Barrett, M.D. weighs in on Credential Watch: http://www.credentialwatch.org/reports/iin.shtml
Dr. Barrett offers more insights on Quackwatch: http://www.quackwatch.com/04ConsumerEducation/nonrecorg.html

Next up on "Accredations" we have the...

Honorary Degree

This is the "degree" that Coldwell is so proud of that the little feller devoted half of the space on his expanded Bio page to yapping about it. On May 6, 2011 -- during the time, it should be noted, that he was still flying high on Kevin Trudeau's GIN scam and aggressively pushing this fraud to who knows how many thousands of people -- Leonard Coldwell was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Humanities from an unaccredited religious school.

The GIN mention seems relevant because at one point after Coldwell had been booted out of GIN in May 2012, he claimed that he had known for at least a year before he "left" GIN that it was a fraud, and he "tried to tell people about it," and notified the authorities and whatnot. From all appearances, however, it seems that in reality he spent that last year as per usual: trying to sucker as many people into his downline as he could.

But I digress. Of this honorary "degree," Lenny writes:
Dr. Coldwell is very proud of the honorary Doctorate of Humanity [sic] that he received from the Non Accredited, but very prestigious, Louisiana Baptist University.
Well, I'm not so sure that LBU is all that "prestigious," except to a small cadre of Bible-toting Christian fundies. LBU is apparently not accredited because it does not want to be, according to this entry on Theopedia:
Louisiana Baptist University is not accredited by any accreditation agency recognized by the U.S. Government, this is due mainly to the fact that LBU chooses not to seek accreditation. LBU is one of six approved colleges and universites of the Baptist Bible Fellowship International and those who graduate with a concentration in missions can be approved as a missionary for the fellowship.LBU also has the approval of the Association of Christian Colleges and Theological Schools (ACCTS) which is a Christian agency involved in approving Christian schools. Though LBU is not regionally or nationally accredited it is however, well known throughout the Christian academic and theological community. Some of the keynote speakers at LBU commencement ceremonies have been well known Christian leaders like Jerry Falwell of Liberty University and Dr. Paige Patterson of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. LBU claims that in some cases Liberty University accepts transferred credits or degrees from LBU as well as other well known seminaries. This is not unusual considering the fact that credits and degrees of other institutions like Bob Jones University (unaccredited until 2005) have been widely accepted by accredited schools of higher learning.
Wow. Jerry Falwell. Bob Jones U. Scintillating company, if you fancy narrow-minded, sexist, homophobic, hate-filled theocrats. I can see how Lenny would almost fit right in, though, except maybe for a few personal habits he is said to have.

On the main Biography page on his Bio web site, Coldwell displays a picture of himself supposedly receiving his "doctorate" from an elderly gentleman, presumably a fundamentalist Christian type. I wonder what the gentleman -- not to mention the church ladies -- would think about some of the more unsavory allegations about Lenny. Would they be shocked, or would they defend their honoree, rationalizing that Satan or one of his handmaidens is responsible for spreading these rumors? (After all, Lenny did refer to me as "the women from Hell.")

You can draw your own conclusions. But do feel free to visit the Louisiana Baptist University web site, and drop them a line or give them a phone call if you feel so inspired. Here is their contact information:
Louisiana Baptist University and Seminary
6301 Westport Avenue
Shreveport, Louisiana 71129
(318) 686-2360 (Phone)
(318) 688-2148 (Fax)
lbuinfo@lbu.edu
Here is the link to the page about their staff members.
And in case you haven't seen this previously, Bernie had a few words about the value of an "honorary humanities degree" from an unaccredited religious "university" a while back on GINtruth.

Next up on "Accredation" are three certificates...

Additional Education

Lenny writes:
Once here in America Dr. Coldwell continued his education in order to better grasp the English language assisting him in more thoroughly understanding the American approach to Naturopathic Health and Healing.
Apparently his education didn't do much in assisting his written English... but even so, as I've noted before, his written and spoken English are far superior to my written and spoken German (which are nil). I believe in giving credit where it is due.

This section displays three certificates from the Institute of the National Association of Certified National Health Professionals (CNHP). Here is their main web site: http://www.cnhp.org/.

The pictures on Coldwell's site indicate that he has "certifications" from this org in three areas: "Body Systems,""Body Work" (eeeew), and "Practicum." I didn't see a link on the site for "Body Work," though. Maybe we really don't want to know. All three docs are dated within a few days of each other in October 2007. 2007 was a big year for Lenny. (That's the year that Mt. Pleasant, SC police report was filed.)

And for what it's worth, Lenny islisted on the CNHP site as a "graduate." Despite the site's claims about study and learning requirements, I really couldn't tell you what it actually means in the real world to be a "graduate" of that ~~diploma mill~~ institution, but if you're curious, here's more info about the process of becoming a CNHP.

And here is the contact info for the org:
The Institute of the National Association of Certified Natural Health Professionals
220 Parker St.
Warsaw, IN 46580
Toll-Free: (800) 321-1005
Local: (574) 267-4230
Fax: (574) 268-5393
Email: info@cnhp.org
The National Association of Certified Natural Health Professionals
email: info@cnhp.org
But all of the above wasn't enough. Lenny had bigger dreams. He wanted the very best education for himself. So he became a bona fide...

Certified Natural Healthcare Professional (CNHP)

Actually, however, this is just another cred from the ~~diploma mill~~ institution where he got those three blue certies pictured above.

Here are a couple more articles you might find of interest:

http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2014/03/12/reason-com-defends-the-medical-neglect-of-sarah-hershberger/
http://www.quackwatch.com/04ConsumerEducation/Nonrecorg/aanc.html

............................................................................................

Immediately following the CNHP "certificate" -- but with no headline of its own -- is a picture that has no explanation...

This document, issued by the World Organization of Natural Medicine Practitioners, states that Coldwell was deemed to be "Board Certified" by that organization on May 1, 2009. Further on down the page there are also two laminated wallet cards from this organization, also claiming that Coldwell is "Board Certified." I'll discuss the organization in a little more depth in the "Wallet cards" section below.

............................................................................................

Apparently saving the best for almost last, Coldwell next shares one of the most impressive credentials of all: something that looks like a faxed certificate showing that Lenny participated (that's what that word teilgenommen means)in an event called Berlin Dentist's Day back in 1994.

Said my snarky pal Tim, "I guess that means he brushed his teeth?"Possibly. Or maybe his dentures.

............................................................................................

Finally, we have the real proof of Lenny's "Board Certification": four laminated wallet cards...

We've already discussed the two-fer: the American Association of Drugless Practitioners and the American Alternative Medical Association. Lenny has a wallet card for each, but he also displays two other "board certification" cards: one for The World Organization of Natural Medicine Practitioners (WONMP), and one for the Sacred Medical Order of the Knights of Hope (aka SMOKH, aka SMOCH (Sacred Medical Order of the Church of Hope).

On first glance the WOMNP seemed to be just a membership organization. I did not understand how one could be "board certified" by this org, until a little searching landed me on this site, which is apparently the certification board for the WONMP and other orgs. The WONMP card indicates that Lenny is a "Board Certified Doctor of Natural Medicine" (I suppose that's the "DNM" he has been known to use on occasion).

The Sacred Medical Order of the Knights of Hope, as the name implies, claims to be a "sacred medical order." According to the main site, SMOCH/SMOKH is...
...a Church of special and sacred ministry and medical religious Order. As an ecumenical Order, membership of the Sacred Medical Order is by invitation to both men and women who are of good character and standing in their community, want to learn about our sacred medicines, and who wish to help suffering mankind.

So it's more or less a ministry, at least according to this November 2009 version of a SMOKH Consent and Disclosure Form I found on the Googles. Here's a snippet from that form (which is offered by an Aiken, South Carolina natural something-or-other practitioner named Dr. Brice E. Vickery):
SMOKH practitioners are clergy and are classified as such under state law, and any information you provide during private sessions is considered confidential. As such, no information may be released without your express consent, except as required under law. As a standard rule (which may vary by state) if the Practitioner becomes aware of information concerning abuse, danger, harm or threatened harm to you or others, he or she is expected and required to report such to the proper authorities.
But what if the practitioner is doing the abusing? Well, there's this, from that same form...
COMPLANTS & REMEDIES: Practitioners are accountable to the private SMOKH Standard Code of Ethical Standards (CES), which may be viewed on-line at www.wonmp.us. Complaints may be filed in accordance with instructions in the CES. In the event Counselee is dissatisfied with services provided by Counselor, Counselee is entitled to file a formal complaint. In such event, the terms of the CES as scripturally valid will govern any action. Counselee agrees that if he or she is not satisfied with remedies provided for in the CES, that non-judicial arbitration will be the exclusive remedy. Such arbitrators will consist solely of Counselors peers, and will include (2) arbitrators chosen by the Counselor, and (2) chosen by the Counselee. In the event of any disagreement in choosing arbitrators, location of arbitration or otherwise, SMOKH Board of Examiners will intervene, and all decisions by such Board will be accepted as final by Counselor and Counselee. In no event will Counselor or Counselee act to move any complaint or action to a judicial level, outside of or beyond agreed arbitration, and both hereby agree, as a contracted condition of services, to accept the arbitrator’s decision as final and exclusive remedy in settling all disputes and civil complaints. This agreement for remedies does not extend to or include criminal acts which should be reported to the proper authorities.
In other words... you agree not to sue me if I perform a little hands-on healing that takes you beyond your comfort zone. And don't tell your husband either. Oh... did I say that?

Anyway. According to the picture of the card on his creds page, Lenny is a "Licensed Clinical Health Counselor" (LCHC) through SMOKH. Or SMOCH. Or whatever acronym you want to use. Frankly, I think they're mostly just blowing SMOKE.

Both the WOMNP and the SMOKH cards bear the same "sacred cross" logo and have a similar format/design, leading me to believe Lenny might have taken advantage of another two-fer deal. He received these credentials in May (WOMNP) and June (SMOKH) of 2009. In other words, to put things in perspective in case you are wondering, he was probably not acting as a LCHC through SMOKH during the alleged incidents reported in the 2007 police report (which, I feel obligated to repeat, did not result in any charges, but nevertheless seems to be an indicator of a disturbing behavior pattern).

And that's it for the impressive lineup of creds on the "Accredation" form. Coldwell has

Before we leave this section, here is one more article of interest -- and I know this may not convince those who are determined to cling to their Coldwell-as-heroic-healer narrative -- but take a look at this resource about alt-health diploma mills. You will see some familiar names on this list.

I recognize that many people have an issue with naturopathic and other alt-health practices and will claim that Coldwell's credentials are spurious by default, since they are in a field not recognized by mainstream medicine in the U.S. and many other places. Recently a Facebook friend shared a link to a strongly opinionated post on the Baxter & Friends blog about this very matter. Though some may be offended by the obvious condescension of anyone who embraces "alternative medicine" (a condescension that I do not share), the post, written by Chris Ruiz, still offers excellent perspective about what a naturopath is. Here's that link.

So there you have it: the life's work of Leonard Coldwell -- or at least the part of his life's work that he can hang on a wall, carry around in a wallet, and summarize in a string of letters after his name.

About that 92.3% cancer cure rate (and other cure claims)
Apart from his string of questionable creds, Coldwell's most famous claims center around his "cure" rates for cancer and/or other devastating diseases. The claims take slightly different forms, depending upon which site you are reading.

For instance, there's this, which appears -- among many other places online -- on the "About" page on his main site:

Throughout Dr. Coldwell’s successful career, he has to date, cured over 35,000 cancer patients (studies have concluded that he has a 92.3% cancer cure rate).

However, a more modified version appears -- again, among many other places -- on an old Blogger blog that Coldwell has apparently abandoned:

An independent statistical institute estimated that Dr. Coldwell worked with over 35,000 patients.

See the difference? And yes, I know I've also discussed this issue previously. But it's worth noting again.

On his new Bio web site, Coldwell doesn't really appear to be making the specific and more extravagant claim about the 35,000 cured cancer patients. Nevertheless he devotes a page on his the site to "proving" his cure rate -- a page titled, appropriately enough, 92.3% Cure Rate.Apparently this was one of the main reasons for creating the new site in the first place, apart from showcasing his dodgy credentials and, of course, trying to defame his critics. Since the burden of proof is so heavy in the medical field, and since he has often referred to "independent studies" that supposedly proved his impressive cure rate, you would think he would have tried to include as much documentation as possible. But all that appears on that page is a redacted January 2010 letter from his longtime friend and bidness partner, Dr. Thomas Hohn. Or Höhn, for the punctuationally correct. Or Hoehn, as Coldwell sometimes spells it. Anyway... this guy.

Despite some speculation that he is not a real person, the mysterious Dr. Hohn is real, although admittedly most of the top search results for his name are Coldwell-related. Put the umlaut over the "o" in his last name and add the word "Germany"and you get some additional results, some in English. Dr. H is apparently practicing some type of medicine in Germany. Sometimes he even puts on a crazy toupee and measures people's auras (or maybe that's a different Tommy Hohn on page 2 of that linked PDF. But go ahead and look; it's funny, and you need a small break from Lenny.)

Those who have been following Coldwell's activities are well aware, however, that Coldwell has co-opted Thomas Hohn's name and reputation numerous times over the years to further his own aims, as noted more than once on this blog (we'll have more about that in Part 3 of this series).

So here we have this redacted letter from Dr. Hohn, which obscures the addressee as well as Dr. Hohn's address. And that's it. I don't know about you, but after seeing that thing I felt kind of like Steve Martin's character does at the end of L.A. Story, when a riddle that he had been given by a magickal freeway sign is finally unscrambled to read, "Sing Do-Wah-Diddy." His character screams, "'Sing Do-Wah-Diddy?'This is the secret of the ages?!?"

And this letter from Hohn... this is the Holy Grail that is intended to finally validate Coldwell's impressive 92.3% cure rate for cancer, as well as the number of "patients" he supposedly cured? Sorry, Lenny, but for anybody beyond your ill-informed fan base, a few loyal friends and the critical-thinking-impaired, a statement from your long-time pal and business partner, citing alleged studies that can't be validated or verified, isn't adequate validation of those extravagant claims.

As you can see, the letter from Dr. Hohn represents the more moderate version of Coldwell's cure claims, which, as noted above, also appears on numerous other sites. It's not nearly as exciting as the more commonly used, more extravagant version, and the one most commonly repeated by earnest fans and defenders, in which he claims that he has cured over 35,000 cancer patients. As also noted above, that version currently appears, among other places, on the bio page on Coldwell's main site. Further down from the introductory text quoted above there is this:

Learn from someone who has, based on independent clinical studies, cured cancer in over 35,000 patients, most of which were classified as in final, terminal stages. His first Cancer cure was that of his mother who had developed Hepatitis C, Liver Cirrhosis, and terminal Liver Cancer with a prognosis of just 6 months to live and no hope of improvement. Today, over 43 years later, Dr. C’s mother is still alive and a perfectly healthy 78!

I know I've also mentioned this a few times, but that claim that Coldwell cured his mom of Hep C more than 40 years ago is suspicious at best. Hep C wasn't identified until 1989, which is not to say that it didn't exist (for years before its identification, medical researchers and workers had observed a non-A non-B type), but there is no way that Lenny or any bona fidemedical pro would have known if his mom had Hep C back in the early 1970s (or late 1960s, or mid 1960s, or whenever the heck he was supposed to have effected that miracle cure for Mommy).

But here is a key part of this puzzle: Coldwell's story about curing his mother of Hep C did not seem to appear till some time in 2009, and I heard from a reliable source that his mom had been actually diagnosed with Hep C in 2008, or that this was the year Coldwell found out she has it. If this is true, she undoubtedly does still have it, unless perhaps she was able to afford the expensive possible cure.

Here is another preview from the 2008 print edition of Instinct Based Medicine. Notice there is no mention of Hep C at all. I did a word search in the book on Amazon previews and there is apparently no mention of Hep C throughout the book.

But back to Thomas Hohn. More recently, Coldwell has been using Hohn as his "diagnostician" in lame attempts to discredit me. Formerly Coldwell himself "diagnosed" me (as well as other critics and rivals) with numerous "mental illnesses," mostly using outmoded labels to describe these so-called illnesses. More recently he has quoted Hohn as saying I'm a sicko, and a danger to myself and others.

Both Ron and I have tried to initiate communication with Hohn, via his Facebook page, which no longer lists him as a doctor of any type.

But he has yet to answer and I don't think he will; in fact I strongly suspect that page is being controlled by Coldwell, who once again seems to be using Hohn to answer "medical questions" through Coldwell's new "The Only Answer to Cancer" Facebook page.

At any rate, if you're looking for the ultimate "proof" Coldwell has of his cure claims, that one page on his Bio web site appears to be the end of the road. Not surprisingly, Hohn and Coldwell seem to have sort of a quid pro quo deal going, as indicated on the following unedited snippet on Coldwell's Opinon Radio site. Notice how Lenny takes all credit away from Kevin Trudeau for pretty much the entire "Natural Cures" scampire, claiming that Lenny and Tommy Hohn created it. He's not even giving credit to his other buddy, Mike Adams the Health Ranger (as he had last year).

Dr Thomas Hoehn MD NMD Dr Hoehn, WELL KNOWN DOCTOR, COACH AND AUTHOR bestselling author, host of his own nationwide TV show Naturally Healthy for over 11 YEARS

-The founder of Natural Cures and the Natural Cures Newsletter as well as the Natural Cures:" Ask the Doc" Dr Thomas Hoehn and his staff answered for all the natural cures members hundreds of thousands of questions over the years.

Dr Hoehn is the most thought after Medical Doctor in Europe.
All of the effective natural cures information that was published in the Book "Natural Cures they dont want you to know about" originated from Dr Coldwell and Dr Hoehn. NO ONE ELSE!

Dr Coldwell gave Dr Hoehn access to all his patient files and Dr Hoehn looked at over 35000 of Dr Coldwell's cancer patients files over the years Impressed by Dr C's huge success Dr Hoehn became Dr Coldwell's apprentice and was the very first MD that became a licensed and certified IBMS Therapist and Practitioner. What is even more impressive is the fact the Dr Thomas Hoehn MD NMD surpassed his mentor and colleague Dr Leonard Coldwell with his cure rate Dr Hoehn has today an even higher cure rate than Dr Coldwell has for patients with autoimmune diseases including cancer, MS, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's etc,Dr Thomas Hoehn MD NMD is today in the opinion of Dr Leonard Coldwell ( who retired from the work with patents over a decade ago ) the worlds leading medical authority and has in Dr Coldwell's opinion based on his own observations, the highest cure rate in the world for autoimmune diseases and surpassed even the cure rate of Dr Coldwell, that Dr Hoehn himself concluded based on his own scientific and clinical studies of Dr Coldwell's cancer patient cases.

"You lie about me and I lie about you. Deal?"

"Ja!"

But something tells me that the imaginary exchange above is mostly just Coldwell talking to himself, while Hohn smiles on obliviously in Berlin, unaware of most of what is being said and done in his name -- including that "free" medical advice to desperate cancer patients that Hohn is supposedly giving to Americans via social media and email.

Modern Therapy Centers

Before we wrap this up, let's take a quick look at one of Coldwell's other famous claims: that he had a string of hospitals/clinics/therapy centers back in the day, in the Fatherland and/or in Europe at large. It's really quite difficult to sort out fact from fiction regarding Coldwell's career in Germany/Europe. At least it has proven to be difficult for me so far, with my very limited resources and zero knowledge of the German language. At any rate, on his new Bio site Coldwell has an entire tabbed page dedicated to his "Modern Therapy Centers."You can see for yourself here.

All of the content appears to be from a rag called the Modern Therapy Center Journal and not from actual journalistic sources. It is full of German text and grainy images, the latter of which are sometimes more than a little disturbing.

The very first picture on the MTC page on Coldwell's new Bio page bears this caption:

Dr. C's first MTC © -- Modern Therapy Center ©
opened in 1990! Many others followed!

When I saw that, my first thought was, "Could it be that 'many others followed' because the authorities would shut down one and he would open another, and that one would get shut down, and he'd open another... and on and on and on till he finally said, 'Screw it. I'm going to America!'?"

Of course I don't know if that's the case. Maybe it's not. Perhaps the MTCs really were successful for a while in Germany. Maybe he had a whole chain of ~~abuse~~healing centers, and maybe they were a smashing success, curing and healing thousands, until The Enemy began smiting them and trying to smite the famous "Dr." Bernd as well. I'm sure that a little determined digging by someone who knows a little German could uncover the truth. But I am not that someone. However, I will be glad to review, and share as appropriate, any legitimate information that might shed light on this great mystery.

I'm always open to more information.

That pretty much wraps it up for the most eminently snarkworthy content on Coldwell's new Bio site. On that site he also showcases his "bestselling books"and a bunch of pictures of himself at various events (I know of at least one person in one of those pics who now shudders to see himself with his arms around Coldwell), and he also has links to some of his lame videos... but it's all pretty boring, standard-issue stuff..

But wait...there's more! I'm not done yet. In Part 3 we'll review Coldwell's history of histrionics and the lunatic ways he handles criticism. I know that I have covered a lot of that ground before, but in the context of the new Bio site and some of Coldwell's more recent efforts to defend himself and lash out at his critics, it seems like a thing well worth revisiting.

PS ~ If you want to generate your own faux-degree for free, there are plenty of places on the Net to do it. Here's one.

........................

The rest of the story...

Part 1 -- Coldwell rolls out hilarious new bio site, tightens rope around his own neck(published 30 June 2014)
Part 3 -- Sound and fury, Sturm und Drang: Leonard Coldwell's meaningless bluster (published 7 August 2014)
Not part of the series but pertinent -- Leonard Coldwell goes too far: lies about me poisoning his dog(originally published 16 July, 2014, with several updates)

↧

Sound and fury, Sturm und Drang: Leonard Coldwell's meaningless bluster (Part 3 of 4)

August 7, 2014, 3:34 pm

≫ Next: Leonard Coldwell: the facts don't matter if the story is good (Part 4 of 5)

≪ Previous: Leonard Coldwell's medical lackground and other hilarities from his new Bio website, Part 2 of 4

In Part 1 of this originally two-part but now four-part (!) series, we explored the spurious claims of "defamation" and some of the other outright lies that Not-doctor Leonard Coldwell -- the former Bernd Klein aka Bernd Witchner of Germany, and the former b.f.f. of jailed serial scammer Kevin Trudeau -- put on his new Bio web site. In Part 2 we took a closer look at some of the other content on the site: most notably, Lenny's "medical" credentials, his cancer cure claims, and some of his "therapy centers" in Germany. Now let's put all of that in historical perspective. Or hysterical, as the case may be. I've covered much of this previously, but this is for the benefit of those who are new or who simply wish to review.

Coldwell's history of dealing with questions about his credentials and his past
If you've done any research at all about Coldwell, you'll know that despite some of his recent insinuations to the contrary I am far from the only person who has raised questions about his credentials and his past. Nor am I the only one who has observed for a couple of years that when asked on Facebook about his creds, or about other sensitive issues such as his name change from Bernd Klein and the real reason he left Germany, Coldwell's usual response has been...um... less than professional, and that is putting it very kindly. This may be why so many people have been blocked from his main Facebook page: odd behavior for a "public figure" on Facebook, as I've noted here before.

It's not just Facebook. From what I have seen during my perusal of numerous web sites, forums, and social media conversations over the past few years, Coldwell has generally reacted to questions about his medical credentials in one of several ways: (1) Manic defensiveness and rabble rousing: throwing a fit, claiming the questioner is being paid by some big nefarious force(s) to defame him, blocking the questioner on social media, threatening to sue or embarrass the questioner, etc., as well as inspiring his lunatic followers to take up his cause.; (2) Ignoring the question altogether; or (3) Offering some garbled explanation about the differences between medical licenses in Germany (or Europe at large) and those in the United States.

Strategy number 1: Manic defensiveness and rabble rousing
Regarding strategy number 1 -- defensiveness and throwing a fit -- here is one example from 2010(and yes, I know I've linked to this before, but I think it's significant enough to mention again). Though the original Coldwell post that the blogger wrote about seems to be gone, Coldwell's comments to the snarky blog post remain, although in these comments he is pretending to be his long-time buddy and colleague, Dr. Thomas Hohn, whom we visited in Part 2 (mostly under the section titled, "About that 92.3% cancer cure rate (and other cure claims")). Here's another effort by Coldwell-as-Hohn; it appears on a 2010 review of Coldwell's 2008 book Instinct Based Medicine.

Another "number 1" strategy employed by Coldwell is to threaten his critics with lawsuits. Occasionally he actually files one, the most recent case as of this writing being the failed Salty Droid-Jason Jones/Omri Shabat debacle. He would probably rather forget that one. Another one he probably would rather forget -- which of course I mentioned in my first lengthy blog post about him -- is a German lawsuit from the late 1990s. I'll have more about those lawsuits in a following section ("I will not start the fight...").

Sometimes Coldwell gets into even more radical lunacy and accuses his critics of being pedophiles or dog poisoners. Those are the types of strategies that really tend to backfire.

And sometimes Coldwell recruits other crazy people to his cause. For instance, in October 2012, a nutcake named Glenn Canady posted a screed on the wild-eyed conspiracy hub Before It's News. Canady and Coldwell both seemed to be calling A-list conspiracy-porn monger Alex Jones to task for killing thousands of cancer patients by "censoring" Coldwell. By "censorship," Canady means that Alex apparently had not invited Coldwell to be on his nutshow yet at the time.

In this interview on Nsearch Radio[note: Link no longer works ~CC], Dr. Leonard Coldwell completely exposes Alex Jones as having an AGENDA and not being interested in Solutions such as the cures to cancer that Alex Jones talks about every day! Dr. Coldwell discusses the many people that have literally begged Alex Jones to bring Dr. Coldwell on his program to no avail! Alex Jones seems to want people to die of the cancer that he talks about almost daily!

Why would a Christian or “Patriot” not share the incredible 92% cancer cure rate that Dr. Coldwell has attained? Any normal person without an agenda would LOVE to share this information as Project Nsearch has done! Coldwell cures cancer with natural treatments that cure cancer in 2-16 weeks! Does it make any sense for Alex Jones to actually go out of his way to censor such information? Of course not!

How many thousands of people could have been cured of their cancer through the Alex Jones Show but have died needlessly because of the actions of this selfish, censoring talk show host that has claimed the leadership position of the alternative media? We’ll never know exactly how many thousands have died due to the censorship of Alex Jones but what we do know is that every day this total goes up! Every day that Alex Jones continues to censor Dr. Coldwell, Alex Jones has more blood on his hands! If you listen to Alex Jones or have supported him in the past you should DEMAND to know why he has done such an evil act to allow Patriots to die needlessly from cancer!

This is just one of MANY things that absolutely proves that Alex Jones is a censoring gatekeeper that is NOT interested in Solutions and certainly does NOT deserve ANY support or money from Patriots whatsoever! Why would you give money to a censoring STOOGE that has potentially killed THOUSANDS of people just by censoring Dr. Coldwell’s cancer cures! You’d have to be a complete FOOL to give money to ANYBODY that censors anything!

I guess that means you would have to be a complete fool to give money to Coldwell, because he has censored me plenty, as well as just about anyone else who has ever asked him a critical question on social media. As you are well aware if you've seen some of my previous posts, I am not even allowed to post to the Facebook pages where he has spread his lies about me poisoning his dog, and making sexual passes at him, and so forth.

Not only does the embedded link in the quotation above not work, but the linked video, which supposedly has the Canady-Coldwell interview where Coldwell "completely exposes" Alex Jones, had apparently also been removed. But I found it somewhere else. I can't watch the whole thing right now because we're reaching our monthly bandwidth limit. But you are welcome to watch it and report back to me. If that one gets removed too we will know there is something sinister going on, and I guess we will just have to rely on the text of that 2012 screed on Before It's News, which goes on to say that the "rabbit hole" on Alex Jones goes much deeper than "killing thousands by censoring cancer cures." Yep, tinfoil hat wearers, there's more: According to Canady, Alex Jones is actually an informant for the FBI! And it just goes downhill after that.

There are numerous links to content on the old projectnsearch.com site but they do not work. I suspect that Glenn let his domain lapse; happens to the best of us. But never fear; there's a new Project Nsearch site,"launched in January of 2013 to reach people about God and his plan for us!" (Glenn Canady loves him those exclamation points.) There's also a Project Nsearch Radio that is a "Christian based radio network that teaches about God in a fun and inspirational way and covers news from a Christian perspective." That should be right down Lenny's alley, since he's a staunch fake Christian, having produced a relaxation frauduct for Christians (only $99 -- but hurry, the retail at "a later date" of this 2009 release will be $250!), and also having received a faux degree in "Humanity" from an unaccredited Christian "university."

Even as recently as January 2014 some of the fans were still fighting for Coldwell's cause, and they took it to Alex's PrisonPlanet forum, from which it has not yet been censored. A guy going by the moniker dustrypatriot85 wrote:

Paul Joseph Watson (member of Alex Jones’ team) even had the gall to try to get in my face about Alex’s censorship of Dr. Coldwell who is curing over 99% of those with cancer that don’t do the Chemo! Here’s the very nasty email Paul sent to my Facebook.

“Yes, Alex has killed thousands of people by not promoting some bullshit “cure for cancer” – that makes perfect sense. ” – Paul Joseph Watson.

Such nice language there Paul! Are you a Christian Paul? The reason I’m asking is because I have never heard you say it publicly. Christians are proud of their faith and will use every opportunity to share it. Christians sure don’t censor documented natural cancer cures and slander a doctor that has cured hundreds of thousands of caner [sic] without proof!

Of course when I told Paul that Mike Adams, Alex’s cohost is well aware of Dr. Coldwell and his incredible work helping others and FULLY supports Dr. Coldwell, Paul didn’t have the courage to even respond! Instead Paul thinks its okay to slander the great Dr. Coldwell and fully supports Alex Jones’ censorship of Dr. Coldwell who has already been on George Noory’s “Coast to Coast” program!

Why are Alex Jones and Paul Joseph Watson so hell bent on evil that they refuse to let Dr. Coldwell get access to their fan base when it could potentially save thousands of lives? Why are Alex Jones and Paul Joseph Watson refusing to allow the cures for cancer to be broadcast while Mike Adams, George Noory and multiple doctors that have been on Alex’s show know that Dr. Coldwell has cured more people of cancer than anybody on the planet and he does it for free!

If Alex Jones and Paul Watson REALLY think that Dr. Coldwell is a fraud then they should at least have the courage to publicly state it so that Dr. Coldwell can sue both of them for slander! Alex drones on and on about how cancer rates are exploding but yet when a man has demonstrated that he has hundreds of natural cures and has written best selling books on the subject Alex proceeds to censor him and Paul Joseph Watson slanders him without ANY proof!

Coldwell does inspire the dimwitted fanatical defenders -- which of course is why I am so concerned about the little twerp sharing my name and address with his lunatic fan base. I noticed that being a Christian seems to be a very important thing to dustypatriot85, and he is clearly indignant about people who "slander" the good "doctor" without proof. He is apparently unaware that his hero does the very same thing.

Regarding duxtypatriot85's claim that Mike "Health Ranger" Adams (whom I've written about briefly) fully supports Coldwell, I'm not so sure about that, even though to this day Coldwell describes Adams as "my dear friend." Coldwell and Adams have stroked each other a lot but in the end, they're competitors, though Adams has a much broader fan base than Coldwell. I'm sure they'd both throw each other under the bus if they felt it necessary to preserve their own "credibility" and income stream.
And George Noory? He's an Art Bell wannabe and showcases all of the stuff that is even too nutty for Alex Jones. Art and George have their own little history of fighting over a piece of the nutjob pie.

Coldwell definitely attracts the fans who have a screw loose, and sometimes makes extra efforts to win their sympathy. As threatening as his posts about his critics often are, when it comes right down to it they are all just one big whine-fest, as was this July 17 screed, which he wrote, and/or some of his fangirls posted to several of his Facebook pages, including The Only Answer to Cancer page, the IBMS Master's Society page, and his main Facebook page. This was a few days into the dog-poisoning saga. I am unable to comment on any of these pages, and Facebook refuses to take this screed down. I hadn't shared this verbatim yet on this blog, so in case you haven't seen it, here it is, in all its unedited glory (minus my personal information):

A very personal and heartfelt Message to all my friends and supporters:
You know my dear friends,

I am sitting here at 4 am and holding my boy blue who is shaken by seizures all night long and reading your comments. It is really stunning to me, that I always thought my FB page is just one other way to educate interested people in help to self-help, about the over 400 natural cancer cures that the medical profession does not want you to know about or about freedom and liberty, common and constitutional law etc so that all of us may keep at least for a little while longer that tiny bit of freedom that we still have left or that we live with more quality of life, maybe a little longer with a less pain and suffering and maybe even a little bit happier. I always thought that Facebook “ Friends” are simply a group of nice people that have some similar interests as I do.

But:” I was wrong! The last days since my boy Blue was poisoned and seems to die in my arms soon, at least that is what we fear, I made some unusual observations. I thought nobody really cared and no one is really interested in anybody’s life on FB besides the gossip or some valuable information.

But you thought me something different! YOU have been there for me and Amy and Blue when our pain was really deep and more inside and hidden. All of us tried to be strong for the other and tried not to make it even harder on each other. I am sitting here reading the insults defamation and hateful attacks from Connie Schmidt from Waller TX, that is posting her hate filled lies for 3 years now, just because I did not accept her offer to a “ Sex Weekend” I would never forget. She talked to my staff, my family and friends and tried everything to get a date with me. She found 2 proven child molesters, Mahoney who is hiding in Japan from the law and is a professional Hacker that for years is hacking into our websites, email accounts; is setting up websites under fake names or even under my name to spread lies and defamation ( paid by the pharmaceutical industry ) and another molester of little boys Omri Shabat, how is hiding in Israel and is also paid by the pharmaceutical industry to destroy my reputation with lies. The third one is a wanna be lawyer without a license that prides himself that so many people he is spreading lies about want to kill him. This guy, Jason Michael Jones, calls himself a droid, is hiding for over one year so that my lawyers cannot serve him with the court documents. I am thinking these people did spend thousands of hours on fake posts, lies, setting up email and FB accounts under false names just to post lies about me and wonder if they don’t have a life on their own? Connie Schmidt lives ONLY to spill her hate ( because I rejected her ) and has obviously nothing else to do than to spend hundreds of hours each month to post lies? My dear friend Sarah, did set up a Bio website just to put out all my board certifications as a Doctor of Naturopathic Medicine and Psychologist, she posted information about my hospitals in Germany and the proof that 3 independent studies came to the conclusion that I have a 92.3% cancer cure rate and helped over 35 000 cancer patients to gain their health back. 7 years ago a women under blackmail and fear was pressured into making a false police report* against me, Connie Schmidt knows that this women has signed a sworn affidavit that all the accusations against me where false and has revoked them and that another women that was forced to lie about me, took her own life because she could not live with what she did to me. Now instead of being able to work on my new books The ONLY Answer to the Cure for Cancer and Going home to Mayberry, ( a book that will help all of us to gain some happiness and love and trust back into our life’s ) I have to spend tens of thousands of dollars for the lawyers suing Connie Schmidt for defamation libel and slander and conspiracy to destroy grounds of business as well as the other 3 pathological sociopath’s. I could focus on creating more self-help videos for cancer and autoimmune disease patients, since my videos on youtube have over 225 million viewers, I am sure I helped many people at least give them some hope when they are given up by the medical profession. But I have to constantly consult with lawyer to have them take down the fake and defamatory websites and FB sites where Connie Schmidt and Bernhard Mahoney and Omi Shabat and the droid are spreading their lies to help the pharmaceutical and medical industry to harm my reputation so that my messages to help cancer patients will tainted by doubts. You know I just see that my Bio site is down again – so that people cannot see all my documentation – as I just see, what a coincidence.

It is so strange that 4 mentally ill sociopath can cause so much trouble, for no good reason. I have never ever been sued, indicted, trialed, convicted of any crime what so ever, but Connie Schmidt, is trying to make people believe I have done something wrong. What have I done in my life? I cured my own mother from Hepatitis C, Liver Cirrhosis and terminal liver cancer with the prognosis of 6 month to live 43 years ago. My mother is still alive and healthy today. I cured my own sister from cervical cancer and over 66 000 patients from all kind of health challenges. I made a deal with God 43 years ago and promised him that I would do everything in my power to help other parents and their children, not have to go through what my mom and I had to endure, if he helps me to cure my mother. All I am doing now and for the lasts decades is to keep my promise to God. I founded the Foundation for Drug and Crime Free Schools and Health for Children and all my profits from my books etc go into that Foundation for decades because I do not want to make money on the suffering of ill people. All of my 19 bestselling books are help to self-help or self-healing educational books, my book The ONLY Answer to Tyranny was so successful teaching people about freedom and how to successfully end Tyranny that the publisher was “convinced” to stop publishing it. I have lead the Rally for the Troops, lets Freedom Ring in support of our great military, I trained Firefighters, Police, Military, 9 11 first responder, the Naval Weapon station Medical staff, the security chief of SC etc etc etc to be able to deal more effectively with stress and to prevent illness for over a decade now and I have not charged dime ever.

Since my first book:” Mama please don’t die” came out over 40 years ago I live with death threats, been shot at ( and hit ) multiple times and my care has been bombed to stop me from educating people about natural cancer cures and how cheap and fast ever cancer can be cured or prevented.

For 40 years I studied every healer that was successful, every patient that got cured from cancer, I traveled the world from Brazil to the Philippines, all of Asia in search for the cures. I lived with and African Medicine man 4 month in Nigeria, Africa. I learned everything there is about health and healing and how to help people to be energized, healthy and happy.

What I have learned from the experience with the poisoning of my dog Blue and the defamation campaign lead by Connie Schmidt is:” That I don’t have just anonymous Facebook Friends, I have real friends on Facebook ( and everywhere in the world ) that care. Wonderful people like you that care about me and my loved ones and my boy Blue! I have gotten so many emails, test messages and FB messages etc etc from all of you my dearest friends, that I had tears running down my face while reading your loving and caring messages. Your prayers, your love, your care your positive energy and uplifting thoughts have touched me so deeply that I cant even express my love and gratefulness to all of you. Wendy Horner, my dear friend who wanted to drive through 3 states to bring blue her products and to help him. Sarah that puts all the hacked and destroyed websites back up again and again. Amy who is so caring and supportive and then…. There is: All of you with your love and care and support! I have to say:” Yes I do have friends worldwide real friends and I also, even if I would never had believed it I do have friends, real friends like you, on Facebook. I thank all of you from the bottom of my heard for all your kindness and love in this time of pain and war against insanity.

I dedicated my life to help all of you to be healthier, happier and free. But I had and have to waste the valuable time of my life to defend myself from the senseless attacks of a Sociopathic mentally ill person that is as I heard over and over again, and I believe that too, a heavy drug user. With the name of Connie Schmidt. I have to waste my money instead of helping sick people that cant afford health care to hire lawyers, private detectives etc to fight the defamation, libel and slander from Connie Schmidt.

Friends of mine are setting a website up as we speak where the entire truth about all 4 of them there past their crimes etc will be documented. Maybe you have some comments for her. Her official address as posted on her own business website is:
[REDACTED BY ME, not by COLDWELL, who has broadcast it all over the place]

All my information has been posted on www.DrLeonardColdwellBio.com or www.DrLeonardColdwell.com listen to my radio show every Sunday www.DrColdwellOpinionRadio.com
Please be so kind and repost this article because Facebook will take it down again. Facebook took my first post about the crimes of Connie Schmidt down very fast. Please ignore grammar and spelling errors because I am too tired to reread all of this and as you guys know I never learned English I simply picked it up. Blue is finally asleep and I try to get some sleep now too. Love you all.
Thank you for your love, kindness and support in these tough times your friend
Dr Leonard Coldwell – Help to Self Help Educator
NMD DNM PHD D.HUM CNHP
Board Certified Doctor of Natural Medicine
Board Certified Alternative Medical Practitioner
Board Certified Holistic Health Practitioner
Syndicated Radio Host ( GCN - Dr Coldwell Opinion )

"Somebody call the waaaahhhhmbulance!" That's pretty much every lie in a nutshell (emphasis on "nut") that Coldwell has been telling for a long time. As you may know, I pretty thoroughly covered his lies about the bloggers (and the police report*) in Part 1, and the lies about the credentials and cure claims and "hacked" web sites in Part 2, and the lies about me poisoning his dog on this post, which was originally published between Part 1 and Part 2, and has been updated and added to several times since its original publication. (And as you may also know, that dog that was supposedly dying in his arms has made a complete recovery, and it seems that perhaps the dog may have ingested a toxic plant of some type rather than having been deliberately poisoned by anyone. But did Coldwell retract any of his lies? What do you think?)

But gosh, I really feel awful that I am somehow responsible for Lenny not being able to "write" his new books, especially that one about "Going Home to Mayberry." I am sure the Andy Griffith Showcopyright holders will be interested in seeing that one if it ever gets published. I also find it interesting that after The Only Answer To Cancer, he feels the need to write a book called The ONLY Answer to the Cure for Cancer. Did he find another "only answer?"

Strategy number 2: Ignoring the critics (or claiming to do so)
Strategy number 1 seems to be Coldwell's favorite, but he has actually employed strategy number 2 -- ignoring the question -- more than may seem apparent. Or at least he has claimedto employ that strategy, which I suppose is not necessarily the same thing. I was privy to an early ghostwritten draft, completed in 2005, of the aforementioned 2008 book, Instinct Based Medicine. (And as I've mentioned before, Coldwell does indeed use ghostwriters for his English language books. Nothing wrong with that, especially since his written English is so awful.)

There's a passage early in that draft in which Coldwell writes about defending himself against the critics. I do not know if this passage made it into the final published form of Instinct Based Medicine (or for that matter, into The Only Answer to Cancer). Extended previews of both books are available online for free, and as you can see on this post, I have availed myself of those previews. However, I have not attempted to purchase them, nor to obtain any free/illegal copies that may be available. (Not only is the latter a good way to get a virus or other malware, but I do not believe in using torrents or doing anything that would otherwise deprive even the most objectionable author of potential sales. So if you want to read Coldwell's books for yourself, I suggest you take advantage of the free previews or purchase them.)
In the passage I read, Coldwell noted that he had wasted a lot of time and energy defending himself. He quoted his beloved grandmother as saying, "When you make excuses or defend yourself, you often implicate yourself.”Coldwell wrote that he agreed, adding that the more you defend yourself, the more your critics will play the “blame and doubt game” with you. "That’s how they try to wear you out," he wrote. He added that he would never defend himself or his "system" ever again; he would explain and teach it, but never again defend it. (In that context he made reference to his U-Cure system, which was apparently his state-of-the-art scheme back in 2005.)

Again, I do not know if his vow to never again defend himself was in the final published version of Instinct Based Medicine, nor do I know how much of the tale made it into his subsequent work, The Only Answer to Cancer, which has apparently been through several editions and revisions. The links to purchase those books are in the previous sentence and several other places on this post. You can also read much of Instinct Based Medicine here on Google Books. (Blame Google, Lenny -- not me.)

But I have seen some version of this story in several places so it is reasonable to suppose that it made the final cut in one or both books. If I am wrong, somebody tell me and I will correct this post accordingly. In any case it appears that Lenny has broken his vow to "never defend myself ever again." But I guess he felt that he had little choice but to resort to defending himself, because people have continued to hammer him with questions about his credentials. This tends to happen to people who repeatedly make extraordinary claims.

So much, then, for strategy number 2 of ignoring the critics.

Strategy number 3: the garbled explanation of licensure and credentials
On the "official biography" page on his new Bio site, Coldwell has clearly adopted strategy number 3: the garbled explanation about licensure in the U.S. versus Europe.

Dr. Leonard Coldwell retired from the work with Patients when he immigrated into the USA about 12 years ago. He did never and will never work with patients in the US. His focus is on educating the interested public. Dr Coldwell was a naturopathic physician in Europe: Translation from German Law:

Regulatory situation In Germany, there is no legal monopoly on the practice of medicine. Non-allopathic physicians may practice medicine. Naturopathic Physicians may practice medicine. To qualify, a candidate has sufficient knowledge and ability to practice as a Naturopathic Physician and that the candidate's treatments do not negatively affect public health. The exam verifies the candidate's basic knowledge of anatomy, physiology, hygiene, pathology, sterilization, disinfecting, diagnosis, and health regulations, particularly the epidemic law. )

Most of the rest of that page is page is taken up with blurbs about Louisiana Baptist University, where Coldwell got that toy "Doctor of Humanity" degree he's so proud of. That seems sort of odd for an "Official Biography" page, particularly since Coldwell brags about being such an accomplished human being. Are we to believe that a play doctorate in humanities is the crowning achievement of his illustrious career?

But back to the question of was-he-or-wasn't-he-a-doctor-in-Germany. That 2007 Mt. Pleasant, SC police report* contains an interesting snippet from someone who knew Coldwell very well.

When I first met Leonard [in December 1999] he presented himself as an MD, then as an NMD (which he explained that in Germany, it meant a medical doctor with a naturopath degree), along with a PhD in psychology, and many other degrees. He also confided later that he had given back his medical degree because he was disgusted with the medical doctors. Now, I have no idea what is true or not true. At the end of 2001, Doctor Thomas Hohn, a supposed student of Leonard, bought all the furniture and the business [Leonard and I] owned called Time Out. Dr. Hohn was visiting, staying with my friend [NAME REDACTED], where he told [name] that he had been surprised that Leonard was able to call himself a doctor because he wasn't a doctor in Germany, but he said Leonard explained that as a Psychologist in the US, you could call yourself a doctor.

If this witness's recall is correct, and assuming that the witness's friend also quoted Hohn correctly, Coldwell's own long-time buddy and colleague said Coldwell wasn't a doctor in Germany. I have heard other buzz about snarky things Hohn has supposedly said about Coldwell, but it seems impossible to substantiate at this point so we'll just let that one ride for now.

In defending his credentials, Coldwell has often emphasized the differences between the U.S. and Germany, recently writing to a reporter who had been making queries that clearly made Lenny uncomfortable, "Do you know there is no such thing as a medical license in Germany?"

Well, this site would beg to differ.

After reading the rationalization on Coldwell's new bio page, I went a-Googlin' and looked up "Regulations for medical doctors in Germany."And one of the top results was this little PDF, which provides a capsule history of alt-med in Europe.This is from pp. 16-17 of that PDF:

About 15,000 doctors in Germany have been trained in naturopathic medicine. Naturopathic medicine is used in many rehabilitation clinics and at eight acute care hospitals in so-called ‘naturopathy departments’ and even in regular hospitals in Germany.

Doctors with a background in naturopathy and about 70 percent of the German GPs prefer to prescribe herbal medicines/phytopharmaceuticals. A few hundred doctors in other EU Member States have taken training and education in naturopathic medicine.

National laws regulating naturopathic medicine as a distinct therapeutic system
In 1998 the Code of Social Law recognised naturopathic medicine as a distinct therapeutic system

Regulation of the profession of naturopathic doctors by the medical association/council/chamber There is a specific naturopathic curriculum for medical doctors in Germany recognised by the Medical Chamber leading to an official additional medical qualification.

Diplomas of naturopathic doctors
Various associations provide postgraduate training courses in the diverse therapeutic elements of naturopathic medicine and have developed quality standards.

Here's what is so puzzling -- on the surface, anyway -- about Coldwell's decision to leave Germany. Had he been legit there, it seems he could have practiced as a naturopathic physician with no problems. While naturopathic practice is still for the most part ridiculed or ignored by the U.S. medical establishment, it seems to have gained a certain legitimacy in Germany over the past fifteen years or so. Is it just a coincidence that 1998 -- the year that Germany's Code of Social Law recognized naturopathic medicine as a distinct therapeutic system -- was also the year that Bernd Klein legally changed his name to Leonard Coldwell, and was also apparently around the time that he permanently moved to the U.S.? (He had evidently been using the name Leonard Coldwell as an "artist's name"for a few years in Germany, but legally changed it in Virginia in 1998.)

But notice that I said that Coldwell's decision to leave Germany just at the time naturopathic practice gained new legitimacy was puzzling on the surface. You don't have to dig very deeply to discern another story there. I've discussed this here before, but now that we're on the topic, it's worthy of noting again that Coldwell has been as cagey about his reasons for leaving Germany as he has been about his creds.

I suspect that the two issues are intertwined in ways that we may never fully know. My purpose here is simply to raise questions.

A couple of years ago someone with whom I had been corresponding told me about asking Coldwell about his reason for leaving Germany. Reportedly Coldwell framed his reply in only the most positive and patriotic terms, explaining that he had wanted to come to America for a long time, ever since the Berlin Wall came down (in 1989) and filled him with a desire to come to a country where freedom rings so brave and true. Or something to that effect.

Today Coldwell is quite the patriot, and almost as much as he hates the "criminals and Treasonists" who are running the country, he hates those filthy illegals who are dirtying up "our" culture and language, and he is so proud to have become an American the right way: by buying his way to naturalization. Here's his proud, patriotic anti-illegal immig-rant from July 4, 2014:

Reliable sources (i.e., someone who actually attended Coldwell's naturalization ceremony) tell me that Coldwell became a citizen some time around 2006, which means that if he really did spend 12 years trying to become a 'Merkin, he actually started the process in 1994 when he was still living in Germany and still legally known as Bernd Klein aka Bernd Witchner -- but apparently using the name "Leonard Coldwell" as an artist's name (unless that Berlin Dentist's Day 1994 Zertifikatof which he is so proud that he put it on his new Credentials page was doctored a little. And come to think of it, it kind of looks like it might have been.).

Just saying. Or maybe his maths are off again. It wouldn't be the first time.

While Coldwell may very well have harbored a longing to be an American, some of the stories he has told about his reasons for coming to the Land of the Free are more negative. In my archives I have snippets of a Facebook exchange that occurred in 2012, a couple of months after my first long post about Coldwell, "Bernd bridges," was published. On that thread, which has probably long since been deleted, a few people were discussing Lenny’s name change, and a former Coldwell fan told of confronting Lenny on Facebook, apparently via private message. This person wrote:

I asked him directly on Facebook, I sent him a link to the Bernd Bridges [Whirled Musings blog post] and asked if he has seen it, then asked if he did change his name if it was ok to ask why, and he sent this reply:

"My dear friend I was accused of setting the fire or [sic] Rome and putting Jesus on the Cross The german government and the pharmaceutical industry created groups of people to defame me in anyway they could - one thing I learned along the way you never ever comment on any of the defamation because that makes them achieve what they want. Love you..."

Well, there are some typical Loony histrionics for you (and there's that pretense at "Number 2" in the list of deflection strategies: claim that you don't engage with critics and just ignore the "defamation"). Contextually it appears that Coldwell was explaining his name change to that person, but perhaps he was also (or instead) explaining his reason for leaving Germany; it's hard to tell. Someone else told me that he once explained that he changed his name because "Klein" is German for "little," and he didn't feel that was a very inspiring name for a motivational leader. But he is little, in the sense of short, as well as small-minded -- and no name change can alter those facts.

The person I quoted above also told of asking Coldwell to comment on the infamous late 1990s German lawsuit -- which actually seems to have been initiated by Coldwell after he had moved to the U.S. -- but Coldwell never replied to that inquiry. (Again, I'll have more about that lawsuit below...like, immediately below.) And in case you are wondering, despite Coldwell's expression of "love" in his reply, this person is no longer anything remotely resembling a Coldwell fan, and has moved on.

"I will not start the fight... but I will forfeit it with my own stupidity!"
One of Coldwell's favorite slogans is, "I will not start the fight... but I will finish it!" Apparently that is his way of insinuating that he is just a peace-lovin' guy who wants to be left alone to do his work and write those best selling books and make those healing videos, but gosh, those enemies just keep on coming at him, so he has no choice but to finish them off. Or something like that. I don't actually know what he means. Maybe he can explain it to you.

But let's momentarily revisit that Leonard Coldwell "Defamation page," which as I noted is no longer on the site at all and is not reachable even by typing in the direct link. Here, try it for yourself, and you will see: http://www.drleonardcoldwellbio.com/#!defamation/cmke

Even so, the copy on that page is worth revisiting yet again because so much of it is congruent with Coldwell's ongoing narrative. That page, which Coldwell pretended was written by his brother "Nicolas Coldwell" (usually spelled Nicholas Coldwell, though his real name is Jens Wilhelm Anskohl -- see more about Jens here), began with this dramatic flourish:

Defamation, Libel, Slander and massive Media Assaults against Dr. Leonard Coldwell (“Dr. C”)
For over 40 years now, my brother, Dr. Leonard Coldwell, gets assaulted and threatened, shot at, and his car bombed, simply because he can cure every cancer in 2 to 16 weeks. The moment he could prove that he cured our mother from Hepatitis C, Liver Cirrhosis, and terminal liver cancer, with the prognosis of only 6 months to live, all hell broke loose! After he cured our sister from cervical cancer it got even worse. Daily death threats are something we are all living with since then.
Very reliable sources tell us that the Medical and Pharmaceutical industry (300 Billon dollar per year cancer industry) spent over 42 million dollars to discredit Dr. Leonard Coldwell and to destroy his reputation. They hired a gay Jewish guy that is a known child molester, living in Israel, to set a defamation website up to discredit and destroy my brothers reputation and destroy his grounds of business. (Without any success as you may know.) These criminals’ posts are so over the top stupid, primitive, and absurd that no one ever bought into these over the top, outrageous lies.

Wow... "$42 million dollars." As is the case with most of his numbers, Coldwell does not say where he got that figure -- maybe Tommy Hohn dug it out of his own a$$ and handed it to Lenny, or perhaps Lenny's ace "legal research team" suggested it to him, or maybe one of the voices in Lenny's head gave it to him. It appears to me that Lenny is fixated on the number 42, as he also recently wrote that he has spent $42,000 suing a group of "crazy criminal" bloggers, including me, Bernie O'Mahony, Salty Droid, and Omri Shabat. What is it with "42," Lenny? Are you a Douglas Adams fan?

(I finally had to ask Lenny where he got that $42 million figure, but I don't believe he answered the question before I was blocked from ever again conversing there.

If Coldwell really did spend $42,000 in legal bills to fight Bernie and Salty and Omri and me -- as he also claimed -- he totally wasted his cash, gold (or gold-foil-wrapped coin candy), and horsey statue. The picture to which I linked in the previous sentence is from this May 2013 blog post regarding Coldwell's constant boasting about how much cash and gold and whatnot he keeps around his house. He is "rich like sh-t," and deals in numbers that we losers and paupers can only dream about. Or so he has said many times.

In the second paragraph of the quoted text above Coldwell mentions a "gay Jewish child molester in Israel." That's more nonsense and false accusations. Omri Shabat of GlancingWeb.com is no doubt Jewish and yes, he does live in Israel. I have no idea about his sexual orientation and don't care. It is simply not relevant to anyone but Coldwell, who, for reasons we can only guess at, is a reported homophobe. The "known child molester" accusation, however, seems to be a standard Lenny lie these days. He appears be as fixated on child molesting as he is on prostitution or the number 42, leading me to believe that he was either a victim of molestation himself as a little Bernd, or that he has perhaps been accused of child molesting as an adult, or both. I don't know, but you have to wonder.

Or maybe he is just pulling out random accusations in a clumsy attempt to discredit his critics, just as he originally called me an AIDS-infected ex-prostitute, and, more recently, claimed that I am sexually obsessed with him. He appears to betray his disturbing fantasy life every time he makes an utterance about his critics.

Accusing someone of being a child molester is a very serious thing, though. Perhaps Coldwell continues to do it with Bernie and Omri because he is in the United States and they are overseas; maybe he thinks they are not as likely to be able to pursue legal action against him as someone in the United States might be.

In light of all of the above, the claim on the defunct "Defamation" page that the "attacks" against Coldwell are "over the top, stupid, primitive, and absurd" is another one of those pot-and-kettle situations. Moreover, if no one ever bought into those "lies," it seems that Coldwell wouldn't have bothered with his mis-infotaining new site, nor would he have been threatening critics with lawsuits and physical harm, nor, for that matter, would he have bothered with that recent epic fail of a "defamation" lawsuit against one of his critics (Salty Droid). That effort turned out to be an impotent rant against two different people (Salty and Omri) -- a fact that would have invalidated his lawsuit even if the personal-injury attorney he hired to handle the suit hadn't withdrawn, and even if Coldwell hadn't failed to show up for his own hearing.

Going further back, there is a good summary of the aforementioned German lawsuit on the Rational Wiki page about Coldwell, which I stumbled across by accident a few weeks ago. I've mentioned this before but will say again that I had nothing to do with this page, though Coldwell will no doubt get around to blaming me (and/or Bernie) for it, and in fact the author got a few minor details wrong.

For instance, although Coldwell famously and hilariously hates the excellent urban mythbusting site Snopes.com with a passion, contrary to the Rational Wiki piece he did notclaim to have reported them to the U.S. Justice Department. He simply reported, on an August 2010 blog post, that someone else had supposedly reported Snopes to the Justice Department "for not telling the truth about aspartame." When searching for more information about this meme I happened to stumble upon a hilarious series of letters, circa 2001-2004, from one of Coldwell's buddies and endorsers, "Dr." Betty Martini (who is also quite the glamour gal, and like Lenny has an "honorary Doctor of Humanities" degree). In that old 2004 correspondence, Betty accuses Snopes of being part of a front group to defend aspartame, in violation, sniffs Betty in righteous indignation, of Title 18, Section 1001 of the Criminal Code "for stumbling the people." You have to read this stuff. I'll wait.

My main issue with RationalWiki is that the articles have a strongly snarky/editorial (snarkatorial?) tone and for the most part there isn't even any pretense at objectivity. Call me stuffy and old-school, but for the most part I think snarking is for blogs and opinion pieces. People complain about Wikipedia, but Wikipedia does strive to maintain standards of objectivity.

Nevertheless I found myself laughing out loud -- literally -- at the RationalWiki article, and silently congratulating the puckish author, who actually did seem to get most things correct, such as the account of that much-discussed lawsuit that Coldwell brought against one of his critics in Germany, cult expert Karin Paetow-Froese. (The author includes a link to a Google translation of information about the original lawsuit. I also have a link and discussion on my Bernd bridges blog post.)

For all practical purposes, Coldwell lost the German lawsuit. The original amount in damages that he asked for was drastically lowered and sent to a lower court, and what was left of the lawsuit was dismissed by that court. There were several other comical things about the suit, and the only thing Coldwell accomplished was to make himself look like a fool, and to have certain facts about himself (e.g., his name change -- which most of us probably never would have known about otherwise) become part of a very public and permanent record. Judging from some of his responses whenever this topic is brought up, that German lawsuit is almost as much of a sore spot as that 2007 police report* in Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina. Also noteworthy (and noted previously on this blog) is that Coldwell railed about Ms. Paetow-Froese, accusing her of being mentally ill and uneducated -- and this was more than 15 years ago.

Some things never change.

A history of histrionics
Here is Coldwell protesting too much again on that disappeared "Defamation" page -- and again, though the page has been removed, I cite it only because Coldwell continues to tell this story in some form on Facebook. This was in the context of Coldwell's claim that the sex accusations (on the police report*) were his enemies' original strategy to ruin him, but that didn't work, so those darned enemies had to make up something new.

Because the truth always prevails and they did not achieve what they wanted to destroy grounds of work and business and income for Dr. Leonard Coldwell, now they had to find a new attack and new accusations.

Now all of them turned into a new lie and false accusation that Dr. Leonard Coldwell has no health degrees! …Which is so absurd that Dr. C never even cared to bother about these absurd accusations! Plus, since Dr. Coldwell has retired from the work with patients over a decade ago, and never worked in the US with patients, it seemed to be a moot issue anyway.

Just in case, here are just some of the many achievements, certifications, and degrees Dr. Leonard Coldwell holds, for you [sic] inner peace of mind...

And then he proceeded to share pictures of his spurious degrees and credentials, which we have already explored.

The passage above is rife with inaccuracies. To begin with, and as I hope to have made abundantly clear on this long post and the previous one, questions about Coldwell's credentials are not new. Contrary to his claims, this isn't just a recent tactic that the "defamers" dreamed up because the sexual accusations against Coldwell failed to bring him down. People have been wondering his credentials for years; it was one of the first things I wrote about on my first long post about him, back in May 2012. There's also a big discussion about it on Salty Droid's late August 2012 post about him. And more than two years before I'd ever written about him, there was this discussion, which was initiated on the Skeptics' Guide to the Universe forum in January 2010.

Coldwell's claim on the defunct "Defamation" web page that he "never even cared to bother about these absurd accusations" is also blatantly false. He has obviously been very bothered by this issue for years, and as demonstrated above he even made a big deal of rationalizing his lack of conventional creds in a couple of his books. But in recent years, as also noted, he has mostly dealt with the issue by threatening to sue the questioners, or simply blocking them on Facebook and making up lies that they are shills for Big Pharma, that they are child molesters, that they are AIDS-infected hookers, or (more recently, in my case) are sexually obsessed with him.

Finally, his claim that his so-called retirement from work with patients makes all credential questions moot is clearly absurd. It most certainly is not a moot issue, for, patients or no patients, he cites those credentials all the time to lend the weight of authority to the health "advice" he is constantly doling out.

You can't have it both ways, Lenny. Not that Lenny hasn't tried in several ways to have his cake and eat it too, credential-wise, over the years. Following Salty Droid's first blog post about Coldwell (August 2012), there's quite a good extended discussion about the significance of his credentials (or lack thereof). This actually brings us to another point: Oddly enough, Coldwell's lack of accepted medical credentials actually works in his favor regarding allegations that he abused or preyed on "patients" in his capacity as a "doctor." He isn't governed by any legitimate medical board, so there's one avenue of sanctions that is completely closed.

In fact one of the witnesses contributing to the 2007 police report* -- the one who quoted Dr. Thomas Hohn as saying Coldwell was not a doctor in Germany -- was also asked if anybody ever paid for the "sessions" with Coldwell that were the focus of some of the complaints. The witness responded, "Leonard would never accept money. He knows that is against the law because he doesn't have a license. He did have everyone sign confidentiality statements, and he thought that made him safe."

Interestingly (and disturbingly), Coldwell reportedly made a brief announcement in late 2012 that he was going to start "seeing patients" again in 2013. That was the buzz on Facebook, though I do not have a screen shot to back up Coldwell's actual announcement. (Anyone who has one, or an email from Coldwell, about this announcement can feel free to share it.)

A Facebook friend of mine who still halfway believed in him at the time asked him if he could see her friend, who was apparently dying of cancer. She reported that without even asking for details, Coldwell brushed her off, saying he was already booked well into 2013 and besides, he said, his fees would be well beyond her friend's price range. (I am not posting links or shots because this was private correspondence.) I think that at this point, the last of my friend's illusions about Coldwell crumbled.

In any case the plan to "see patients again" apparently did not pan out, although in April of 2013 Coldwell caused a brief flurry on Facebook when he announced that he had purchased 130-plus acres of rural land in South Carolina, near the Georgia border, to build the Coldwell health/treatment resort and sovereign city. I haven't heard much about that either in the time since then.

In any case, from his own narratives, it's pretty clear that Coldwell's history of having to 'splain himself and his creds dates back before his U.S. publishing debut, to his Germany days. And therein lies a problem for anyone who wants to actually substantiate what he says: most of the stories about his fights with the medical establishment, as well as his healing miracles, concern his activities in Germany, most of which would have taken place before the Internet became a thing, so it's almost impossible to verify the details. The added challenge is that much of the information would presumably be in German. This is from Instinct Based Medicine:

In short...

Coldwell is being untruthful when he suggests that the questions about his "medical" qualifications represent a new tactic. Even by his own account he has been wrestling with other people's doubts about his credentials and qualifications for many, many years -- since long before Bernie, Salty, Omri or I had ever heard of the little man.
His most "legendary" tales took place in Germany years ago, long before the Internet, and are all but impossible to verify. For now they must be taken on faith. And how much faith can one reasonably have in a volatile little man who tells lies that we know are lies -- and can't even keep those lies straight?

There's a bit more I want to say, not only about Coldwell's lies and inconsistencies but also about the larger themes of dubious alt-health "heroes" (and other smarmy "public figures" in Scamworld) and the lengths to which their fans will go to defend them. So I'll wrap it all up in Part 4.

* As noted on this blog numerous times, for various reasons, the 2007 Mount Pleasant, South Carolina Police Department report did not result in any charges being filed against Coldwell. Nevertheless it is not a "false report," and to my knowledge only one woman recanted her accusation -- more than seven years after she made it. There's probably an interesting story behind that. More information can be found here.

The rest of the story...

Part 1 -- Coldwell rolls out hilarious new bio site, tightens rope around his own neck(published 30 June 2014)
Part 2 -- Leonard Coldwell's medical lackground and other hilarities from his new Bio website (published 4 August 2014)
Part 3 -- Sound and fury, Sturm und Drang: Leonard Coldwell's meaningless bluster (published 7 August 2014)
Not part of the series but pertinent -- Leonard Coldwell goes too far: lies about me poisoning his dog(originally published 16 July, 2014, with several updates)

↧

Leonard Coldwell: the facts don't matter if the story is good (Part 4 of 5)

August 16, 2014, 3:37 pm

≫ Next: Leonard Coldwell: stupid and dangerous, or simply stupid? (Part 5 of 5)

≪ Previous: Sound and fury, Sturm und Drang: Leonard Coldwell's meaningless bluster (Part 3 of 4)

Leonard Coldwell, fake doctor and ex b.f.f. of imprisoned serial scammer Kevin Trudeau, has taken up far too much space on this blog, especially for such a little man, so it's time to start wrapping up this five-part series. Originally this started out as a one-off post about Coldwell's hilarious new Bio/Credentials web site, but it grew a little... and then it grew a lot.

In Part 1 I took a close look at an ill-fated page on Coldwell's new Bio site that contained some seriously defamatory and legally actionable lies about some of the people (including me) whom he claimed were defaming HIM. (For instance, he falsely accused two male bloggers of being child rapists.) In Part 2 I deconstructed Coldwell's medical "lackground" -- the small collection of diploma-mill credentials and miscellaneous certificates that he shared on his "Accredation" [sic] page. In Part 3 I reviewed Coldwell's history of handling criticism. And in this segment, I will explore the possible reasons that Coldwell is a legend in his own mind as well as in the minds of his relatively small (compared to Kevin Trudeau and other Scamworld gurus) band of followers and fans.

I think it goes without saying, but I'll say it anyway, that I am not a professional psychologist or mental health expert and -- unlike the subject of this lengthy series and numerous other Whirled posts -- I don't even play one on the Net, so take all of this for what it's worth. As always, I have made every effort to be accurate and to provide relevant links whenever they are available; beyond that, this post reflects my own opinions, based upon the public writings, videos, and behavior of the bad Mocktor Coldwell and some of his much more successful colleagues.
~CC

Persecution complex, thy name is Lenny C

The central belief of every moron is that he is the victim of a mysterious conspiracy against his common rights and true deserts...
~ H.L. Mencken

On the surface, Leonard Coldwell's main shtick is his questionable "health" advice about "natural" cures for cancer and other diseases. In the wake of recent news events he has had quite a lot to say about the deadly Ebola virus. He has a side-shtick as an alarmist social and political ranter who embraces every whackadoodle conspiracy theory that comes down the pike, particularly those that have something to do with the New World Order (NWO) and the enemies that he believes are threatening America and freedom-loving people everywhere. Recently, though not for the first time, his rants have had a distinct anti-Semitic tinge, the screen shot linked to in this sentence being just one of numerous examples that have polluted social media.

Coldwell's alt-health shtick, and indeed his entire output over at least the past decade and a half or so, are largely built upon the story he tells of being a hero -- nearly a martyr -- who has fought bravely against the medical establishment since he was a little boy or a teenager (it's difficult to pin down the exact age he was when he embarked upon his hero's journey, as he has told several different versions of the tale). He tells of braving death threats -- "about twenty" a day, for goodness sakes! -- and gunshots and car bombs and wicked-bad "defamation" campaigns, all in order to continue delivering his priceless information to the people in need.

The narrative itself appears to be driven by what I can only describe as a serious persecution complex, to use a rather old-fashioned and possibly outmoded term. In turn, that complex -- or whatever one wishes to call it -- is nurtured and stoked by fans, followers and various members of the ~~nutjob~~"alternative" media, who, for their own reasons, have a need to believe, or at least to pretend they believe, Coldwell's story.

The RationalWiki site -- where, as it happens, I recently found a hilarious entry on Coldwell -- has an interesting article about the persecution complex. Of particular interest for our purposes here is the section on the phenomenon in pseudo-science and alternative medicine.

Proponents of pseudoscience regularly rail against the scientific establishment and what they see as concerted efforts to quash anyone who would compete with the orthodox line. A common example of this is the creationist line that the prevalence of evolutionary biology is less to do with scientific evidence, than it is a conspiracy to push ideology or protect the jobs of scientists who toe the party line. The same claim is made by global warming conspiracy theorists. Medical conspiracies follow a similar line in that proponents of obviously flawed treatments, such as homeopathy, are not dismissed due to lack of evidence, but more because Big Pharma won't tolerate any threat to their ability to hawk their pills.

That would seem to be a fair description of Coldwell. On the other hand, it is possible that what he has is not exactly a persecution complex, which (at least by my understanding of the term) implies that the person truly believes, at some level, that he or she is being persecuted or oppressed or repressed. And most of the time I lean towards thinking that Coldwell's narrative is cobbled together by cynical lies, distortions, and gross exaggerations, not because he actually believes any of it but because he is well aware that such a story is a powerful attractant for gullible followers.

It is entirely possible, however, that Coldwell has taken at least some of his own nonsense to heart; for many people there is a perverse satisfaction (or at least a handy excuse) in the conviction that one is being held back by forces beyond one's control. The author of the persecution complex piece on RationalWiki shared this snippet from a June 2005 post on John Rogers' Kung Fu Monkey blog:

...one of the great secrets of human nature is that the one thing people want more than love, security, sex, chocolate or big-screen TV's is to feel hard done by. Why? Because being hard done by is the shit. Feeling hard done by is the sweetest of drugs. If you're being persecuted -- it must mean you're doing the right thing, right? You get the mellow buzz of the moral high ground, but without arrogantly claiming it as your own. You get an instant, supportive community in a big dark scary world of such scope it may well literally be beyond rational human processing. When you are hard done by, you get purpose in a life where otherwise, you'd have to find your own. And when you ride that high, then no amount of logic, no pointing out that in actuality you and your beliefs are at a high point of popularity and influence for the last hundred years -- is going to pry that sweet crack-pipe of moral indignation from your hands.

If you follow the link in the quotation above -- which was embedded by the RationalWiki author and not the original blog writer -- you'll see a very pertinent entry on Argumentum ad martyrdom, "a pseudo-Latin term used for two different logical fallacies favored by some Christians." And, I might add, by some alt-health and other Scamworld gurus too -- including a certain fake-doc who claims to be a Christian.

In any case, I think it's pretty easy to understand the payoff for Coldwell regarding the persecution story, whether or not he literally believes all of it. He gets attention, emotional satisfaction, and financial gain from his tale of the hero's journey. I think most of us can also easily understand the payoff for alt-media and Internet "radio" hosts who, after all, must constantly fill their schedules with entertaining, sensationalist guests -- in many cases, the nuttier, the better. The facts don't matter if the story is good.

But what about Coldwell's fans and followers; what stake to they have in believing his stories?

The myth of the alt-health hero
It seems to me that one reason some folks are still so willing to believe Leonard Coldwell's stories -- even in the face of what to most people would be glaring evidence that he is far from credible -- is that they have already bought into the folklore of the "natural cures" hero who bravely fights the medical establishment. Said establishment includes not only doctors and the mainstream healthcare profession but also the big drug companies who, of course, are all out to suppress those "natural cures" and destroy the natural-cures healers and advocates in any way possible -- either by discrediting them, attempting to decimate their reputations and their businesses, or, in extreme cases, trying to kill them.

The dramatic tales have undeniable entertainment value, so for that reason alone I think it is pretty easy to understand why the uncritical and unquestioning would be enthralled by Coldwell's yarns of narrowly escaping guns and car bombs and other physical threats, as well as his whoppers about the nefarious "defamation conspiracy" that he claims has been going on for years. It is the stuff of movies and TV shows and thriller novels, and as such it is so much more interesting and entertaining than real life.

Coldwell has repeated his thriller narrative countless times in interviews, on web sites, and of course in his books. He has also repeated the defamation-conspiracy story many times. Turning again to his 2008 magnum dopusInstinct Based Medicine:

You can buy Instinct Based Medicine on Amazon (the link is in the sentence immediately preceding the graphic), or you can preview it on Google Books here, though not all pages are available for preview.*

Coldwell's hero/martyr story has been repeated ad nauseamnot only by Coldwell but also by his fans, followers and promoters all over the Internet. In Part 3 of this Whirled series (under the subhead, "Strategy number 1" etc.), I mentioned an October 2012 conversation between Coldwell and a minor-league conspiracy-monger named Glenn Canady. The link to the conversation that is embedded in that article no longer works, but you can listen to it here.

At the time I first wrote about the interview I had not yet listened to it but I have now done so. It contains Coldwell's well-worn narrative of being fought at every turn by the medical establishment. He talks about the groups that he claims have spent millions of dollars to "defame" him and says he knows exactly which groups are working against him, though he fails to name them. He also repeats his "million dollar" challenges: he is prepared, he says, to offer a million bucks to anyone who can either beat his own claimed cancer "cure rate" of 92.3%, or who can prove him wrong. He reiterates his excuse that he would gladly set up clinics and cure cancer patients for free if only the American system would let him do so legally. And he insinuates that as part of the great conspiracy against him and his work, Google and Amazon have somehow conspired to keep his books off of all of the bestseller lists, even though, according to Coldwell, he has sold millions and millions of the things.

Desperation and anger
Apart from the desire to be entertained and perhaps even inspired by tales of heroism, there are of course more serious reasons that some people take Coldwell's nonsense to heart. Some people are truly desperate, or angry, or both, on their own behalf or on that of loved ones. Their desperation and anger are understandable, for establishment medicine has failed people in many ways. Despite attempts at reform in some of the more affluent countries, including the U.S., quality health care remains inaccessible to many. And then there is that whole "doctors are gods" mythos, which, though arguably not quite as influential today as in the past, still fosters an arrogance in many medical doctors. Even those who are truly kind and caring are, more often than not, hopelessly overworked.

This July 2013 review of a then-new book about alt-med (Do You Believe in Magic? The Sense and Nonsense of Alternative Medicine by Paul Offit, M.D.) touches on some of the issues.

Arthur Caplan, the director of medical ethics at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York, says alternative healers satisfy patients' needs for more personal attention.

"Medicine does a very poor job of addressing the emotional, spiritual and even psychological side of things," Caplan says. "When you are not good at doing important things, other people rush into that vacuum."

Yet people who put their faith in alternative healers and supplements may be putting themselves at risk, Caplan says.

The alternative therapy industry capitalizes on a number of common sentiments, Offit says, from a naïve belief in the safety of all things natural to distrust of government regulation.

In addition, doctors do make mistakes, sometimes fatal ones. A very good friend of mine came close to dying because his aggressive neck cancer was misdiagnosed -- twice -- by some of the finest doctors in one of the most reputable medical complexes in the world. Fortunately the third time was a charm, and after a series of grueling treatments he appears to be in good health.

Of course misdiagnosis can also work in the opposite direction: a doctor's incorrect opinion or a false negative on a test result can prompt additional and more invasive testing or treatments that can wreak havoc on a patient's physical health, emotional well-being, and finances. Mistakes made in hospitals -- such as incorrect drug dosages or surgical blunders -- have cost lives. And hospitals are notorious Petri dishes for all types of virulence. In medicine, the cure or treatment is sometimes as bad as or worse than the disease. (But this is not always the case; here, from the Quackometer site, is some perspective on the word/concept of "iatrogenic.")

Even in the best of circumstances, the unhappy truth is that conventional medicine simply cannot save everyone or heal every disease. And more than anything, people want hope and the promise of healing. Alt-health quacks offer that hope, often with a healthy dose of feel-good platitudes.

That many people have an axe to grind with the pharmaceutical industry is also understandable. Big Pharma's innovations have saved millions of lives but have also destroyed many. Pharmaceutical companies have, for instance, been known to cover up research results that pointed to lack of efficacy or to devastating and potentially deadly side effects of their products.

We've all read horror stories, and perhaps some of those stories have hit close to home. Another good friend of mine had been taking an aggressively advertised osteoporosis drug that ended up crumbling her jawbone. Her pain is barely manageable at best, unbearable at worst, and she will never be able to live a normal life again. She became part of a huge class action lawsuit, and according to her husband, the physicians and attorneys involved agreed that hers was one of the most extreme cases they had ever seen. It should have been a slam-dunk case, particularly since they had the very best lawyers available for this type of case. But the case has been dragging on for years now and they recently found out that the settlement, if it is ever actually paid, will be paltry -- probably only around $10,000 -- to compensate for a totally wrecked quality of life.

And my friend's case is just one of many thousands of stories of people who have been harmed by relentlessly promoted prescription drugs whose side effects are often more devastating than the condition they were supposed to treat. So, while not giving short shrift to the lifesaving medicines developed by the pharmaceutical companies, I will say that I am aware of their atrocities and I am aware of how the game is rigged in their favor. I get it.

The lure of the black-or-white
But to get the problems with mainstream medicine and Big Pharma does not mean that by default one embraces the smarmy alt-health gurus and pretend doctors such as Leonard Coldwell, who clearly have their own agendas. That there are plenty of legitimate reasons to criticize doctors, the medical industry, the health care system, and Big Pharma would seem, on the surface, to lend credence to the tall tales of the alt-health gurus. It is precisely this "truthiness" factor that served Kevin Trudeau so well in building up his fan base (more on that below).

But legitimate criticisms do not make the tall tales true, and do not render the gurus or their "cures" legitimate. The defenders of alt-health often employ that logical fallacy known as a false dichotomy (or false dilemma), or "black-or-white": you are either totally for alt-health or totally for Big Pharma and the docs. "Don't mess with Mr. In-Between!"

In truth, there is an enormous gray area between that black and white.

Where I stand in the "war" between conventional med and alt-med
As you may be more than aware by now, Coldwell's most frequent accusation against his critics is that they are engaged in a fight against "natural cures" and natural "healers," with a focus on destroying him. And as I've noted, he generally accuses us of being paid by the "enemy" to engage. His claims are completely unfounded, at least regarding the bloggers and all of the other critics whose writings about him I have read.

Regarding my own stance on "natural" cures versus establishment medicine, perhaps you got a hint of that in the above section about people's disillusionment with medicine. I'm actually more on the fence about this than either my skeptic buds or my natural-cures friends would prefer, but because they are my friends, it doesn't matter. Where medicine versus alt-health is concerned I'm as much of a Ms. In-Between as I have been for years in the larger skeptics-versus-believers battle. I don't have a stake in either side of the controversy. I am very well aware of the mistakes medicine makes that can cost lives, as well as the arrogance of many doctors, and I'm pretty well versed in the misdeeds of Big Pharma. I know that the government agencies that were formed to protect us are often in the pockets of big businesses. I have learned some of this from personal experience and much from my reading credible investigative sources for many years -- sources that do not include Kevin Trudeau, Leonard Coldwell, or Mike Adams the Health Ranger, about whom I will have more in a moment.

My own health habits aren't nearly as dramatic as the narrative spun by Coldwell, who (among numerous other lies) has repeatedly and falsely accused me of being a "druggy." Apparently he is either obsessed with drugs himself or is stuck on "druggy" as a knee-jerk accusation to discredit anyone who dares to criticize him, though he apparently fails to take into account that drinking copious amounts of bourbon makes one a druggy too. Alcohol is one of the most dangerous drugs there is when used to excess, which is why I quit drinking alcohol many years ago.

In the unlikely event that you are interested, here is my drug profile: I take some vitamins and nutritional supplements. I take a few over-the-counter drugs such as aspirin, generic Excedrin, and generic Benadryl. My "recreational drugs" are a cup of coffee in the morning, which I often don't finish, and the occasional indulgence in chocolate. I used to enjoy one or at most two cans per day of Red Bull -- the original, sugar-sweetened stuff, not the sugarfree version with aspartame, which I hate -- but I gave it up years ago, and these days, even thinking about the taste of Red Bull or other caffeinated "energy" drinks nauseates me. I rarely go to doctors, though I have a strong respect for (not to be confused with a worship of) modern mainstream medicine.

I have certainly been known to make fun of and criticize extravagant claims from alt-health gurus, but frankly, my dears, I don't give a damn if you follow their advice or not. I don't stand to gain or lose anything whether you're an alt-health fanatic, a staunch believer in "allopathic" medicine, or an advocate of "complementary" medicine. I think you should be free to eschew medical treatment, if you wish, in favor of "alternative" methods, or you should be free to combine the two as you and your practitioners of choice see fit. You should be free to take the supplements you want to take, whether or not there's any credible clinical evidence that they do what you expect them to do. You should be free to snort Himalayan pink salt, give yourself a coffee enema or a food-grade hydrogen peroxide douche, put aromatherapy frauducts in your ears or colloidal silver up your hoo-ha, guzzle baking soda and maple syrup smoothies, or do anything that any alt-health wacko tells you to do to cure or prevent cancer or any other devastating disease.

In other words... your body, your business. I believe that people should have choices.

But I believe those choices should be informed ones. Accordingly, I also strongly believe that I have the legal right and -- I'll go so far as to say the ethical duty-- to make fun of, and to criticize, and to question, any and everything that alt-health/selfish-help/McSpirituality/New-Wage gurus say or do that I believe to be questionable, dangerous, or just plain silly. That does not make me part of a "conspiracy to destroy grounds of business" (Coldwell's completely made-up term for the "crimes" he alleges the critics have committed against him). It makes me a legitimate voice in the conversation. It makes me a voice that apparently scares the bejeezus out of quacks who truly have something to hide.

And while we're on the subject of rights, those alt-health wackos do not actually have a right, legally or ethically, to make up and publish lies about me or any other critic who dares to question them. The things Coldwell has written about some of his critics are textbook cases of unprotected speech.

But I guess there's no stopping stupidity.

But is there any truth (or at least truthiness) to the persecution story?
Perhaps you have figured out that Coldwell's hero/martyr narrrative is part of a larger pattern. Indeed it is; some version of his "they're out to get me" story has been used by numerous other hucksters, perhaps most notably Coldwell's former b.f.f. Kevin Trudeau, whose "Natural Cures" publishing scampire and Global Information Network (GIN) were totally built upon a foundation of so-called "forbidden" information.

The infamous Trudeau has been a huckster for all seasons and all reasons, and his tales of being persecuted by the government were always good for polishing his image as a hero for consumers and for the First Amendment/freedom of expression. As I'd noted in previous posts, there is just enough "truthiness" in some of his stories -- because yes, the government has done and continues to do some atrocious things -- to lend a painfully thin veneer of credibility to his narrative. And as I noted above, there are plenty of reasons to criticize the medical profession and the large pharmaceutical companies, and some of those factors almost certainly contribute to people's willingness to believe the alt-health evangelists. But is there any truth to the claim that the alt-health docs or advocates are actually being persecuted?

Coldwell is certainly not the only questionable "healer" who has exploited the folk meme of the hounded and harassed health hero. Some practitioners who have actual medical degrees, having been under fire for their controversial and questionable practices, have also used the health-hero narrative to advance their cause, and the true believers have gleefully embraced that narrative. Let's look at three of the most commonly cited alt-health heroes who, unlike Leonard Coldwell, are (or were) real doctors.

I know, of course, that there are scads more doctors, fake doctors, scientists, and fake scientists that I could mention here. (The late Wilhelm Reich is but one of many.) I'm sure you can name a few too. I know that every one of these folks has hundreds of apologists and detractors alike. This isn't meant to be a comprehensive account by any means; the following three were chosen because they have been frequently cited by Coldwell and his fans.

Max Gerson: long dead, though the legend (and the coffee-enema protocol) live on
We'll start with the late Dr. Max Gerson, inventor of Gerson Therapy -- which he claimed could cure cancer as well as most chronic degenerative diseases. Being decades dead, and having died in allegedly mysterious circumstances, he is frequently mentioned as a genuine martyr to to the cause of "natural cures." He died in 1959 -- 55 years ago as I write this -- which in many ways deepens the mystery. His death is the stuff of alt-health conspiracy fandom; the story goes that even though pneumonia was listed as the official cause of death, Gerson was murdered by persons or persons unknown, acting on behalf of the medical establishment, of course. Gerson's daughter Charlotte has said that someone put arsenic in her father's afternoon coffee. (Here is a link to a 2004 interview with Charlotte on the DoctorYourself.com site.)

Gerson's protocol includes coffee enemas, a very restricted diet, and a slew of supplements. As is so often the case with alt-health therapies and "protocols," there's a lot of anecdotal evidence but precious little formal research evidence to validate them. Moreover, there are grave health and safety concerns around the protocol, including the possibility of severe electrolyte imbalances; serious illness and deaths have reportedly occurred as a direct result of those coffee enemas.

As with all "alternative" therapies, there is always the question of possible harm done simply by patients' choice to avail themselves of the alternative rather than to choose conventional methods. A client and friend of ours died of colorectal cancer years ago, and some of the people closest to him told Ron and me that they believed he may have been doomed by his choice to initially use alternative methods -- such as coffee enemas -- rather than going for conventional treatment, which might have saved him. It's impossible to declare with certainty what would have happened had he made different choices; I am just anecdotally repeating the opinions of those who knew him best and loved him the most.

Oncologist and surgeon Dr. David Gorski has much more than anecdotal evidence against Gerson's work, and has much to say about Gerson in this November 2008 post on the Science-Based Medicine blog. The much-loathed-by-Coldwell-and-cronies American Cancer Society has also weighed in.

So Gerson was criticized while he was alive, and the criticism of his "treatments" continues today. To a true believer that may seem like persecution, but to me it seems like simple common sense to question any therapy, particularly one that includes squirting coffee up your behind. Whether or not Gerson was deliberately poisoned, and whether "someone" from the medical establishment was ultimately responsible or not, is something that will probably never be known, but I'm thinking that this question is pretty much irrelevant to those who have already made up their minds, and who care more about the story than the facts.

Joseph Mercola: sitting pretty at the top of the alt-doc heap
Dr. Joseph Mercola, who is one of Coldwell's heroes, is another controversial alt-health doc; actually he is not an M.D. but is a D.O., or a doctor of osteopathy. He has managed to position himself -- brilliantly, some would say -- in opposition to much of the medical establishment. If you're not familiar with the controversies surrounding Mercola, you can mostly catch up by reading this Feburary 2012 piece in Chicago Magazine.

In his role as a natural health advocate/supplement huckster Mercola has faded heat for everything from his advocacy of pseudoscientific ideas (e.g., his claims that HIV doesn't cause AIDS) and his cherry-picking of facts to promote his agenda, to his aggressive direct-marketing tactics. He has received warning letters from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for violations of various U.S. marketing laws, e.g., for making false and misleading claims.

He's all about the controversy.

Controversy, however, doesn't equal persecution, and even the unwelcome attention from the U.S. government hasn't really seemed to hurt him. (Even I have found some of the information on his vast site to be helpful, in particular, the pet care info presented by some of my favorite author veterinarians.) Despite the fact that many in the medical establishment, such as Quackwatch creator and retired doc Stephen Barrett, M.D., have spoken out against Mercola -- and RationalWiki has some witty observations as well -- he doesn't seem to be hurting, financially or in any other way. As is often the case, the controversy seems to have served him quite well. But the alt-health fans, and the B-listers like Coldwell, seem happy to support any narrative that paints Mercola as the persecuted hero.

Stanislaw Burzynski: cancer is good business, and critics are bad for business
A current high-profile example, and apparently another hero of Coldwell's, is Dr. Stanislaw Burzynski, whose cancer protocols have been, to say the least, controversial, even though of course he has his passionate defenders. His Texas clinic is best known for various brouhahas surrounding something Burzynski calls "antineoplaston therapy," which is actually a form of chemotherapy that uses compounds Burzynski calls antineoplastons (a word he made up to describe a group of peptides, peptide derivatives and mixtures used in his "alternative cancer treatments"). Dr. B originally devised the protocol in the 1970s and administered the therapy initially to 21 patients before administering it more widely as an "experimental treatment."

For over three and a half decades Burzynski has been catching flak from the medical establishment, the FDA, the Texas Medical Board, the American Cancer Society, Cancer Research UK, and the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, among others. His treatment has been deemed ineffective and has been called bad science, and he has also been reprimanded for unethical behavior, including money-grubbing -- overcharging the most vulnerable patients for the privilege of submitting themselves to his unproven protocol. He has certainly had his share of legal issues too.

It's no surprise that journalists and bloggers have written critically about him. Perhaps one of the better known efforts was that by USA Today. One of my favorite Houston journalists, Craig Malisow, award-winning reporter at the Houston Press, has also tackled Burzynski; start with this 2008 articleand follow the links on the page to more recent efforts (under "Related Stories"). The aforementioned Dr. David Gorski, who writes the excellent Respectful Insolence blog under the name Orac, has written about Burzynski numerous times as well.

It will probably come as no surprise that Burzynski has rattled the legal saber at his online critics. A few years ago, using a "web reputation manager" named Marc Stephens who masqueraded as a lawyer for a while, Dr. B. threatened bloggers, including a teenage blogger. (Hmm, this is beginning to sound familiar.) Here is an April 2014 piece on the CSI/Skeptical Inquirer site about skeptical activists acting on behalf of Burzynski's cancer patients. In contrast to the bloggers (including myself) who have written about Lenny Coldwell, some of the efforts to inform people about Burzynski havebeen organized, though this hardly constitutes a conspiracy against him; the skeptics' stated purpose has been to help the patients. The article concludes:

Skeptics have been so effective that [the] most recent Burzynski hagiography spends a lot of screen time demonizing critics. Burzynski’s supporters have contacted our employers, have complained to state licensing boards, and defamed a number of us publicly. We are fully aware that when the Clinic dismissed Marc Stephens that it pointedly failed to retract the possibility of lawsuits against critics, a threat that hangs over all of these activists every day. If skeptics’ concerns are founded, however, the risks to activists pale in comparison to the risks already posed to those patients on whose behalf we are working.

If Marc Stephens -- whoever he is and wherever he is -- is looking for work after being booted out of the Burzynski propaganda machine, maybe Lenny Coldwell can hire him to intimidate his critics. In any event, although Burzynski is continually under fire from the medical establishment -- as well as from mainstream and independent journalists and bloggers acting independently of the medical profession or the big drug companies -- this hardly constitutes persecution.

But the persecution story is such a good one.

Lenny: always a booster, never a hero
Predictably, many of Burzynski's defenders -- including Coldwell -- believe that all of the above, including the efforts of the critical journalists and bloggers, are just part of the "conspiracy" by the trillion-dollar cancer industry. I find it noteworthy that "antineoplaston therapy" is a form of chemotherapy, and ordinarily Coldwell loathes chemotherapy and any other category of cancer treatment currently accepted by the medical establishment. (In fact he provides himself and "the Dr. Coldwell way" with a big out by indicating that his own "protocol"can only be absolutely guaranteed if the patient has had NO prior surgery, radiation, or chemo.) But "the enemy of my enemy is my friend," and Coldwell has spoken up for Burzynski because Burzynski has been at odds with the medical establishment for decades. Had Burzynski been just another oncologist, Coldwell would have either ignored him or thrown him under the bus with all of the other the evil conspirators.

It is the controversy that draws not only Coldwell but also the alt-health fans to Burzynksi, even though Burzynski is a real M.D. and has at least taken a stab at a scientific approach to his treatments. Because of the controversy, he is revered by many as a hero who is being hounded and persecuted by the establisment. Burzynski is one of the cancer "healers" featured in a documentary called "Cancer Is Curable Now," a nearly-two-hour video which I have not watched in its entirety because of my bandwidth limitation issue. But I fast-forwarded through the entire thing and saw that Coldwell was not featured in the actual documentary. However, this did not stop someone from bringing Lenny and his "work" into the conversation on this August 6, 2014 piece on the misinfotainment hub, "Before It's News."

"Doctors silenced!" There's that dramatic theme again. Drawing from Coldwell's Only Answer to Cancer page on Coldwell's main site, the author, who can't seem to get Coldwell's name right (he calls him "Leon"), quotes "Leon's" oft-repeated narrative and series of excuses about how he has been stymied by the cancer establishment."

Since all 7 siblings of my mom had cancer, as well as my grandmother dying of cancer, and even my father and stepfather dying of cancer I can tell you that Im sure no one else has the amount of experience with cancer that I have. I have seen it as family member, son and grandson from the start until it killed my relatives. [There's some arrogance for you. "Nobody's life has been affected by cancer to the extent that mine has!" ~CC]

In my time I have seen over 35,000 patients [notice that this is different from saying, "I have cured over 35,000 cancer patients. ~CC] and have had over 2.2 million seminar attendees that have written to me, sending in their comments and life stories. I have over 7 million readers of my newsletters and reports. I am the doctor that has, in the opinion of leading experts, the highest cancer cure rate in the world. In fact, I am convinced I could cure at least 90% of all cancer patients if I had the legal platform to work with these people the “Dr Coldwell Way.” As long as the patient is willing and still able to do whatever it takes and has no surgery, chemotherapy or radiation, there is no reason Cancer cannot be cured in most people.

I am sure I could cure them within weeks or a few months. But since the law and the ones that make money on your suffering and even death, dont [sic] allow me to treat you the way I know would produce results, I legally cannot even tell you what to do or not to do. That’s how the medical profession and pharmaceutical industry protects their Trillion Dollar Cancer Industry. They “make politicians install laws that kill citizens or at least make them sick, and laws that make sure they cannot be cured. They can only be treated to more illness and eventually death by the medical profession with toxic, dangerous and murderous treatments.

Besides the "Cancer Can Be Cured Now" video, the Before It's News article also embeds Coldwell's infamous "All Cancer Can Be Cured in 2-6 Weeks"vid.

Although Coldwell himself is not on the A-list of alt-health gurus (or the A-list of any other sector of Scamworld, for that matter, including the motivational-speakers sector), he seems to do his level best to swim in their wake with his mouth wide open, to borrow an apt metaphor from a Salty Droid post about Coldwell. And there may always be a few fans who will gladly place him in the pantheon of the A-listers. But they're not fooling anyone.

Who is oppressing whom?
It would appear that contrary to the way the plot usually runs in the alt-health hero story cycle, some of the alt-health advocates are the ones who pose the genuine threats of violence. They're certainly great at rabble-rousing and inciting. Consider another alt-health "hero," the aforementioned tough-guy Mike Adams, aka the Health Ranger (whom I wrote about last year). He's no doctor and unlike his buddy Coldwell he doesn't pretend to be, although he has apparently tried to convince the masses that he is a legitimate researcher of some sort, since he claims to have his own "testing lab." As the owner of the Natural News web site and numerous other advocacy sites, Adams has a huge audience. Not surprisingly he claims to have received more than his share of death threats in the course of his career. Supposedly he even had to leave a health expo a few years ago, and cancel another appearance, because of the death threats.

But in July 2014 he brought a lot of heat on himself when he published an incendiary piece about GMO scientists and researchers, not stopping at comparing them to Nazis but also all but inviting his fans to seek a violent solution to the GMO problem. In fact, when I went Googling for stories about the death threats the Health Ranger had been receiving, the top results were all stories about Adams supposedly making death threats against scientists and researchers who wrote critically about Adams' and others' anti-GMO position.

Here are just two of the links:

A couple of months before that big flap, in May 2014, Orac -- one of the bloggers who is apparently on Adams' blacklist -- wrote a post about Adams' threats to sue his critics. (It appears that Adams really hates that guy at the Genetic Literacy Project.)

You get the drift. With Adams, if it's not implied incitement of violence, it's lawsuit threats. Sigh... it's becoming a cliche. Or as Orac wrote on the May 2014 blog post, "To me, this incident is yet another in a depressingly long list of examples of a promoter of quackery trying to use the legal system to bully a critic into silence."

Again, though, you couldn't exactly say that Adams is being persecuted. In fact you couldn't say that at all with any reasonable accuracy. He thrives on the controversy; it makes him that much more of a hero in the eyes of the fans and followers.

Coldwell, as I indicated above, is a big fan of Mike Adams. Whether the reverse is actually true or not I really don't know, but they've stroked each other in public and have had their pics taken together at various events.

And speaking of violence, one of Coldwell's other buddies-- a little guy in Florida named Will Pelton, whose claim to fame is that he is a firearms expert-- has also suggested a violent solution to the GMO problem, or more specifically the Monsanto problem. This is from May 2014, around the time of the worldwide "March Against Monsanto."

After all of the above, we're really no closer to a definitive answer to the question about whether or not alt-health heroes truly are persecuted. Like most matters that set the conspiracy fans on fire, however, the truth is probably more on the mundane than the dramatic side. In my experience it is nearly impossible to find very much objective information about this subject on the Internet. But here is something of which I'm pretty certain: online or off, no amount of evidence in favor of a more nuanced narrative would sway the people who fiercely embrace the myth of the alt-health hero.

What most of us can probably agree on is that public figures often get death threats, whether their stances are particularly controversial or not. And if they are controversial, all bets are off. One of my new favorite authors -- a man who goes by the pseudonym Horus Gilgamesh and is the creator of the delightful parody series Awkward Moments (Not Found In Your Average) Children's Bible -- recently felt compelled to cancel his appearance at an atheist's convention in Seattle. Even though he had taken such great pains to protect his true identity that some of his own relatives didn't even know he was the creator of the scathing books, he received some very disturbing death threats in his home mail box, from a presumably "religious" type who signed the threats, "God's Little Helper." The letters made mention of the upcoming Seattle convention, saying, "See you there!" (In a show of solidarity, numerous attendees wrote the name "Horus Gilgamesh" on their own name tags.)

For that matter anyone who voices an opinion in a public forum is subject to hate mail and death threats and random heckling; the Internet has only made this phenomenon worse. In the eight-plus years that I've been blogging I have certainly received my share of anonymous death threats, death wishes, and hate mail, and I'm a nobody. I don't consciously play to a world stage or do much of anything to attract followers, but some people apparently hate me (and some, like Coldwell, also apparently fear me).

My sense is that the persecution stories from today's alt-health quacks are for the most part exaggerated and that actual death threats or dangerous situations are relatively rare. But they are, above all, good marketing hooks, and of course the fans take them to heart and exaggerate them even more, thus perpetuating the cycle. For the reasons noted above, believers will continue to believe, and they will not hesitate to speak up fiercely in defense of their idols, even when there is no evidence to support their stance.

The facts don't matter if the story is good.

[To be concluded (finally!) in the next post.]

* You may notice that on page 27 of Instinct Based Medicine Coldwell mentions that "over 30 years" has passed since his mom was cured. Even setting aside that this book was published in 2008, which was six years ago as I write this in 2014, there is a difference between "over 30 years" and "over 40 years" or "42 years" or "43 years," which Coldwell has also cited as the span of time since he "cured" his mom. Now, technically speaking, 40, 42, and 43 are all "more than 30." Even so this points to his characteristic inconsistency. In some of his narratives he insinuates that he totally cured Mommy when he was a young boy or a teenager. In Instinct Based Medicine, however,he writes that by the time he was 22 she was "completely recovered from cancer" (which was noted in Part 2 of this series when I cited page 45 of Instinct Based Medicine.) And again I would like to mention, as I have so many times, that in Instinct Based Medicine there is no mention of his having cured her from Hepatitis C at that time. The Hep C claim only made it into later narratives. I explain the probable reason in Part 2, under the sub-head, "About that 92.3% cancer cure rate (and other cure claims)."

The rest of the story...

Part 1 -- Coldwell rolls out hilarious new bio site, tightens rope around his own neck(published 30 June 2014)
Part 2 -- Leonard Coldwell's medical lackground and other hilarities from his new Bio website (published 4 August 2014)
Part 3 -- Sound and fury, Sturm und Drang: Leonard Coldwell's meaningless bluster (published 7 August 2014)
Part 5 -- Leonard Coldwell: stupid and dangerous, or simply stupid? (published 19 August 2014)
Not part of the series but pertinent -- Leonard Coldwell goes too far: lies about me poisoning his dog(originally published 16 July, 2014, with several updates)

↧

Leonard Coldwell: stupid and dangerous, or simply stupid? (Part 5 of 5)

August 19, 2014, 4:08 pm

≫ Next: Blue dies, Coldwell lies, crazy minions terrorize

≪ Previous: Leonard Coldwell: the facts don't matter if the story is good (Part 4 of 5)

Leonard Coldwell, fake doctor and former good buddy of imprisoned serial scammer Kevin Trudeau, may not be an A-list alt-health "hero" or even an A-list Scamworld player (we discussed some of those A-list health gurus in the previous post in this series), but he still has his small following of passionate fans. Some are nice people who are simply uninformed or misinformed, though a few seem truly deranged. Many are willing make excuses for his increasingly erratic behavior, continuing to cheer him on even as his social media posts grow dafter. Just about every time he opens his mouth or posts something on Facebook Coldwell betrays that he isn't very bright. But is he actually dangerous? And in the larger scheme of things, does he really matter? These are some of the matters we'll cover in this concluding (finally!) installment of a series that has dragged on far too long. And just in case you're wondering why I have devoted so much time to Coldwell on this blog, I'll 'splain that (again) in this post as well. In case you need to catch up, links to previous installments in the series are at the end of the post. OMT: I am fully aware that this post contains anecdotes and screen shots that I previously shared on this blog. Redundancies are intentional.
~CC

Excuses, excuses
As daft as he is, not-doctor Leonard Coldwell still has a small following of loyal fans who don't hesitate to rally against his critics, particularly when he prompts them to do so, as he recently did when he lied about me poisoning his pit bull dog, Blue. That was an eye-opening experience for me. I think that's when I finally understood that trying to communicate with the most stubborn or (dare I say it?) stupid fans is futile.

It's not that I've had exchanges with very many of them; to the contrary, despite Coldwell's paranoid ranting that I am involved in some awful conspiracy to turn people against him (rantings that include his patently false claims that I have devoted thousands of hours to creating numerous "fake" web sites all over the Internet to defame him, and that I have "harassed" his followers), I have spent surprisingly little time and effort communicating or trying to communicate directly with actual Coldwell fans. I have, however, engaged in conversations with a few of them over the past couple of years. Most of the time they initiated the conversations, though on occasion I have done the initiating, and sometimes it was all just part of a public conversation on social media.

For instance, here is one comment from a Coldwell fan who began a private conversation with me on Facebook on July 17, 2014, in the wake of Coldwell's crazy, unfounded accusations about me poisoning his dog and trying to "defame" him.

Dear Connie Schmidt : I know that you may not agree with everything that Dr. Leonard Coldwell says but I ask you , Please give him the right of free speech and tell his truth. He is a good man and helps many to create a good life. May this be one of the many ways you can show your love . With many blessings - [signed]

"Tell his truth?!?" Spoken like a true SNAG (Sensitive New Age Guy/Gal).

I wrote back thanking the person for writing to me and for communicating with me in a civil way. I reiterated a capsule version of my now oft-told story about how Coldwell had made up lies about me out of whole cloth, and had put me in possible danger by posting my full name and address on his social media pages in conjunction with his lies. I mentioned that I had tried in a polite and civil way to defend myself on those pages but my comments were deleted and I was blocked from commenting any further. I mentioned that other folks had tried to politely defend me on those pages and the same thing had happened, and then Coldwell had lied about the content of their posts and had said they were I, writing under fake accounts. "What kind of 'good man' does this?" I asked my correspondent. And I respectfully asked the person to read my blog post about the dog poisoning allegations.

I had a private exchange with another person who had referred to me as an "evil sick woman" after reading Coldwell's accusations that I poisoned his dog. I initiated this one; I sent this person a private message via Facebook with a link to my blog post about the dog incident. A couple of days later he replied.

I read your post and although Dr. C's may be falsely accusing you of poisoning his dog he concluded that based on you cyberbullying of the past 2 years. Dr C is not the evil man you think he is, he's a hero who dedicated his life to curing other people of cancer after he made that promise to God. He had a very hard childhood and did everything he could to find a way to cure his mother of cancer. You can read all of that in his book "The only answer to cancer". I really feel pity for Dr. C that he's being attacked so hard on the internet and his reputation is being destroyed despite his good intentions.

I responded with a few observations and insights about Coldwell's inconsistent, mostly unverifiable stories about his past, mentioning some of the suspicious details in his narrative -- most notably, the claim that he cured his mom of hepatitis C many years before it was even identified by medical science. I also mentioned to my new friend that, subsequent to the rash of accusations against me, Coldwell had quietly and with little explanation used his Facebook page to post a list of household and yard plants that are toxic to dogs. And I noted that asking legitimate questions about a public figure who makes extravagant claims is not "cyberbullying." The fan responded:

Dear Connie, I agree that we don't have proof of his 35,000 cured patients besides Dr Hohn's affirmation. However if you read his books it's not hard to believe it since he he makes use of several proven alternative cancer cures like Gerson therapy, Dr. Hamer's work, Dr Burzynski, Essiac tea, vitamin B17,... There's a lot of documentation to be found on these if you google them. I'm not sure about the Hepatitis C, but I remember he mentioned his mother getting liver cirrhosis due to a blood transfusion. Maybe he connected the dots and found out it was likely she got Hepatitis C back then? I can understand you feel angry and wronged due to Dr C.'s hasty conclusions, but he acted on the information that was handed to him. He even admited [sic] this himself: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-N83sbPKr5A8/U8b0-2EHc_I/AAAAAAAAEM0/XBciQwxTu3E/s1600/36-Coldwell-More-Accusations-against-Connie-Schmidt-on-Answer-to-Cancer-page-07-15-14-A.jpg Anger is a response to pain, I guess he was so emotionally shocked by the poisoning of his dog that he lashed out at you like that, because you were a "likely" suspect to him. You're probably correct about the reason for posting that list of plants and he seems to be leaving you alone as well at the moment, I haven't seen any posts about you on his FB pages lately. In my opinion it's just all been a big misunderstanding on his part.

Here we have a Coldwell fan -- probably a perfectly nice guy, despite having previously called me an evil sick woman -- trying to cling to his fandom and to the narrative he clearly wants to believe. From the post above you can see that even though shadows of doubt seem to be looming, he is still more willing to make excuses for his hero than to believe me. He would rather believe that Coldwell's accusations were based on anonymous misinformation than to entertain the notion that Coldwell would create a body of vicious lies about me.

Notice too how the fan struggles to rationalize Coldwell's hepatitis C claim, which is one of the larger holes in Lenny's backstory. Most of Coldwell's narratives leave no doubt that he is claiming to have cured his mom of Hep C back when he was a young lad. This snippet, from his July 17, 2014, screed about fighting the good fight against the forces of evil, is typical:

Regarding some of the examples my correspondent listed in his second message to me, quoted above: In Part 4 of this series I did not cover the work of Dr. Ryke Geerd Hamer (inventor of Germanic New Medicine, née German New Medicine and New Medicine). Nor did I mention Essiac tea, or vitamin B17 (laetrile). For that matter, I didn't mention someone else whom Coldwell has cited and my correspondent failed to mention: the late Royal Raymond Rife (1888-1971), who, not surprisingly, blamed a "conspiracy" by the med establishment for the rejection of his work. I did, however, discuss Burzynski and Gerson therapy. As I noted on that post, my list was hardly comprehensive. Hamer, Essiac tea and B17 are additional examples of unproven practitioners and protocols, contrary to the claims of the fan quoted above. All have been disputed by the medical establishment but, I should also note, they have not been violently repressed.

Based upon correspondence he shared privately, Bernie at GINtruth went through much the same type of exchange with this same Coldwell fan via private message, civilly and patiently explaining to him that contrary to Coldwell's false accusations, Bernie did NOT hack into Coldwell's web site(s), and Bernie is NOT a cyberbully, and Bernie is most certainly NOT a child molester. As was the case with me, the person seemed to become marginally more conciliatory as the conversation with Bernie progressed, but it appears that he never went so far as to accept the possibility that Coldwell was lying. The fan finally told Bernie that Coldwell had made the accusation about child molestation only because Coldwell's buddy and business partner Abe Husein had told Coldwell that Bernie had been caught raping a child.

Bernie and Abe have had their differences, but I'm pretty sure Abe never said anything like that, and I actually thought that Abe wouldn't appreciate his pal Coldwell using his name in that way. Turns out Abe doesn't care, though; when I mentioned it to him on Facebook recently he said he never pays attention to negative things people say or write about him. He added, "To be honest, I don't think that is DR C posting those things from his profile." Uh-huh.

Long before the latest cycle of Coldwell lies, I noticed a pattern in fans' attempts to rationalize his erratic (to say the least) behavior. For instance, there was this fan's defense, which was part of a November 2012 conversation about the infamous Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina police report and Coldwell's rants about mebeing a disease-infested former prostitute who is on Big Pharma's payroll:

Dr. C is an emotional man. He loves strongly and when he is unhappy he doesn't pull any punches. I think he is honest and I appreciate that. Besides, most of the time he has the nerve to SAY what we are all thinking anyway but are too nicey-nicey to say out loud.

"An emotional man"... so that's what the kids are calling "bat sh-t crazy" these days. This person had privately told me that she did not believe Coldwell's accusations that I am a former prostitute. Yet she continued to defend him and even told me privately that he is a great man who has accomplished far more than I ever will. She also egged him on in the early days when he was threatening to sue me for trying to "destroy" his business. Even so, I have seen recent indicators that she is not nearly as enamored of him as she once was; I heard buzz that he eventually alienated her with some crude sexual remarks on Facebook. He has a way of alienating people on his own, sooner or later, with no help from the critics.

Once again I've probably belabored the point, that point being that a handful of people continue to enable Coldwell and support him even as he becomes more erratic. Some who seem to be fighting their own inner doubts about him chalk his lunatic statements up to an honest misunderstanding on his part, or they speculate that Coldwell was simply given bad information, or they theorize that his crazy posts were written by someone else -- an assistant, perhaps, or a hacker... you know, the usual suspects. Those are the excuses Coldwell himself has used on more than one occasion when directly accused of writing something particularly stupid. And when need be, his fans and friends are only too happy to hoist the banner of external blame. It's always someone else's fault. There are so many forces working against this brave and heroic man.

Is it love... or just cognitive dissonance?
Though Coldwell may sometimes seem to represent an extraordinary type of evil, it could be argued that he is just a garden variety psychopath who has found a few themes that resonate with certain types of people: the alt-health hero v. the medical establishment shtick, the loathsome "the Jews run the world" meme, and various other conspiracy-related motifs. Whether he's extraordinary or garden-variety, there's really nothing so extraordinary about the reactions of some of his fans to criticism about their hero.

Excuse-making, or rationalization, is pretty typical human behavior, and we all do it at one time or another -- either on our own behalf or on someone else's -- to make life a little less painful. For instance, we often do it when we're in the painful process of letting go of some cherished belief. When we are obliged to reevaluate a belief or a person or a situation to which we've grown attached, rationalization shields us, for a while, anyway, from painful truths.

Of course for some people (and some governments, for that matter), excuse making is not part of a painful process; it's just part of doing business and protecting one's income stream, power, or both. It is nothing more or less than cynical propagandizing and disinformation in order to keep the followers (or the citizens) in line.

But I'm more interested in what is going on with the people who are genuinely struggling with "letting go." This means I'm more interested in the Coldwell fans who seem like genuinely nice people struggling with doubts than I am in the cronies and business partners whose behavior indicates, at best, a gaping hole where their conscience or moral compass should be.

Much has been written about the human tendency to defend people or beliefs in the face of mounting evidence that they are defending the indefensible. The gurus being defended may beam and say this behavior is an expression of abject love (in contrast to the "hate" being expressed by critics), but it is anything but love. At best it is evidence that the gurus' cultish mind-control tactics are working.

This excerpt from the online Skeptic's Dictionary entry on cognitive dissonance seems appropriate here. In this instance the writer was referring to the followers of a 1950s UFO cult leader, but much of this applies to other "public figures" such as Coldwell or anyone else who somehow manages to create a devoted following.

With this kind of irrational thinking, it may seem pointless to produce evidence to try to persuade people of the error of their ways. Their belief is not based on evidence, but on devotion to a person[emphasis mine. ~CC]. That devotion can be so great that even the most despicable behavior by one's prophet can be rationalized. There are many examples of people so devoted to another that they will rationalize or ignore extreme mental and physical abuse by their cult leader (or spouse or boyfriend). If the basis for a person's belief is irrational faith grounded in devotion to a powerful personality, then the only option that person has when confronted with evidence that should undermine her faith would seem to be to continue to be irrational, unless her faith was not that strong to begin with. The interesting question, then, is not about cognitive dissonance but about faith.

And in the end, that's what really fuels Coldwell's sputtering career: the faith of his followers. To argue with the most deeply faithful is indeed an exercise in futility. It is not my job, nor is it yours, to try to convince them that their noses are up the wrong behind. They will have to find their own way out of that situation.

Coldwell is his own worst enemy
Coldwell has falsely and repeatedly accused critics of conspiring to destroy his "grounds of business" and seriously cutting into his income. The truth, as discussed on this blog numerous times, is that his income was cut into in a major way when he was fired from Kevin Trudeau's major scam, the Global Information Network (GIN), from which Coldwell profited handsomely for a few years. He was a paid GIN speaker, receiving automatic payments of nearly $17,000 a month, plus he had a downline that he reportedly worked quite aggressively. Here's a little thing from 2011:

Coldwell still hasn't really recovered from his divorce from GIN and Trudeau, although he has made a second career of "exposing" Trudeau's scams and pretending that he was duped just like everyone else.

Beyond his propensity for getting involved in failed scams, Leonard Coldwell is and apparently always has been his own worst enemy, which is just another way of saying that his public behavior and statements make him look far worse than anything any blogger or other critic has ever written or said about him. Virtually everything he says or writes makes him look stupid, crazy, gullible, or (at best) ill-informed.

He continues to push his iffy health "advice" as well as every conspiracy meme going around the Net, particularly those that have to do with the New World Order, Obama and the allegations of "false flag" events. When he can combine alt-health crackpottery and New World Order paranoia into one meme he is truly in his element, and the deeply disturbing Ebola outbreak in Africa seems to be providing a prime opportunity for just that. In some of his rants Coldwell has promoted the tale that Ebola was an invention of the NWO and is being brought to the U.S. by Obama in order to weaken the population so that it will be easier to herd Americans into FEMA camps... or something like that. His other pet theory is that Ebola was invented by the big drug companies so they could make a fortune selling vaccines... or something like that.

Fortunately there is colloidal silver to help get the nasty Ebolas out of your system, although in a recent blog entry Coldwell copied and pasted an article from a guy who says silver is useless for Ebola. Here's some Coldwellian healing advice from August 9:

Coldwell is also promoting his buddy "Dr. Rima's" colloidal silver frauducts. "Dr. Rima," who sells something called NanoSilver, is another person who claims to be the victim of a "rampage of disinformation to keep you in the dark about natural ways to dispose of dangerous microbes without damaging your beneficial bacteria."

If you're interested in more scientific information, here is a good blog post from 2009, which talks about colloidal silver and other forms of medicinal silver, and mentions Ebola in passing.

A couple of days after the Ebola silver silliness, Coldwell weighed in on the tragic suicide of the much-loved actor and comedian Robin Williams. This time Ebola and Obama weren't the culprits; it was Red Bull with aspartame, suggested Lenny.

Many very bad-taste things have been said and written about Williams in the wake of his death, and I was expecting Coldwell to bring his own unsavory dish to the bad-taste potluck. He did not disappoint, although I will give him this: on the bad-taste meter his statements really couldn't measure up to Rush Limbaugh's idiotic insinuation that Williams' profound depression was due to his "leftist attitude," or with the piece on the conspiracy site World Nut Daily that strongly insinuated Williams died because he deliberately let the devil in to aid his art... or something like that. But what Coldwell's statement lacked in horrendous taste, it more than made up for in stupidity, for Coldwell seems to have confused Robin Williams with the Brit singer Robbie Williams, who is very much alive and well, and he insinuated that Robin Williams died because he was addicted to Red Bull with aspartame.

Here is Bernie's post about Coldwell's blunder.

I suppose it was in poor taste for Coldwell to use Williams' death as an opportunity to flog his buddy "Dr." Betty Martini's obsessive crusade against aspartame, but the stupidity factor outweighed the poor-taste factor this time. Beyond the major gaffe of getting the two men's identities confused, Coldwell seems not to have read the specific article he linked to very carefully. That piece, apparently written some time in 2009, was all about Robbie-Williams-the-singer making a comeback after some very tough times. There was one passing mention of Red Bull, in the context of a paragraph about Robbie having checked into rehab in the U.S. in 2007. According to the article, there was speculation but no substantiation that Robbie was "addicted to Red Bull and coffee." (By his own account, his real addictions were to more serious substances, such as prescription pain pills.) Moreover, there was nomention of aspartame in the article Coldwell cited. Perhaps Coldwell is unaware that not all Red Bull contains aspartame anyway; only the Sugarfree and Total Zero Calorie versions do, and the article contained no speculation about whether Robbie Williams preferred sugar-free or no-cal to the sugary version.

Granted, Lenny wasn't the only person who had a little bit of identity confusion between the two R. Williamses. Others did as well. On the other hand, the vast majority of those folks were just ordinary people, not highly-educated, all-knowing miracle healers and health experts as Lenny claims to be. As Bernie wrote in his GINtruth blog post about Coldwell's comical mixup:

Sure, the names are similar, but the least you can do when you claim to be a multi-talented-cure-all-lying-piece-of-crap, is check your facts before posting them on the world wide web for everyone to clearly see just how much of a complete and utter moron you really are!

You just can't [be] much more stupid, not to mention shallow in trying to capitalise on someone's misery.

That's about the size of it. But I suppose that this whole identity confusion thing is not really that surprising, since Coldwell has a problem keeping people's identities straight. For a long time he thought (and may still think) that my friend Julie Daniel and I are the same person. He thought that blogger and book author Alexandra Nouri was Bernie, and then later decided Alexandra is I. He seems firmly convinced that someone named "Tina S" is I (more on that below). He thought my friend Tim Donohoe was Salty Droid. And perhaps most comically of all, he thought Jason "Salty Droid" Jones and Omri Shabat are the same person, took both of them to court as such, and, after his own lawyer quit the sham case and Lenny couldn't (or didn't even try) to get another one, he failed miserably. Mistaken identity seems to be one of Coldwell's stocks in trade.

Another Coldwell fave is to dig up old and debunked alarmist Internet memes and recycle them as something totally new. Lots of ignorant people do that, though, so he is in good company. For instance, on August 16, 2014, he posted this on his misinfotainment hub on Facebook, "The Only Answer to Cancer":

You'll notice that the writing in the post above is much more literate than the usual Lenny offering. That's because he (or possibly one of his dimwitted admins acting with his approval) copied and pasted from this site -- despite the fact that much of the "information"had been declared a hoax a couple of years ago.

Then there's this snippet of a 2012 interview -- brought to you by a clown who calls himself the Cosmic Cowboy of Internet Radio -- in which the bad Mocktor waxes icky about sex and so forth. We're so uptight in America, he says, as indicated by the fact that families -- mommies and daddies and little kiddos -- don't all bathe nekkid together like they do in Germany and other parts of Europe and other places in the world. "If Germany is such a paradise of freedom and enlightened attitudes, why doesn't the little perv just go back there and stay?" you may be asking. I don't really have an answer to that.

I think you get the point, although I'll be more than happy to belabor this one too, for the sheer bloody fun of it. Apropos of that, we'll have a couple more Coldwell stupidities later on in this post. The point here is that Coldwell's public writings, videos, and speeches about... well, anything he talks about... make him look profoundly unprofessional, to say the least. And his methods of handling criticism and critics make him look even worse, if that's possible. Rather than ignoring his critics, as most Scamworld players do (though certainly not all -- more on that in a moment too), he goes after them in clumsy, comical, deranged and even illegal ways.

And the more he tries to prove how legitimate he is, the more apparent his phoniness becomes, and the stupider he makes himself appear. His train wreck of a Bio site is a recent case in point, and it appears he has no intention of stopping there, despite (or perhaps because of) the fact that the site got its little wings cut due to numerous complaints about the defamatory and legally actionable lies he had published.

Honk if you're horny
Some interesting emails were sent out last week. On August 12, 2014, Bernie received an email with the following header:

From: gonnie schmid <hornyconny@gmail.com>
Date: 12 August 2014 08:38:36 GMT+9
To: Bernard O'Mahony
Subject:wow the info on www.hornyconnie.com is unbelievable all of your guys past dirt on there unbelievable

On the same day I also received an email from someone going by the name "Tina S" -- which she told me is not her real name. Naturally I was interested, because on July 15 Coldwell had posted that he was getting emails from "Tina S," and he falsely insisted she was I; he made this claim in the context of his equally false accusations that I had been sexually harassing him by email and phone.

In her email to me, "Tina" mentioned that Coldwell had apparently confused our respective identities, and she admitted that she had emailed him. But it wasn't to sexually harass him (I know, I'm as shocked as you are). Tina said she wrote to him about "the ethics (or lack thereof) of his anti-vaccination posts seen by his gullible audience."

She also wanted to let me know that she had received an email with the subject line: "Just saw the content of www hornyconnie dot com Wow I cant [sic] believe it." When I responded to her, I asked her where the email came from, and she said it came from hornyconnie dot com -- the same party who'd sent Bernie the email. She added:

I only recently heard about Leonard Coldwell and his antics. A colleague of mine posted a video of his on our work's communication platform. It was meant to give everyone a laugh (which it did!!). After watching the video, I became curious as to who this guy was and a bit of searching brought me to your blog (along with GIN Truth, Glancing Web, and Salty Droid).

Tina also wrote that having studied microbiology and having worked as a microbiologist, she finds Coldwell's attacks on vaccination to be disgusting, especially since he has the power to influence his followers, who seem to take his words at face value.

Currently there is no content on the new site, which was only registered on August 5, 2014; it was registered via Domains By Proxy, LLC, and the registrant's name is private. The site is being parked on GoDaddy; presumably because of the word "horny" in the domain, the adbots assume that it is destined to be a porn site.

Beyond the fact that the emails about this new site seem to have been targeted at Bernie and at someone that Coldwell thought and may still think is I ("Tina S"), there are several solid reasons to believe Coldwell is behind this, despite his web person's suggestions to the contrary in a private conversation we had last week. She seemed to be trying to be genuinely helpful but my very strong sense is that Coldwell is not above lying to her or keeping things from her, even though he claims to be her friend.

In any case I am watching the new site and have reported it for potential abuse. If whoever created and is promoting this site actually intended for it to aid Coldwell in any way, the effort is already dead in the water. And until and unless I have credible proof to the contrary I will simply believe that this is one more stupid (and painfully immature) misfire from little Lenny Coldwell, or someone close to him.

So... stupid, yes. But is he dangerous?
Coldwell has demonstrated repeatedly that he is a ridiculous little man, but some have suggested he is also dangerous. Whether he is or not is a matter for debate. I think that he personally is a coward, but he has also demonstrated a desire to incite others to violence on his behalf, and I have certainly taken that into consideration. Some of the threatening things his fans said about me in response to Coldwell's false accusations that I poisoned his dog gave me pause for thought.

Prior to that, I had heard from sources once close to Lenny that he has been known to make disturbing threats about hiring a "hit man" to take care of anyone who betrayed certain confidences. Whether this was all bluff and bluster or not, I couldn't tell you, but the people from whom I got this information seemed to take it seriously enough. Salty Droid apparently asked Coldwell directly about the hit man allegations (and numerous other allegations as well), but never received a response.

Apart from an apparently volatile temper and disturbing reports about his personal behavior, some people simply think that Coldwell and his alt-health colleagues are dangerous and should be stopped because they may keep people from seeking conventional treatment for cancer and other devastating diseases. However, as may be apparent from my explanation in Part 4 about my "middle of the road" views on these issues, I do not agree with this stance.

Beyond anecdotal evidence, I think it is very difficult if not impossible to truly quantify, on any reasonably large scale, any damage done when people opt for natural "cures" in lieu of conventional medicine. It seems to me that there are simply too many variables; every case and every person is different. Some people die of their cancer even when they choose conventional cancer treatments, and no doubt some live when choosing "alternative" or no treatments. I imagine that the reverse is also true; some die when they eschew or delay conventional treatment in favor of alternatives.

Accordingly, I do not advocate the banning or criminalization of all "natural cures" advice, no matter how wacky that advice may seem, nor do I advocate banning the "natural" methods themselves. To me such bans would constitute an untenable restriction on people's freedom to make up their own minds about their personal health. Of course, this does not mean I endorse Coldwell or other quack-titioners; again, see Part 4, under "The lure of the black-or-white."

Does Coldwell really matter?
Part of the argument about whether Coldwell is dangerous or destructive rests on the question of whether or not he really matters in the grand scheme of things. After all, it could be argued that his most deranged rants over the past couple of years have been on Facebook, to a relatively small audience. If he doesn't have a very broad reach, how dangerous can he really be?

And notwithstanding Coldwell's own tales about daily death threats and running from guns and car bombs, you can get an idea of his insignificance in the grandscape by considering the fact that so far, the skeptical organizations/publications (like Skeptical Inquirer) and the respected science-based medicine bloggers (like Orac, aka Dr. David Gorski, at "Respectful Insolence") have not bothered to write about him. But they have tackled other quacks -- particularly, in the instance of Orac, cancer quacks. (There is a discussion aboutColdwell on "Respectful Insolence," but a reader started it on one of Orac's posts about other cancer quacks. (The Coldwell part begins here.))

And yet... although not the world-renowned, superheroic self-help and alt-health guru he claims to be, Coldwell does have a considerably broader reach than Facebook. He's on just about every conspiracy-nut, fear-mongering radio show on the Internet, though apparently the big guy, Alex Jones of InfoWars, has refused to have him as a guest. However, his being butt-hurt over being rejected by Alex didn't seem to have discouraged him from promoting Alex's wacko conspiracy theories about the recent -- and long overdue -- indictment of Texas' doltish governor, Rick Perry on two felony charges. I have a feeling nothing will come of the indictment, given the fact that Republican politicians (particularly in Texas) seem to find a way to squirm out of trouble, but the news was welcome to many anyway, though obviously not to Lenny and his little conspiracy nut-buds. This is from August 16:

(For those of you who need a bit of digression or want some background info on Rick Perry's past atrocities, this October 2011 Rolling Stone article is a great place to begin. And if you want to get caught up on exactly what the Perry indictments are about, this rather optimistic (for those who dislike Perry) piece from HuffPost should prove helpful.)

Hosts and workshop leaders who present themselves as resources for "alternative" health information seem particularly susceptible to Coldwell's dubious charms, a case in point being these two UK ladies, who recently played host to nearly an hour of Coldwell blathering that tumors are good and that mainstream cancer docs just cut people open in order to give them more cancer and make as much money as possible from them before killing them. And then there's "Dr. Livet" in Trinidad, a former computer programmer whose real name is Uchenna Hackett, who recently (April 2014) had a health-misinfo expo that featured Lenny as a keynoter.

So Facebook is only a small part of Coldwell's outreach efforts. With or without the aid and support of Alex Jones, Coldwell seems to be doing a pretty effective job of playing to crowds who are all too willing to believe in every kind of conspiracy, including and especially the organized conspiracy against natural-cure advocates. The desperate, the bored, and the easily fooled eagerly embrace Coldwell's narratives that Big Pharma and the cancer industry have conspired to destroy his reputation and even kill him. And although some of his crazier fans might be dangerous, I would like to think that most are probably harmless. "Psychopaths are for the most part lazy," another blogger told me on the phone not long ago. And this person should know, having dealt with numerous psycho threats over years of blogging.

That said, I believe Coldwell still has the potential to do harm in several ways, by spreading misinformation or deliberate lies, as well as by abusing his position of "authority," such as it is, e.g., taking advantage in various ways of vulnerable people.

Moreover, because he has failed so often in his attempts to silence his critics, he also seems to be growing increasingly desperate and arguably more dangerous in that area. On a larger scale, the attempts by alt-health gurus and other hucksters to use the legal system to silence critics is potentially a matter of concern and could have a chilling effect on the freedom of expression that many of these gurus claim to cherish. Just a few examples: Scientology... Landmark Forum... Tony Robbins... Bill Harris of Holosync infamy... and -- bringing it back to Lenny's field, sort of -- Dr. Stanislaw Burzynski (in Part 4 I wrote in more detail about Dr. B's threats to his critics). It's not a sign of a persecution complex (another matter discussed in the previous installment) to acknowledge that in many cases the critics are under a more serious threat than those they criticize. (For those who are interested, here's a resource about SLAPP(strategic lawsuits against public participation) issues.)

Whether Coldwell himself is dangerous or not, though, he is indisputably silly, and lately seems to have ramped up the silliness with a vision of starting his own "sovereign nation." This could either remain silly or become dangerous, depending upon how many people Coldwell can ultimately persuade to follow him on his fool's errand. I give you...

Lennyland: Big dreams of Wootopia

Thanks to my delightful and talented pal
Jonathan Woodliff for this pic.

"When you build upon a scam/With a not-doc who's a sham..."

I will leave it to you to fill in the rest of the lyrics, to the tune of "When You Wish Upon A Star." On a Facebook thread initiated on or about August 9, 2014, Leonard Coldwell announced his vision for a new sovereign nation -- presumably somewhere in North Carolina if he can procure the land, with possible plans to move it overseas at some point. As usual, his garbled writing fails to make it clear.

Does anyone know what happened to the 130-plus acres that Coldwell claimed to have purchased in South Carolina last year? He made such a big fuss about it in April 2013, even stating that it would be its own town.

We are working on Town-rights and will have our own elected Sheriff etc. The first step towards liberty and freedom. And NO restrictions on what kind of treatment we apply here!

On a later comment on the same thread Coldwell wrote, "All my friends in the Health world will give seminars and possibly treatments there." (Eeeewww.)

But then after that... nothing. I followed up a few months later on one of Abe Husein's Facebook pages where Abe had shared the news of the "purchase." I asked whatever happened to the 130-acre "health resort," but my question was ignored and soon deleted.

And now we have Lenny's newest and arguably larger vision -- an entire sovereign nation, y'all! -- with a whole new, though no doubt considerably smaller, gang of idiots to support it. Lenny used to blather on about Kevin Trudeau being a cult leader and GIN a cult in the making, and Trudeau having visions of Jonestown. Look who's talking.

It's amusing that Coldwell gripes about America being Orwellian, when he talks about his own vision of a "new Nation built on love and honor..." In that context I think of Coldwell's homophobic, misogynistic, anti-Semitic vitriol, not to mention his history of pathological lying, and his fierce attempts to disguise his past and many of his present activities; if those are examples of "love and honor," then all I can say is: Newspeak, anyone?

Apparently in support of his new-old vision, Coldwell has returned to one of his favorite themes: the powerlessness of the Federal government and the sovereignty of any nutjob who declares himself or herself to be a sovereign citizen. The screen shot below is from August 17, 2014. Note how one of Coldwell's fans, Gloria, apparently suffering from a bad case of Jeezus fever, advises that everybody needs to rebuke Stan. Who is Stan, and what did he do that deserves rebuking? Gloria, by the way, is one who was very supportive of the idea of my being hunted down and poisoned in punishment for allegedly poisoning Coldwell's dog. Duly noted and recorded.

For a more detailed review of Lenny's sovereignty obsession, see this March 2013 Whirled post, as well as this one from February of the same year (under "And let's not even get into the fear-mongering, gun-nuttery, and krazy conspiracy theories...").

Coldwell is not the first person in history to have grand visions of an ideal community. At best, his vision will fail to get off the ground and he'll just go on to his next daft idea. It may not even get so far as an actual land purchase -- unlike the potentially disturbing camp/resort/change-the-world thingy that the leaders of the cultish sex-and-money org Access Consciousness seem to be creating in Costa Rica (see "Update 21 August" towards the end of this 2013 post). If it gets off the ground at all, Lennyland will probably end up in the scrap heap of failed utopias. Let's just hope there are no mass suicides or murders.

Why I have spent so much time writing about Leonard Coldwell(in case you're still wondering)
Though Coldwell has at various times lied that I am a disease-ridden ex-hooker being paid by Big Pharma to discredit him, and (more recently) that I am sexually obsessed with him and write about him only because I am angry that he "rejected" me, the real story is not nearly as satisfyingly lurid as his versions. Many of you know this part already, so feel free to skip it. But as is the case with all of my purely intentional redundancies of late, this is mainly for those who are new, or just want to review.

As I've noted many times before, Coldwell only came on my radar in the first place because he was associated with one of my frequent blog subjects, Kevin Trudeau. I was writing about what a scammer Trudeau is and what a scam GIN was years ago, back when Coldwell (who later claimed to have been harboring the knowledge of Trudeau's scamminess for at least a year before he was kicked out of GIN) was still happily chewing on the GIN teat and trying to lure thousands of others into his GIN downline. Coldwell caught my eye not only because of his association with Trudeau but also because of the wild claims on his web sites and videos. He would have remained nothing more to me than a clownish sideshow to Trudeau's big circus, and more than likely I would have stopped at my initial (May 2012) post about him, but for the fact that additional information continued to surface about him. I didn't go looking for the information; it came looking for me.

When Coldwell subsequently went on his manic lying rampages about me (and about other critical bloggers) he secured a more permanent spot in the critical blogosphere. That was his doing -- not mine. Not Salty's. Not Bernie's. Not Omri's. Not Big Pharma's or the medical establishment's.

Coldwell brought it on himself.

I had actually laid off writing about him for a while, having grown bored with recording his predictable, almost formulaic, lunacies. Then in June of this year he put up that awful Bio web site with its atrocious "Defamation" page (which, as mentioned, has since been taken down). So I wrote about that. Shortly afterward, perhaps in retaliation or perhaps it was just random lunacy, Coldwell initiated the appalling dog-poisoning lieabout me, and anybody who expected me to remain silent in the face of that atrocity clearly does not know me. Early on in the dog-poisoning saga, when I was making haphazard attempts to defend myself against Coldwell's accusations, one of Coldwell's fans told me I needed to get over myself. "I don't give a sh-t about you, I just care about the dog," he wrote to me. Others had similar responses: "This isn't about you, it's about the dog."

Well, no. It could have been just about the dog, but Coldwell, displaying a characteristic combination of derangement and possibly drunkenness, invited me to the party. After a little over a week of histrionics he appeared to be acting as if the party was over and the lights were out, the implication being that I should just go home and shut up.

But I will not shut up -- and I am not going anywhere. I amhome -- perfectly at home -- on this Whirled.

I will keep on writing, and you can be assured that I will keep striking back with words when I am hit -- even if it makes me appear obsessive. I will carefully and patiently record the lunacies and will report them to the appropriate parties as necessary.

Though I have gone on so much about myself for the past few weeks -- even more than usual, if that's possible -- I know that this is and always has been about more than one frequently self-centered (I admit it) hobby blogger. The lies Coldwell has told about me are but a small part of a larger and much uglier picture. So I will continue to ask questions about him and, for that matter, about any other Scamworld guru who strikes me as silly, stupid, crazy, dangerous, or all of the above. I will continue to share information and opinions as appropriate. I will continue to be part of the conversation.

My stories may never be as good or as entertaining as Coldwell's. But all things considered, they always have been and always will be far more truthful than his. And for the most part, that's good enough for me.

The rest of the story...

Part 1 -- Coldwell rolls out hilarious new bio site, tightens rope around his own neck(published 30 June 2014)
Part 2 -- Leonard Coldwell's medical lackground and other hilarities from his new Bio website (published 4 August 2014)
Part 3 -- Sound and fury, Sturm und Drang: Leonard Coldwell's meaningless bluster (published 7 August 2014)
Part 4 -- Leonard Coldwell: The facts don't matter if the story is good (published 16 August 2014)
Not part of the series but pertinent -- Leonard Coldwell goes too far: lies about me poisoning his dog(originally published 16 July, 2014, with several updates)

↧

Blue dies, Coldwell lies, crazy minions terrorize

September 5, 2014, 2:23 pm

≫ Next: Kevin Trudeau: Katie's at Camp Cupcake, GIN parties on, and all's right with the Whirled

≪ Previous: Leonard Coldwell: stupid and dangerous, or simply stupid? (Part 5 of 5)

I so wanted to start the month of September fresh and free of toxic debris, and I almost made it. I love September, because rather than feeling like the beginning of the end of something, it always feels to me like the beginning of something new and exciting, even though in my neck of the woods it's not really fall-ish yet. We don't get the burst of sudden cool air in September that some places do, and we don't get the glorious fall colors that some of you lucky folks in the high country are already experiencing... but something changes, subtly, even here: there's a small excitement that whispers of relief from the oppressive summer.

But I am sorry to say that I am beginning September with one more (and I hope it's only one more) post about the stupidest man in Scamworld, cancer quack and alt-health fraudster Leonard Coldwell, the lowlife of the Lowcountry, and ex-b.f.f. of another Whirled favorite snarget, Kevin Trudeau. Believe me, I was totally ready to get back to Kevin, aka KT, aka Katie, since I have quite a few tidbits for you, including nearly 900 pages of trial and sentencing transcripts that I was finally able to get from PACER. Actually they've been available for a while but I have been busy. I also have updates on some of the Global Information Network (GIN) ripoff clubs, as well as blogworthy stuff about other scams and scammers.

And I am painfully aware that for the past six weeks I have spent far too much time and space on Coldwell, including a five-part deconstruction of his current and past lies and lunacies (links to individual posts are below), as well as a lengthy piece on his crowning lunatic achievement where I am concerned: his recent accusation that I poisoned his pit bull dog Blue. So I thought I had things pretty well covered and that I had finally said everything that needed saying on this blog about that little skeev for the time being.

But darn it all... LoonyC keeps looming, casting his fat little shadow over my Whirled.

In a surprise plot twist, Coldwell's dog dies.
In late August, despite previous reports that Blue was almost all better, the poor dog died, according to Coldwell's garbled laments on Facebook. Accordingly he has redoubled his attacks on me.

Bernie at GINtruth wrote about it here. Frankly, he said most of what needed to be said, and in much more forceful and direct language than I use, but I want to put in my two-cents' too, and elaborate on a few points.

Please understand that I am not making light of a dog's death. I have been through that heartache too many times to do that (here is but one example). My dogs and cats are my children. But I hope you can understand why it is immensely difficult for me to work up any sympathy whatsoever for Coldwell at this point. I can't see past the evil he continues to perpetrate against me, crassly and cynically using whatever it was that happened to his dog in order to incite people to commit violence against me.

I had honestly thought the dog situation was resolved, at least on Lenny's end, to the point that I decided to stop fretting about it and go quietly on about my business. I even gave up on trying to get Facebook to take down the worst of Coldwell's screeds accusing me of poisoning his dog. They had taken down the first two after fielding complaints from other people (not I), but they refused to take down the third one, which even I complained about. It was worse than the first two but they didn't take it down, saying it didn't violate their community standards.

So although my full name and home address were and are all over Facebook -- they are on several of Coldwell's pages, and have been shared numerous times, complete with Coldwell's invitations to his lunatic fans to "get in touch with me"-- I had, as noted, decided to let things slide for now, at least on this Whirled. I did add a few updates in the couple of weeks after I published my blog post about Coldwell's dog being poisoned. For instance, on July 26, 2014 I noted that on July 22, eight days after the dog poisoning saga began, Coldwell published two noteworthy threads to his Facebook page:

An announcement that Blue was almost fully recovered, thanks to love and help from friends.
A list, apparently taken from the ASPCA site (though either drunk-typed, typed on a malfunctioning keyboard, or (more likely) the results of bad OCR), of plants that are toxic to dogs, with the note that he had learned about this list while trying to save Blue's life. (The picture to which I link is only the first panel of several, he actually published a long list of poisonous plants.)

In short, I figured that the dog situation was more or less over for the most part. People who watch out for me reported no more ramblings about the dog on Coldwell's Facebook page. As awful and unforgivable as Coldwell's accusations against me were, I was relieved that the dog was okay, because I dearly love dogs and know that they are all innocent beings, no matter how monstrous their humans might be.

Then on or about August 30, 2014 the rants began again. This took me totally by surprise. Since Coldwell has me so thoroughly blocked on Facebook, I didn't see this when it first happened, but some of my "eyes" let me know that Coldwell had announced his dog had just died. And once again he went on a rampage against me, redoubling his attacks, this time publishing not only my home address but also my private cell phone number, which I have never published nor shared publicly. In case you can't get to the screen shot I linked to (it's from Bernie's post about the matter), here is what Coldwell posted on Facebook on or about August 30, 2014:

My Heart has been broken today! They murdered our believed [sic] dog BLUE! At 6pm EST Blue died! This is the very last picture of Blue ever, hours before he died! The pain is overwhelming my tears make it impossible to see clearly. I hear myself crying with all my pain in my inside to deal with the pain! FB will as usual take this post off because Connie Schmidt has some kind of contacts to get this done and websites will be taken down, blocked etc (Her cell phone number is #-###-###-#### in case you want to ask her yourself, if she was responsible. (All information is Public information don't take my post down FB dirt!) Please repost this post asap because it will be taken down. The website for Justice for Blue with all the info videos and facts and proof is in the making since 11am this morning.) All info will be soon on my main website. Because they will as usual delete my post. Please re-post it!

Today is one of the worst and painful days of my life and I and many people believe we know who caused his death and ordered directly or indirectly his murder! Blue was poisoned directly after, Horny Connie, as many call her know [sic] inquired about my physical living location. As I just heard: She called my brother after that and stated that she will hurt me hard and will never stop. She called employees and friends of mine telling them it was just the beginning. And all of this just because I did not want to have sex with this disgusting women [sic]. She harassed me and my employees and family members to make them to make me meet with her for a sexual weekend. (Since all of this started we got countless information about her alleged drug use -- jut look at her picture and make up your own mind.) Witness Testimonies will be provided...

The rest of the long rant contained some tear-jerking prose about Blue's last day (and again, I'm not making light of his death, if he really died, but you have to understand the context here). Following that was a copy-and-paste of the long screed he wrote on July 17, 2014, which contained my name and home address and shared on several of his Facebook pages. That's the screed I'd tried to get Facebook to remove and which they refused to remove because it apparently conforms with their "community standards."

The picture of me that Lenny mentioned -- the one that allegedly proves my drug use -- is my Blogger profile pic that you see on the upper left hand side of this page if you're looking at the Web version of Whirled Musings. I wrote about that pic and what it means to me on my 8th Blogaversary post on July 27. The "Horny Connie" nonsense refers to a dead-in-the-water defamation project Coldwell or some of his twisted buddies initiated early in August; it has come to naught. For deets, see this post, under the bright red subhead, "Honk if you're horny." As for the rest of the garbage in Coldwell's post, well, we've been through that already (see links at the end of this post), and anyone with any cognitive abilities whatsoever knows by now that it is just absolute bull. I will say that the claim that I have "contacts" at Facebook is bitterly funny, in light of Facebook's utter refusal to take down the very posts that endanger me.

Coldwell, surely your vigilant family, friends, and employees would have recorded at least one of those numerous "horny" communications from me, which took place either over a period of three years, or four months, or three months... depending upon your lie du jour. But those recordings don't exist. You have no evidence and no proof, because it doesn't exist, because you are completely making it up. (And I can't wait to see all of those "Witness Testimonies" about my "alleged drug use.")

As stupid as it was, though, quite a few people shared this post on their own Facebook timelines -- 16, at last count. Maybe more by now. [Update 8 September 2014: I just got a notice from a friend that as of the time I'm writing this, the post has 68 "likes," 24 shares, and 130 comments. Here is a direct link to the post, provided by my friend; I cannot get to it, of course, because I am blocked.]

Disturbing responses from Coldwell's idiotic fans resumed on Facebook. One man named Michael Arnold wrote, "I'm so sorry Dr. C... I hope some justice will be served... like revenge very coldly." Another person going by the name Ashley Alkalise-Energise Gilbert (I'm sure that was her birth name; maybe her parents were batteries), wrote... well, let me just share the screen shot of her post.

A lawyer friend of mine said that although it's stupid for Coldwell to insinuate that I could poison a dog remotely, the comments from some of Coldwell's imbecile followers made it clear that it is possible to poison minds remotely.

Here are snippets from a private Facebook conversation with a mind in Belgium that has been poisoned by Coldwell. He had actually initiated the conversation on August 22, a little more than a week before the dog's alleged death. Out of respect for the guy's privacy I won't tell you that his name is Florian de Waele. Oops.

Conversation started August 22
8/22, 4:33pmFlorian De Waele
Dear zionist whore, I wonder how much is big pharma paying you to destroy Dr Coldwell's business?

8/26, 8:11pmConnie Schmidt
Dear Aryan idiot: Nobody pays me anything to attempt to tell the truth. Oh, wait... this is a joke, right? Ha, ha, good one!

8/27, 7:44amFlorian De Waele
The truth? Jewish lies! I prefer listening to a true man of God instead of a filthy frustrated prostitute. I'm warning you Connie Schmidt, you and your neo-Zionist pharma sponsors might have started this fight but Dr Coldwell will finish it!

8/27, 10:12amConnie Schmidt
You are joking, right? If not, where do you get the idea that I am Jewish or a Zionist? Not that there is anything wrong with either -- and not that it is any of your business -- but I am neither Jewish nor Zionist. Even Coldwell has not lied that I am Jewish/Zionist -- well, not that I know of anyway. He is such a sniveling coward that he has blocked me from reading his social media rants, so no telling what the little liar has said about me lately.
Coldwell HAS told many despicable lies about me, though. He has lied that I am a prostitute (or former prostitute), and he has lied that I have awful diseases, and he has lied that I made sexual passes at him (a big laugh because I am happily married and he disgusts me), and he even lied that I poisoned his dog last month. And he has lied that Big Pharma is paying me (or that anyone is paying any other blogger who has written about him).
And he DID start this fight with me when he made the choice to start telling filthy despicable lies about me, simply because I raised legitimate questions about him -- questions he is afraid to answer. He lied about other bloggers too, falsely calling them child rapists (among numerous other lies).
And he lied about all of us "hacking" his web sites and radio show. Even his webmaster and social media admin knows that those are all lies but she dare not speak up against him, apparently for fear of losing his business and/or his friendship.
Flo, you need to open your eyes and stop parroting that ridiculous little man. Learn to think for yourself. When you do, come back and apologize and I may accept it.

[NOTE: Between the time of that comment and his next response, the dog died. ~CC]
9/2, 10:46pmFlorian De Waele
Do you think you're fooling me with your Jewish nose and surname? Go tell to the children being murdered by your Zionist buddies there's nothing wrong with Zionism. Now you've killed an innocent dog you perhaps can go join those Israeli murderers https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=287058068169551
Dr. Colwell is fighting for YOUR rights and YOUR health as well and what is your gratitude? Attacking this brave man who follows the Lord with all his heart! Let us ask the age-old question "Cui bono?""Who benefits?"
How on earth could Dr. C benefit from making up lies about you? On the other hand you and your pharma sponsors have immense profits to lose when Dr. C's message becomes mainsteam.
You probably mean the "Bernie O'Mahony" guy? That guy IS a child rapist, there was a picture to prove it on Coldwell's site. People should be made aware he's dangerous. If big pharma has the resources to hire you to murder his innocent dog it is not hard for me to believe they're hacking his sites too.
Dr C. is a ridiculous little man? OK, that's your opinion, let me give you a quote "Multiple awards winning Radio host of Coast to Coast George Noory stated in his new TV show with Dr. Coldwell: "I know and have interviewed most experts worldwide, Dr Leonard Coldwell is simply the best of the best!"

9/3, 5:48amConnie Schmidt
You cannot even keep Coldwell's lies straight, can you? He claims I killed his dog because I was angry about his sexual rejection of me. He didn't say Big Pharma hired me to kill the dog.
Granted, his original lie (which he started telling in October 2012) was that Big Pharma hired me to destroy his reputation by writing about him on my blog. But when he couldn't get anyone except possibly the stupidest of the stupid to believe that whopper, he switched to the "woman scorned" lie.
In any case everything he has written about me is a lie. It is your choice to continue to believe those lies.

And everything Coldwell has written about Bernie is a lie too. You obviously do not know that originally Coldwell and Bernie were friends and allies. Coldwell was at one time very supportive of Bernie's blog GINtruth, back when Bernie was only writing about Kevin Trudeau and GIN. Coldwell called Bernie "brother" and said he loved him. Bernie in turn was supportive of Coldwell and even had a link on GINtruth to Coldwell's main web site.

Eventually Bernie came to realize that Coldwell had been as much a part of Trudeau's huge scam as Trudeau was and that Coldwell would have continued to happily push that scam, knowing it was a scam, if Trudeau had not fired Coldwell. Coldwell only became anti-Trudeau because he was angry that he had lost an easy income source.

Bernie also found out some more unsavory info about Coldwell (on his own -- not because of me or Big Pharma or the Zionists), and he ultimately decided that Coldwell was not someone he wanted to continue to support. So he began writing critical information about him on GINtruth. Coldwell started threatening Bernie and telling him to choose sides or else Coldwell would sue/destroy him. Bernie, in my opinion, chose the side of truth.
So contrary to what Coldwell has said in different lies, Bernie is not someone that I "found" to help me destroy "Dr" C, nor is he someone recruited by Big Pharma.

I won't even address your stupid statements that I support any murder of innocents, whether done in the name of Zionism or patriotism, Islam or Christianity. Clearly you will continue to believe whatever you want to believe. You are one of those for whom "the facts don't matter if the story is good."

9/3, 7:01amConnie Schmidt
It occurs to me that I did not answer your question, "Who benefits?" Coldwell is trying to benefit from his lies about me because he is afraid of the truths I tell about him. He is scared of the legitimate questions I raise about him on my blog. Same deal with Bernie and with all of the other people who have written critically about Coldwell. Coldwell would obviously benefit if he could silence all of his critics. Truth is a scary thing to people such as he. Since he cannot silence us he is doing the next best thing and using outrageous lies to appeal to idiots. And clearly, some idiots are swallowing every piece of crap he throws out to them.

I went on to tell Florian the truth about the "child rapist" lies about Bernie, giving him links to Bernie's GINtruth blog post about the matter, as well as the direct link to Bernie's original Facebook post that he wrote just after he was beaten up by the Japanese thugs who gave him that black eye. I also sent Florian a few screen shots of Coldwell's praise and thanks to Bernie back in the old days, when Bernie was just writing about Kevin Trudeau and GIN on GINtruth. I've yet to hear back from him but he generally takes a few days to respond.

The same day Loony announced his dog's death, an anonymous commenter, apparently quoting from lyrics in Les Miserables, wrote to my blog.

It is possible that the Anon commenter was just being ironic, perhaps making fun of the idiots who really are supporting Coldwell's histrionics. But I don't know for sure. I'm erring on the side of caution these days. So as always, I've recorded and reported everything.

Over the next couple of days Coldwell continued to use his Facebook page as a wailing wall, milking that old sympathy cow for all it was worth, portraying his dog as the embodiment of pure love and innocence, and me as evil personified.

But he wasn't finished yet.

Coldwell brings Mommy into the mix
I figured that with the dog dead, Coldwell's beloved mama had to be next on the list of pawns in his deranged little game, particularly since he had previously used Mommy to threaten me, pretending to be his brother and using the totally fake name "Rudi Kauder." I've shared that story and these screen shots before, of course, but here they are again. This message was sent on November 4, 2012. Ultimately Coldwell did make good on the threat to share my private information with his lunatic fans.

Anyway, I was right; Coldwell did bring Mommy into the mix. He is such a predictable little nutjob. In the shot below, also notice that our favorite caps-lock terrorist, Haiah Victoria Kingsley, is back with her threats of violence against me.

In truth, I've never shared Mommy's name and address anywhere, so chalk that up to just another one of Lenny's lies. I shared her MAIDEN NAME once on my first blog post about Bernd/Lenny, which I initially published in May 2012. I got that name from a publicly available document concerning Coldwell's legal name change, which took place in Fauquier County, Virginia on June 25, 1998. But in a subsequent post about the name change -- the one where I celebrated the Quinceanera(fifteenth birthday party) of Lenny's new name -- I even redacted her maiden name. As for her address somewhere in Germany, I don't know it, don't want to, and wouldn't share it if I had it. I don't think Mommy is totally innocent -- after all, Lenny has publicly boasted online and in interviews and in books that she manages his "businesses" in Germany (which I can only imagine has something to do with money-funneling) -- but nevertheless I do think she is being used and perhaps to some extent duped by her wicked son. And I always leave family members of scammers alone unless there is a compelling reason to do otherwise.

So Coldwell, show us some place where I published Mommy's name and address. Show us some concrete proof or even credible evidence that Mommy was "hurt" by anyone as a result of anything I wrote, ever. You claimed in a recent rant that she was "instantly" hurt after I published her name and address. When and where did this happen? If it happened immediately after I published her maiden name on May 31, 2012 -- which is the only time I ever published it -- why are you only just now saying that she got hurt as a result of something I published? Why didn't you start hollering about her Cosmic-Connie-induced injuries more than two years ago?

For that matter, show us proof that I went online and obtained your home address, which is the foundation of your ridiculous lie that I poisoned your dog or that I was responsible for poisoning him. As noted before on this blog, I have only ever availed myself of free data that pops up when your name is entered into a search engine. I have never paid for a search for your address or your dodgy background. I have never published your address, not only because I don't know it but because I simply don't do things like that -- unlike you, who published my address and private phone number with the clear intent not merely to discredit me -- something you've not been able to do with your nearly two years of lying about me -- but to incite violence against me. You are such a coward, Lenny. If one of your stupid fans comes after me it will, I promise you, not end well for them, and that will be on your shiny little head.

I suppose the next thing Coldwell is going to do is make up another story about getting his car bombed or about some other brand new threat to his own life or property. He might even post a picture of a bombed-out car, or even a pic of himself with a fake black eye to make people feel sorry for him. And of course he will blame me and get the imbeciles all fired up yet again. You just never know.

Somebody knows what really happened to Coldwell's dog.
According to Lenny's lament on August 30, Blue was to be cremated and his ashes scattered "in the country." There was no mention that I could see of a necropsy (which is what they generally call an animal autopsy, for some reason) to confirm cause of death, so I suspect there is a dearth of forensic evidence. Not that his idiot followers are going to even question his story, though.

Nevertheless, many people besides me have questioned his story all along. Some outside speculators have gone so far as to suggest that the dog did not actually die or never was ill in the first place and that Lenny made the whole thing up as an excuse to get people to attack me. That seems like an awful lot of trouble to go through, even for Lenny, and besides, Blue was supposedly an attraction at some of his seminars, and I can't see him giving up any edge he might have had, since his seminars have had so little to recommend them ever since Kevin Trudeau divorced him. Some folks even suggested at the very beginning of the dog saga that Lenny or someone else close to Blue did something to the dog to create the drama -- kind of a Munchhausen syndrome by proxything. I think that is far-fetched, but then again, with Coldwell, you never know. He is pretty much bat-sh-t crazy.

Some people thought it possible that Blue had some chronic or acute disease process going on, perhaps contributed to by owners who fed him too much people food, or the wrong kind of people food. (Oysters, for instance, are really are not good for dogs in excess. Raw oysters can give people hepatitis A, and it's possible that dogs can get some form of hepatitis or other serious illness from eating raw oysters too (though canine hepatitis is usually spread in other ways). Left untreated, hepatitis can eventually kill. Even cooked oysters can have toxic algae that can make dogs sick. Just saying, in light of the fact that Coldwell has shared this 2011 pic.)

In any case, assuming that the dog really did get sick -- from whatever cause -- I have no doubt that somebody, somewhere outside of Lenny's tight little circle of insanity knows much more about what really happened to Blue than has been told so far. Whether it's somebody who worked on the dog at the Charleston or Mt. Pleasant area animal emergency clinic when he first took ill around July 14, 2014, or someone who subsequently tended him at his regular vet, or cared for him along the way or even before the alleged poisoning... somebody knows something and has some information that can help me.

Maybe it's one of Lenny's neighbors or a property manager or landlord, wherever in Mt. Pleasant or Charleston that he may be squatting at the moment. (As noted before, I don't know his address and don't want to, but there are indications that he moves around a lot -- more than the average person, even in our highly mobile society.)

Somebody knows what happened to that dog, and I am not going to give up until I find out or until Coldwell retracts his horrible accusations. If you are reading this and you happen to be someone who knows what really happened to Coldwell's dog, you know he is lying about me and deliberately putting me in danger. You know that it is wrong to just sit on this information. Sharing the information with me is the right thing to do. If you work at one of the vet clinics and are afraid you will lose your job, I understand and I will keep you anonymous to the extent that it is possible.

But I need your help. Again, it's the right thing to do. Allowing Coldwell to continue his lies about me is the wrong thing to do. It will not bring his dog back and will only be enabling a psychopath. I can't offer you a $10,000 reward like Coldwell did back on July 15 for information linking me to the dog poisoning incident -- in fact I can't offer you any reward other than the satisfaction of knowing you did the right thing. But please, help me if you can.

As for the rest of you, I will try not to bore you any more than absolutely necessary with any more Coldwell nonsense on this blog. But count on this: I am not going to go away.

The back story to this post (complete with disturbing screen shots of comments from crazed Lenny fans):
Leonard Coldwell goes too far: lies about me poisoning his dog(originally published 16 July, 2014, with several updates)

Deconstructing Lenny in five not-so-easy pieces:

Part 1 -- Coldwell rolls out hilarious new bio site, tightens rope around his own neck(published 30 June 2014)
Part 2 -- Leonard Coldwell's medical lackground and other hilarities from his new Bio website (published 4 August 2014)
Part 3 -- Sound and fury, Sturm und Drang: Leonard Coldwell's meaningless bluster (published 7 August 2014)
Part 4 -- Leonard Coldwell: The facts don't matter if the story is good (published 16 August 2014)
Part 5 -- Leonard Coldwell: stupid and dangerous, or simply stupid?(published 19 August 2014)

↧

Kevin Trudeau: Katie's at Camp Cupcake, GIN parties on, and all's right with the Whirled

September 29, 2014, 3:22 pm

≫ Next: James Arthur Ray: Full blood moon

≪ Previous: Blue dies, Coldwell lies, crazy minions terrorize

I have a ton of work but am determinednot to let September slip away without at least one more post, and one that is about something besides the stupidest man in Scamworld. I've said my piece about that for the time being, and even though I'm not going to give up on this subject, there are so many other more interesting and more important topics to blog about. So. Even though it has been a busy month, work-wise, I am going to make good on my promise to post updates about the saga of imprisoned serial scammer Kevin Trudeau, aka KT, aka Katie, as well as some of the folks who are struggling to keep his legacy alive while he cools his heels at Club Fed. Or Camp Cupcake, as he calls his new home at Federal Prison Camp in Montgomery, Alabama.

The gushing (and eye-rolling) posts on Katie's Facebook fan page continue, most of them first-person homilies that lately seem to be seriously pandering to the New-Agey Law of Attraction crowd. Trudeau seems to be sounding more and more like a New-Age ninny, as opposed to some of the earlier Facebook posts when he appeared to be pandering to the more traditionally religious believers in miracles and such. The messages for the posts are still presumably being sent via email to, and then posted by, Katie proxies such as his long-time business associate and ex-girlfriend Janine. Occasionally, however, one of his cronies will pop on and talk about going to visit Katie in the clink, marveling at the fact that he is in such good spirits and is An Inspiration to All of Us, and is really Walking the Talk and Living the Training and so forth.

For instance, Earlene Vining, cohort of staunch Trudeau loyalist Ed Foreman, recently posted this, which looks like an attempt at free-verse poetry but may just be an unfortunate line-break glitch (as usual, click to enlarge):

"Kevin is a bright
Star in all of our lives..."

Do I hear the sound of some of you gagging?

And every few days there's a blurb about an upcoming legal fundraiser for Katie that will take place in Colorado on October 23, 2014. (Here's a link to a September 24 promo post on Facebook.) If you make a contribution of "only $200" to the Defense Fund, you'll get a complimentary ticket to the big rally that will be hosted by Katie's pal Coach Coral (Grant, formerly Thomas). Coral is currently being flogged as Trudeau's "protege," who "does not do public speaking engagements so this is a very rare opportunity to spend time with Coral live and in person." Which is utter bull crap. Coral, whom I've mentioned a few times on my blog (particularly here) reportedly has a deal with Katie that she gets to milk his brand for all it's worth (and it's still worth quite a lot, apparently) if she contributes an agreed-upon amount to his defense fund.

Kevin himself, through his proxy/proxies, continues to pile it on thick, as indicated by this September 16 bit of inspiration:

Everyone likes/desires/wants different things. That is why there are menus at restaurants! LOL

Some people LOVE to skydive, or ski, or scuba dive, or garden, or paint, or play tennis, or watch horror films, or read terrifying novels. I personally do not LOVE any of those and might even HATE some of those. I like/love challenging my physical/mental/and emotional limits be it hiking for days with limited food and no shelter! Or being attacked by the US Government and having all my possessions taken away! Or being thrown in a jail cell for 23 hours a day for months not knowing when or if you will ever be let out! [Apparently this is a reference to his experiences at MCC, not Camp Cupcake. ~CC] Or do mental exercises for days straight without food or sleep to access spiritual dimensions few have ever been! The list could go on and on. These are MY desires.

The point is we all want/love/desire different things, experiences and conditions. There is no right and wrong, or good, better and best when it comes to desires/wants or things you love. You love and get pleasure from certain things, and I love and get pleasure from perhaps the things YOU hate, or scare you the most. Many people however, are not deliberate creators of their life's experiences. Most people do not consciously choose what they experience in their life. Most people are not focusing on their preferences or what they decided they love/want/desire. And most people are not focusing on WHY they want these things/experiences in their lives. When you focus on what you want and WHY you want it, (instead of HOW you are going to get it), you will be happier and you WILL manifest what you want. Many people ask WHY I would want to experience what I am experiencing. The answer is simple. I LOVE this! You see, my desire is to teach, to share. (this is my destiny as decided on by ME long ago...longer than you realize) In order to teach and share with complete effectiveness, I must KNOW, not just KNOW ABOUT. I must have DONE what I am to teach. And I must first HAVE what it is I want to share. VERY few people will ever feel the desire or have the joy I (and others throughout history) have for living these type of experiences. When you are taught by someone who KNOWS (experienced it firsthand) you can then truly learn because YOU then experience it vicariously through that teacher. You virtually learn via osmosis. This is why throughout history, Guru's, Sages, Enlightened Ones, Saints, Masters etc have had such a profound impact on those who were READY, and physically close to the one who KNOWS. I am doing my part. I am going "places" you will never want to go, and experiencing things you will never want to experience first hand. I am increasing that which I KNOW. I will be out and among you sometime between mid next year and 2022! LOL The Universe KNOWS the best and perfect HOW and WHEN. If you are ready, the sky is the limit for you, and the best is yet to come!
Much love

LOL, LOL, LOL.

In other words (if I'm reading this right), Katie's time in the clink is turning him into a gen-yoo-ine spiritual guru. All the better to ~~reach his hand into your wallet~~ teach you stuff when he gets out -- that is, if you're ready to be taught. When the ~~mark~~student is ready, the ~~con man~~ master will appear. To date that post has 763 likes, 112 shares, and 118 comments. A woman who calls herself "Lena Lemurian" (I sense that is not her real name) responded to Kev's message with a magickal incantation:

I intend for Kevin Trudeau to be released and I see him released within the year and so it is.

I'm not so sure those intentions and whatnot are very effective. Remember that group mediation for Katie that took place about a year ago? Not so effective in getting him cleared of all charges, was it?

In response to the September 16 post a man wrote:

How do you go for days without food or sleep and still feel good? What discipline! Your NATURAL CURES books ,Your wish is my command and GIN Has greatly improved my health and thinking . They have made me signifantly [sic] more positive and improved my relationship with my friends and family and made dream again. I thank you Kevin from the bottom of my heart , you saved my life! I am glade [sic] you are feeling good and getting gooder [sic] every day. You are one of my greatest hero's. Love you!

Well, I too am glade for Kevin that he's good and getting gooder. Speaking of Glade, they've come out with their fall collection and holiday scents, and even though that stuff is probably really bad for you, I fall for the marketing every year. It makes Ron roll his eyes, but it sure beats litter box odor.

But I digress. Katie also had this September 26 message for the troops:

Thank you for all your continued love and support. Please know I am more than good here at Federal Prison Camp Montgomery. I am the best I have ever been. And getting better. My appeal has been filed. I should get the decision sometime next year.

As my dear friend Sam points out, I am not attached to any outcome, so I yield to the Universe and am allowing the perfect manifestation of my personal goals/dreams/desires in the WAY Source knows is best. My desires are not about myself, they are about you, society, the planet, and the universe. Peace, harmony, love, and all people feeling the deepest contentment and appreciation for all experiences is one of my visions. My desires are my desires. They are not your desires. Mine are right for me alone. Yours are right for you alone. All our choices, preferences, desires/dreams/goals are always right for each of us. Do not try to force YOUR desires, or your ways of living on others. You will just live with frustration and never be truly at peace/contentment or experience true inner total bliss. Many wonder about my situation and make all kinds of assumptions. Consider stop looking at others and judging, condemning, assuming things, and criticizing their conditions and they way they choose to go through this game we call life and the situations/events they create. Wanting to make oneself right and others wrong is a motivation that will keep you from experiencing all your desires and feeling true bliss.

Know at the deepest levels, we create circumstances in life (that in fact just games we create), to experience a full range of emotions as well as conditions to allow us to exercise our invisible power!

I have a request. IF you feel moved to do so, could some of you send me pictures of Zurich, and of beautiful things/scenes/mountains/etc for MY dream board! Guess what I may want to look at each day and vibrate into physical manifestation! Know all the well. I will be out and with you as soon as is perfect! Much love

Well, Katie, I have some ideas for your vision board. You say you want some pics of Zurich?

I grabbed that still from a vid on this page, Katie. I thought you might appreciate revisiting that glorious day in Zurich when the "ambush" journos from ABC caught up with you.

Or I could send you some screen shots of some of the horrid things written by a little Teutonic twerp you unleashed on the world through the Global Information Network (GIN) -- not just the stuff about me and about some of the other critical bloggers, but the hate-filled, anti-Semitic rants as well. Since you have been playing at being Jewish, Kevin (at least you mentioned to Judge Gettleman that you have a rabbi), I'm thinking these rants might not look so good on your vision board. But they are part of what you helped to create.

For now, please accept the vision board, or dream board, that I made for you my own self, with the help of Google images. It's up there at the top of this post. I know that vision and dream boards are supposed to be about the future, but I think you need to ruminate on your present and recent past as well.

For the rest of you, here's something to consider: no matter how cynical one may be about all of this, Katie's fans continue to look upon him as a hero. Every one of those Facebook posts gets hundreds of likes and at least dozens of comments. One woman, who apparently just got back from the 2014 Global Information Network (GIN) Family Reunion in Phoenix (more about that below), wrote:

FAMILY REUNION was Exceptional! You can be proud of the "Magic 5" and all the "Maple Syrup" who were there (ask someone who was) [One] man birthed the dream (ThU KT), AND we would have proven the Training untrue, if we hadn't Re-Birth bigger & stronger than before. Mission Accomplished! Onward!

Nice to know that the GINtanic is sailing on even without Katie at the helm, isn't it?

Another woman had this to say:

I'm living two hour away from Zurich and I'm watching the mountains right now while listening to your cd's. the world needs people like you Kevin... the important is who you become, not what you have. .... time goes on, get out of there, we have so many wonderfull [sic] things to do ! don't wayste [sic] your time...

There are no two ways about it: Trudeau still has a large and loyal fan base -- from all appearances a much larger and more loyal base than that bitter little German gnome who used to be his sidekick. And while the posts on Katie's Facebook fan page are truly eye-rolling, other sources besides Trudeau and his proxies and long-time loyalists say he really isin good spirits at Camp Cupcake. (You'll read more about that soon; I'll be sure to provide a link when it's available.)

I suppose it's possible that Kevin truly has accepted his fate and is cool with it no matter what. But I'm thinking that more likely he is just a really good actor, as many sociopaths are, or he could be basing his seeming tranquility and optimism largely on his belief that his appeal will actually be successful. At this point I'm still thinking it won't be, but we'll know in a few months, and we'll also see if he continues the Facebook shtick if the appeals process fails him. And speaking of the appeal (and the case that made the appeal necessary in the first place)...

Camp may be fun, but Katie wants out: the appeals process continues
It's been quite a while since I did an update here about Trudeau's court cases; the last post was on July 22, 2014. I've been remiss on my Katie reporting duties for sure. At any rate, the appeals process for his criminal contempt conviction is still ongoing and there probably will not be a decision until some time in 2015. I know you're probably thinking the same thing I'm thinking: if he's so happy at Camp Cupcake, why waste any more lawyer money trying to get out sooner? I guess that's just one of those mysteries of the Universe that only Kevin knows, and will be glad to share with you if you pay him or his cronies.

So what's going on, court-wise? Let's take a look...

Opening appeals brief and supporting documents: On August 27, 2014, I shared the initial appeals documents on the GIN Network Truth page (a public forum) on Facebook -- here is that link. And here is a Scribd link, for the benefit of those who cannot access the Facebook file.
Criminal trial transcript: I also finally downloaded some court transcripts, although I will have to keep such activities to a minimum because with actual transcripts, PACER apparently does not place a 30-page cap on download fees as they do on other court documents. At ten cents a page, it can get pretty pricey. I was able to nab this transcript of Trudeau's criminal trial, which took place in early November 2013 in Judge Guzman's court. It's a big'un. Here is a Scribd link.
Sentencing hearing transcript: And here is a Scribd link to the transcript from Trudeau's March 17, 2014 sentencing hearing.

One more thing: My PACER connection is having some glitches so I haven't been able to download any court documents since late August. As soon as I get those glitches straightened out I will pop onto PACER again and check for any newer activity. Or you can do it yourself if you are so inclined. Why should I get to have all the fun?

GIN rolls on, tries to lure big spenders back into the fold
Anybody who thinks that Katie's biggest scheme to date -- GIN -- is dead, has simply not been paying attention. Granted, it may be a shadow of its former self, but it's still definitely hanging on, as indicated by the pics from the big wingding that took place this past weekend: the 2014 Family Reunion in Phoenix, Arizona. You can see some of the festivities on one of the GIN Facebook pages.

Troy McClain, CEO of AXS Investment/Management etc., the group that bought GIN, hosted the promo video. And the first thing I noticed was that it was branding for AXS as much as it was for GIN. No big surprise there.

And Jeff Devine's Hybrid Group was also very much involved, judging from this little event blurb on etouches.

As noted on this blog previously, the new owners of GIN reportedly consist of Troy McClain, Chris "Voldemort" McGarahan, Blaine Athorn, Jeff Devine and Greg Kramer.

In case you can't get to the GIN Facebook page I linked to above, here are some highlights from the weekend:

Looks like fun, huh? And oh, goody, there's going to be a cruise in 2015. And, not to belabor a point, but even without Kevin, and even though GIN membership is way down, it still appears that the Family Reunion drew a far larger crowd than the events put on by certain GIN ripoff clubs. (Unless, that is, GIN hired a bunch of folks to make it look like a crowd, or used CGI like they do in the movies sometimes.) Just saying.

A reliable source let me know that Troy McClain and Chris McGarahan have been making serious efforts to get Inner Circle and upper level members back into the GIN fold; in other words, they're trying to woo back the big spenders. As you may recall, Inner Circle members paid either $50k or $75k for that dubious privilege, with the promise that they would receive a percentage of the GIN proceeds and other perks. Some of these people's GIN "investments" were six figures (one former Inner Circle member and Founding Member insists GIN owes him a million dollars). When GIN nearly collapsed due to Katie's legal troubles, those folks were out all of that money, and reportedly many quit. Now Troy and Chris are trying to woo them back, with the promise that GIN will make it a point to get them the moneys owed to them asap.

Word is that some of these people asked that their "initiation" and monthly fees be waived for the appropriate amount of time in lieu of as much of the money owed as was applicable and GIN said no. Now, it's possible that something in the court order forbade such an arrangement (after all, GIN is beholden to the receiver and the court for the first year under the new ownership), but whether or not that is the case, it sounds pretty sleazy to me.

Troy and Chris are also reportedly pandering to the Christian demographic to get them to join or re-join GIN, and some who know Chris find this disgusting, saying that he is about as far from being a Christian as anyone they know.

At any rate GIN seems poised to grow, and may very possibly restore the MLM program at some point, though it was discontinued last November (2013). They haven't removed mentions of it from their online legal documents. For that matter, they haven't removed the statement that GIN is a multi-level foundation based in Nevis. Maybe they just need to finish updating their web site.

The moral of the story, once again, is that in Scamworld there are no neat and tidy endings. But I bet you knew I was going to say that.

That's it for now, but rest assured that I'll be back soon with more.

↧

James Arthur Ray: Full blood moon

October 8, 2014, 12:17 pm

≫ Next: NAVEL-gazing with Lenny Coldwell: every health expo needs a keynote ranter

≪ Previous: Kevin Trudeau: Katie's at Camp Cupcake, GIN parties on, and all's right with the Whirled

I'm not normally an early riser by choice, but I made an effort to get up early today to see the full blood moon -- the lunar eclipse that turned the moon, if not bloody, at least a rusty reddish-orange. Trees were in the way, so Ron and I drove a little way down the lane towards the back pastures until we were able to get an unobstructed view. Clouds teased us and tried to hide that big red moon, but we did get some tantalizing glimpses, rendered larger by one of Ron's rifle scopes, though no pictures. That's okay; there are plenty of pictures all over the Interwebz. After our brief sky-watching adventure we came back home and I wanted to go back to sleep for a while, but couldn't.

I couldn't sleep because there was another matter that occupied my thoughts: the fact that today, October 8, 2014, is the five-year anniversary of James Arthur Ray's Death Lodge in Sedona, Arizona. This was the grueling "ceremony" in a phony sweat lodge that took the lives of James Shore and Kirby Brown that day, and the life of a third participant, Liz Neuman, nine days later.

And Ray, the sociopathic, egotistical New-Wage guru who skyrocketed to rockstar status in his industry after he was in The Secret, was convicted of three counts of felony negligent homicide for the three deaths in Sedona. He ended up serving less than two years in an Arizona prison. He has been back out for more than a year now, trying to rebuild his scampire, as discussed at various times on this Whirled: e.g., here and here and (more recently) here.

Although many people -- and I'm one of them -- believe that justice has not really been served in these deaths, Ray is whining that he"lost everything," and seems to be trying to build his shtick around his heroic efforts to overcome the losses he suffered. Take a look at the "About Us" page on his web site, and you'll see.

A fourth death, not covered quite as much as those in Sedona, was that of Colleen Conaway during a San Diego James Ray event in July 2009. Colleen fell to her death from a third-story balcony in a San Diego shopping mall, and when Ray found out about it he reportedly made every effort to keep her death from the other participants, and partied on through the night as if nothing had happened. I've recently been informed that there finally was some civil "justice" of sorts for Colleen's death, but that, I believe, is Salty Droid's story to tell and I will let him tell you when he gets a moment. (He's busy these days, and in good ways. He hasn't been blogging too much lately, but I am pretty sure that we haven't heard the last of Jason Michael Jones.)

Every year since Sedona happened I have commemorated the sad anniversary of the event (here is last year's effort), though never with the length and depth of my first anniversary post, which was framed around Connie Joy's disturbing insider's account, Tragedy In Sedona: My Life in James Arthur Ray's Inner Circle. But I know full well that my blog posts, and all of the other hundreds of posts about Ray's atrocities, his trial, his imprisonment, and his activities since his release, haven't made much of a dent in his scampire or indeed in Scamworld at large. Even the exhaustive coverage by Salty Droid, the excellent coverage by alt-media such as The Verge, and the decent coverage by mainstream media such as ABC haven't stopped the big sick machine from rolling on.

Death Ray seems to be a perfect metaphor for the seeming futility of muckraking efforts in this area; after all, he is out and running free, spreading his inspirational wisdumb about living an "epic" life, telling people they should accept that death is but an illusion... and a Facebook buddy of mine says that at the recent Global Information Network (GIN) Family Reunion, James Ray propaganda packets were being passed out to early registrants. Why am I not surprised?

GIN, as you may recall, was founded by now-imprisoned serial scammer Kevin Trudeau, long a Whirled favorite, and was recently taken over by a cartel of Kevin's long-time buddies. Some have suggested that Trudeau still actually owns GIN and that the members of his crony cartel are proxies, but whether that's true or not, Kevin continues to benefit from GIN, even from Unca Sam's sleepaway camp in Montgomery.

And Trudeau of course still has his loyal fawning fans. Even James Ray has his loyalists, many of whom just don't seem to care about those inconvenient little deaths. True to Scamworld tradition, Trudeau and Ray have done their share of mutual stroking-off, as noted on this blog several times (such as here). Trudeau has spoken out publicly in defense of Ray, and Ray, even while in prison, promoted Trudeau's Your Wish Is Your Command CD set, which was the upsell for GIN. Trudeau is behind bars and Ray is limping along, but their legacies live on.

And this isn't even to mention the thousands of other scams and scammers of Scamworld; they're all going on without missing a beat, despite occasional half-hearted attempts by the FTC or FDA or some other alphabet agency to fart in their general direction. It's enough to frustrate any muckraker.

I keep my frustration level relatively low for the most part by keeping my expectations in line. To begin with, I've never had any particular end in mind with my blog; initially I set out to entertain and occasionally inform, and that's still pretty much my goal. I don't have any lofty goals such as trying to drive a particular scam or scammer out of business, despite the lunatic ranting of the stupidest man in Scamworld, Mocktor Leonard Coldwell, ex-b.f.f. of Trudeau. (Coldwell is making mighty -- and mighty comical -- efforts to bury me (as well as a few other bloggers) with SEO, but the Googles seem to be wise to his tricks for the most part. He can put up a thousand poorly written, repetitive, English-challenged blogs with the tag "sexual predator" (all in an effort to negate the buzz that Leonard Coldwell is a sexual predator)... he can get my content swallowed into irrelevant aggregation machines till the cows come home... and for that matter, he can make up all of the totally insane lies he wants to about me sexually harassing him and killing his dog... but I am not going away. I'll just keep on writing as it suits me. I'll keep my long, detailed posts about him right where they are and I will not even go out of my way to promote them. People do find their way here, it seems.)

One thing we can all do -- particularly where James Arthur "Death" Ray is concerned -- is to make sure that nobody ever forgets what he did. I've said this before and I will no doubt say it again. Do what you can to spread awareness: through social media, through blogging, through peaceful protest at live events. And if you are in the self-help industry, consider signing the pledge offered by SeekSafely, the organization founded by Kirby Brown's family. Very few have signed the pledge so far, and no "big names" have bothered to do so. There's a message there.

The blood moon was a little bit of razzle-dazzle that made us all look up to the sky for a while, but to everyone except the mystics and End-Timers it is old news now; the moon is in its waning phase and goodness knows that there are other, literally bloody things to occupy our attention down on the ground, the Ebola scare and war threats being just a few of them. Some have told me that there are more important things to worry about than a few dead followers of a New-Wage guru who has seen better days. To the loved ones of those followers, though, Death Lodge will never be old news. San Diego will never be old news. It's up to the rest of us to let all of them know that even though the media move on to the next big story, we will never forget. My heart goes out to the families of Kirby, James S., Liz... and Colleen.

Never forget.

Related on this Whirled:

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NAVEL-gazing with Lenny Coldwell: every health expo needs a keynote ranter

October 22, 2014, 8:41 pm

≫ Next: Kevin Trudeau: Government gets its wish, Katie sentenced to ten in the pen

≪ Previous: James Arthur Ray: Full blood moon

So there's this alt-health expo coming up in the Long Island, NY area this coming Sunday, October 26, 2014, at the Huntington Hilton in Melville. It's the 22nd NAVEL Wellness Expo, NAVEL being an acronym for Nutrition, Aesthetics, Vitality, Efficacy, Life. The man behind the NAVEL is one Alex Lubarsky, who also seems to be a long time friend and admirer of imprisoned serial scammer Kevin Trudeau, aka KT, aka Katie.

And guess who the keynote squeaker is going to be at the NAVEL Expo? Not-doctor Leonard Coldwell, the stupidest man in Scamworld, ex-b.f.f. of Katie, and nutcake extraordinaire.

Here's a PDF of the Expo magazine featuring Lenny. His story is on pages 14-15. You will note that the writer continually refers to Coldwell as a doctor, implying he has true medical expertise. But Coldwell is not a doctor; all of his "degrees" are from diploma mills, and his claims about being a medical doctor/naturopath back in Germany are unsubstantiated.


Purple prose about a pink-shirted little lunatic. The onstage pic of Coldwell was actually taken at a Kevin Trudeau GIN event; there's no evidence that Coldwell has ever been able to draw so large a crowd on his own merits.

The blurb in the speaker lineup (page 7) mentions Coldwell's story about curing his mommy of Stage IV liver cancer, but curiously enough, has no mention of the Hep C:

...Join renowned naturopath Dr. Leonard Coldwell, who is the author of 19 bestselling books, including The Only Answer to Cancer, who cured his own mother of Stage IV Liver Cancer when he was only 13 years old, as he shares how to regain power and control over your health and learn how to manage and eliminate pain in the most effective way.

Anyway. Some people were concerned that Alex Lubarsky might be compromising his business and personal credibility, and the greater message of natural cures and alt-health, by promoting Coldwell. A thread was initiated on the NAVEL Wellness Expo page on October 18. I did not initiate the thread but was one of the most enthusiastic participants, though of course not the only one. I wrote nothing that I haven't written on my very public blog and on the public Facebook forum GIN Network Truth. I stand by everything I write.

In response to the critical comments about Coldwell, Alex mounted a spirited defense of his choice of keynote speaker, and seemed to be more willing to focus on attacking the critics than to listening to their arguments. But at least Alex allowed dissent -- unlike his loony-tunes keynote speaker does on his forums -- for which I give Alex all due credit. Follow the link -- here it is again -- and you can read it all for yourself, since it is a public page. Be sure to expand all of the individual comments and all of the replies to those comments. (A shorter thread on the same topic also appears here.)

Lenny had a response to the discussion on the NAVEL Expo page as well. But he didn't take it to the small little corner of the NAVEL Expo page where the two threads appear (and I should stress that they do not show up on the main timeline; you have to look on the left-hand side of the page to find them, and you have to expand them to see all of the comments). Instead, Lenny took it to his own personal Facebook page, which has thousands of followers, and to his buddy Abe Husein's page. I have to hand it to Abe; even he seems to be getting sick of Coldwell's crazy rants. Rather than flooding you with more verbiage, here are some pretty pictures from October 19, 2914. Click to enlarge, of course.

You should be able to read Coldwell's post pretty clearly if you click on the picture and zoom in. But just in case you can't, here is a closeup of that post, with my personal data redacted.

On the same evening he posted that screed on his main page, Lenny posted two short porno fantasies on Abe Husein's page.

Facebook removed that post from Lenny's main page, in response to complaints from me and from a few of my friends. After I sent him a private message, Abe removed the shorter posts from his page. Good for Abe.

It's important to know that I have not and do not complain about every post Coldwell writes about me...
...only those that list my home address and phone number and that seem like clear attempts to get his craziest fans to deal with me. But the way Coldwell whines, you'd think that Facebook is just out to get him and that I'm behind a lot of that. And his fans eat that story up, not even questioning him. He has even falsely claimed that I have some sort of "connection" with Facebook and am responsible for getting his posts deleted and for Facebook's threats to ban him.

The truth is that I have had a hell of a time in the past getting Facebook to take down Coldwell's posts that endanger me. But this time Facebook actually responded, removing not only the October 19 post from Coldwell's main page, but also a long screed from July 17 and August 30 (Coldwell had also published my home address and private cell phone number on those two posts). In the past, Facebook had refused to remove them after several requests, but this time they did.

And it's about time.

Of course, Coldwell is whining about it now. This is from this evening, October 22:

Lenny, although you are trying every devious and dangerous way possible to shut me up, I actually fully support your right to free speech. I don't care how many wackadoodle "cures" you write about, how many crazy conspiracy theories you push, how many misogynistic or anti-Semitic or homophobic remarks you make on your social media pages. I don't report those to Facebook. I make fun of a lot of them but I don't report them.

I don't even care if you continue to promote that anti-Semitic nutcake "Brother Nathanael,"as you often do on your Facebooks. Presumably you share BroNate's vision of "an America that is Christian in its consciousness and wholesome in its culture" (and hates Jews, of course)... although putting you and "wholesome" in the same thought cycle is kind of a stretch.

Heck, I don't even care if you call mean AIDS-infected prostitute/tumor on society who's being paid by Big Pharma to discredit you; or if you say I am sexually obsessed with you and that I killed your dog because you rejected me, although much of that is the type of defamatory speech that is clearly not protected by your cherished First Amendment. But the truth is that all of those silly, childish, junior-high lies just make you look stupider, crazier, and less credible. You're hanging yourself with them.

I do, however, care when you post my personal information and invite your crazy fans to "get in touch with me."Because when you do that, you are endangering me. And I will continue to report each and every one of those posts as they are made known to me (of course I cannot see them myself, since you have me blocked).

I will also continue to complain to Facebook when you post pictures of my friends, such as Bernie O'Mahony, and falsely accuse them of being child rapists.

Even as I fully support your right to (most) hate speech and crazy talk, though, I fully support my own right -- and that of other critics -- to say something about your hate speech and crazy talk, and to ask questions about your phony credentials, dodgy past, and unbelievable cure claims.

In other words, Lenny, I have just as much of a right to be here as you -- perhaps even more, since I'm not a scammer or alleged predator. And I am not going to shut up. I am not going to go away.

As for you, Alex, I wish you well with your health expo. Let's just hope your loony little keynoter doesn't alienate too many audience members. Try keeping him away from the bourbon, at least until after his speech is over.

More LoonyC, if you can stand it...
A five-part Whirled series that most likely inspired some of Lenny's latest and lamest SEO efforts:

Part 1 -- Coldwell rolls out hilarious new bio site, tightens rope around his own neck(published 30 June 2014)
Part 2 -- Leonard Coldwell's medical lackground and other hilarities from his new Bio website (published 4 August 2014)
Part 3 -- Sound and fury, Sturm und Drang: Leonard Coldwell's meaningless bluster (published 7 August 2014)
Part 4 -- Leonard Coldwell: The facts don't matter if the story is good (published 16 August 2014)
Part 5 -- Leonard Coldwell: stupid and dangerous, or simply stupid?(published 19 August 2014)

The story of how I did NOT kill Lenny's pit bull dog Blue, but got blamed for it anyway (how crazy is that?):

Leonard Coldwell goes too far: lies about me poisoning his dog(originally published 16 July, 2014, with several updates)
Blue dies, Coldwell lies, crazy minions terrorize(published 5 September, 2014)

OMT...
My favorite doc blogger Orac (Dr. David Gorski) finally wrote a full post on Lenny (who previously had only been mentioned in the comments section of one of his cancer-quack posts).

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Kevin Trudeau: Government gets its wish, Katie sentenced to ten in the pen

March 17, 2014, 2:42 pm

≫ Next: Kevin Trudeau freed from jail! (sort of)

≪ Previous: NAVEL-gazing with Lenny Coldwell: every health expo needs a keynote ranter

Deets later, but for now, here's the Chicago NBC story:
http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/tv-pitchman-kevin-trudeau-sentencing-250594051.html

Yep, despite his pleas for mercy and some last-minute histrionics, as noted on this Whirled the other day -- and despite his numerous Facebook postings about the miraculous changes he'd undergone since being caged (here's just one of many, many examples), on March 17, Kevin Trudeau was sentenced by Judge Ronald Guzman to ten years in Federal prison.

Good thing I am not a betting woman, because this sentence did take me a little bit by surprise. But not a whole lot by surprise, considering that the court has been granting the government pretty much everything they'd requested so far, and their latest request had been for a ten-year minimum sentence.

Also not surprising was that former GIN member Abe Husein, the self-proclaimed GIN destroyer, was all over this, as was his mentor (or Dementor) Loony Coldwell, with the rumor that the FBI is going to send other speakers to prison as well. If that is true, I have a great suggestion about where they could start. Just saying.

As for the scuttlebutt about grizzled old former Congressman Ed Foreman, a long time friend, supporter and enabler of Trudeau, early buzz was that he was forcibly restrained by Federal marshals and then escorted out of the courtroom because he lunged at the judge. He was reportedly arrested. But that's not even remotely the same as being sent to prison for being part of the fraud, as reported in the screen shot above.

This Chicago ABC story has a vid that mentions the disruption by Foreman and says he will probably be issued a citation and have to pay a $150 fine.

UPDATE later on:This Chicago Sun-Times piece notes that it was a $175 ticket.

The courtroom was packed with Trudeau’s supporters. During arguments, one of them, a former congressman from Texas, tried to address the judge. The judge told him to sit down, and he did, but later on he spoke out again and was carried out by federal marshals. Ed Foreman, 80, of Dallas, got a $175 ticket, according to Randall Samborn, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s office.

In a piece for the Chicago Tribune, reporter Jason Meisner, who has been providing excellent coverage of the courtroom proceedings, wrote:

... As Guzman was questioning one of Trudeau’s attorneys, an elderly supporter suddenly stood in the front row of the audience and bellowed, “Judge, I am a former U.S. congressman!” before being ordered to sit down.
After another outburst a few minutes later, the man, later identified as Ed Foreman, 80, of Dallas, was ordered to leave the courtroom. He refused, and when security officers tried to stand Foreman up, he went limp and was eventually carried out as other spectators shouted in protest.
“You are not entitled to disrupt the proceedings,” Guzman told the remaining audience members, some of whom sobbed loudly. “I urge you to simply keep quiet and listen.”
Foreman, a former Congressman who represented districts in Texas and New Mexico four decades ago, was ticketed for creating a disturbance, a petty offense payable by a $150 fine and court fees, officials said. According to his website, he is a motivational speaker who has previously touted Trudeau’s Global Information Network, touted as an international club that charges membership fees in exchange for success “secrets.”

I'll let the mainstream journos fight it out over whether Ed is going to have to pay $150 or $175. But in any case, some of us have been snarking about ol' Ed for a while. It's good to see the journos catching up to the bloggers.

Again, though, I can easily think of other GIN speakers and former speakers who are much more deserving of being thrown in jail -- or thrown out of the U.S. for good.

Just saying. [Update added March 20: Here's Ed, saying he has no regrets.]

And now for old times sake, here's ol' Ed and Katie cutting a rug at the birthday party of Kevin's now estranged wife Natalie Babenko at a Global Information Network "Family Reunion" in the Bahamas a few years ago. Oh, those crazy young people. Here's the album from which the pics were taken.*

Meanwhile, in the civil case...
The next court hearing for Katie is in Judge Robert Gettleman's civil court on Wednesday, March 19. There the court-appointed receiver will present their latest bill, and the FTC will continue to argue that Katie is a liar who belongs in jail. (Here is a link to two documents filed on March 14: the receiver's summary of the expensive things they have been doing for the past couple of months; and the FTC's latest Kevin-is-a-liar summation.) I am not including all of the exhibits because they would make the file 28 MB.

At this point, of course, the FTC is preaching to the choir. It remains to be seen whether Judge Gettleman will end Katie's civil contempt jailhouse stay so he can start serving the criminal sentence. The fate of GIN may or may not be decided on that day too. This is from the Receiver's Third Report, filed today (March 17):

Operations of the Global Information Network (GIN)
The Receiver, working with company management in Westmont, Ill, has continued to operate GIN profitably and lawfully.

On March 17, 2014 the Receiver will announce that it is now prepared to consider letters of intent from potential purchasers of GIN’s assets which include the membership list and any intellectual property that may exist. The Receiver’s announcement will state that any letters of intent must be submitted by March 28, 2014. Thereafter, the Receiver will negotiate a purchase agreement with the prospective buyer and will submit any such agreement to this Court for its consideration.

Here is a link to the Receiver's Third Report. Among other things you will learn that one of the Katie entities, Trustar Productions Inc., invested in a failed movie project called Hellbenders. As my friend Tim noted in a Facebook conversation, "even kt gets ripped off by kt ventures." Well, yeah. It just goes to show what an expert ripoff artist Katie is.

What I think about the ten-year sentence
If you've been following this blog for the past year or so you won't be surprised to know that I am ambivalent about the sentence. Trudeau is without question a serial scammer and has been scamming most of his life. And of course I have been writing about this for years. I understand the criminal and civil judges' reasoning, the prosecutors' reasoning, the FTC's reasoning. I've read most of the relevant court documents in both the civil and criminal cases. The FTC and the prosecutors laid out a strong case. And I'm sure their case will be made even clearer to those of us on the sidelines when the Pre-Sentence Investigation (PSI) reports are unsealed.

I also understand why those who have lost money, time, and energy to Trudeau's scams feel that this is a victory. I understand why most (though not all) of my fellow critical bloggers and supporters feel it's a victory too. Most of them think I'm pretty off-base for feeling that ten years in the clink, even for Katie, is excessive.

But I have always felt -- and have stated numerous times on this blog -- that putting a nonviolent scammer in a cage for years and years isn't right. I wish there were some way our justice system could legally, non-violently and effectively protect the public from Katie without caging him.

And when I think of how killers such as James Arthur Ray served less than two years for killing three people in his phony sweat lodge... well, something seems off kilter. Or when I consider some of the loathsome scammers and alleged predators whom Trudeau unleashed on the world, who have yet to even be charged of anything, say nothing of be tried, convicted, sentenced.... it makes me think our justice system is really broken.

I'm also uncomfortable about the fact that someone can be jailed indefinitely for contempt. That's a whole other issue and also points to problems in our justice system.

On the other hand, Trudeau is a serial scammer, deceptive to the core, as the judge put it. And as my guy Ron noted, "In my opinion, the only way to stop Trudeau from scamming was to put him in a cage to give the people he entrusted with hiding his money enough time to turn on him and leave him genuinely broke, as he left so many others.The criminal justice system is first and foremost there to protect society, and this is the only way to protect society from Trudeau."

So it may be a "victory," but it's one that leaves me wondering if justice is really being served. At the very least, Trudeau isn't the only one who should be donning an orange jumpsuit.

PS added 18 March ~My pal Bernie at GINtruth weighs in on the sentence and other related matters.

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Kevin Trudeau freed from jail! (sort of)

March 19, 2014, 5:35 pm

≫ Next: Kevin Trudeau released to custody of his parents

≪ Previous: Kevin Trudeau: Government gets its wish, Katie sentenced to ten in the pen

Ha. Made you look, didn't I?

Another hearing was held today, March 19, regarding serial scammer Kevin Trudeau's civil case. And indeed, Judge Gettleman signed an order suspending Katie's coercive incarceration on the civil matter.

Obviously the court decided they aren't going to shake any money or info out of him, though they've been trying for months and months. That whole "coercive incarceration" thing has yielded little more than huge receiver bills and a series of schlocky Facebook posts from Katie's long-time associate, former co-defendant, and ex-squeeze, Janine Nubani Contursi (who reportedly admitted in open court today that she is the one writing those stupid posts, although I've yet to confirm that from a credible source).

So Judge Gettleman suspended the civil incarceration.

But don't be too quick to either celebrate or become outraged. The only reason His Honor suspended this cage gig is so Trudeau can begin serving his ten-year criminal sentence, which was imposed this past Monday, March 17. Here's a closeup (click to enlarge):

So for Katie, it's out one cage and in the other. Moreover, as soon as he is released from prison on the criminal case -- whenever that may be -- he has to report to Judge Gettleman's court (or whoever is there in the judge's place) so the court can determine if he needs to be thrown back in jail for the CIVIL case. While he is serving his criminal sentence he doesn't have to appear in court for future hearings.

The next status hearing regarding the receivership and other matters is scheduled for June 27, 2014 at 10:00 AM.

Some of the GIN destroyers who so deeply long for that neat and tidy movie-script ending are crowing that GIN is finally, finally, finally dead. Well... not so fast.
I wasn't in court today so, obviously, I don't know what was said there, but so far nothing has been posted on PACER that contradicts the information in the receiver's March 17report, which says that they plan to sell the GIN intellectual property and that there are several interested buyers. The court has to approve, of course.

After that the buyers, presumably, can do what they want with it. They can continue to call it GIN or they can re-name and completely re-brand, and even create new content based on the content for which they have bought the rights. For many folks, though, the dream won't die, and there are other similar "clubs" and "master's societies" that are a ripoff of GIN. Some of them are run by characters as shady as Katie, or worse.

Speaking of which, Ohio's Perry Kiraly -- former high-level GIN member, former Intervenor in Katie's civil case, and now founding honcho (along with Scientologist Yon Cole) of a new GIN ripoff called World Information Network (WIN) -- sent out another update on the evening of Trudeau's sentencing. Not one word did he say about his former fearless leader being sentenced to a decade in lockup. But he did reiterate his great flopportunity, discussed previously here.

From: Perry Kiraly
Date: March 17, 2014 at 9:39:04 PM EDT
To: undisclosed-recipients

Subject: WIN Update - Announcements 03-17-14

WIN Update: Perry Kiraly

March 17, 2014

Dear WIN Members & Supporters,
WIN has two new extraordinary announcements.

First, the opportunity to purchase the FIVE YEAR THREE PERCENT OF MEMBERSHIP GROSS SALES UNITS is being extended until the end of this month.

Second, in recognition of the extraordinary commitment by those former GIN members known as Inner Circle, WIN intends to initiate an exclusive gross membership sales offering after WIN’s official site launch on or about May 1st 2014 for former Inner Circle Members who have participated in this offering.

This opportunity for the purchase of units and participation in the exclusive Inner Circle offer will be made available for 14 more days until March 31st 2014. All payments must be received or in route and verified via tracking number by March 31st 2014. The computation for payment on this offer will begin on April 1st 2014.

200 "Units" total were made available for purchase at $2,000.00 per unit through a Private Placement Memorandum on March 9th 2014. Units are still available for purchase but purchase requests come in daily and once the 200 total is reached no further units can legally be sold from this offer.

Each "unit" will pay the purchaser of that unit or units a share of 3% of the gross sales of the World Information Network Foundation LTD (WIN) for the next five years. This five-year period will be extended, if necessary, until a minimum total of 500% or $10,000.00 is paid back on each $2,000.00 unit purchased. During the initial five year period this percentage could exceed 500% depending on the growth of the club. A more detailed grid of the payout based on membership growth is in the Private Placement Memorandum (PPM) that will be sent to you upon request.

Be sure and email WIN before March 31st 2014 at [email redacted] to receive the Private Placement Memorandum necessary to purchase units or call [phone number redacted] for further details or questions. WIN’s attorney is also available for any questions regarding this offer.
WIN is just getting started. It is the vehicle that will take our club into the future. It is the vehicle backed and driven by the best this club has known up to this point.

Be, Do, & Have is the process we were trained in and that process has begun. WIN now is. It exists, and you and I and all of its supporters know what we intend this club to Be.

We are now at the Do stage and funding is an integral part of that doing. It is the accelerating catalyst that will move us toward our goal quickly. Our goal - the continuation of creating a club dedicated to providing the tools, training, events and gatherings that will enable all that make use of them, the ability to dream again, create whatever life they choose, and recognize what truly powerful Beings they are.

Come to present time and take advantage of this opportunity to play your part as a Founding Member in the ongoing creation of the highest ideals upon which our club began and the ultimate creation of the best club on the planet.
Then we will Have - and not just us but all of those that join our club in the future and utilize what we’ve initiated here, to change their lives and change the world.

Thank you,
Perry Kiraly

So, GIN or no GIN, Scamworld will go on. Those of you who need to join a club and throw large amounts of money down a hole in order to feel special can take your pick of several flopportunities.

And meanwhile, Katie sleeps peacefully in a cell somewhere, content to trust in "Devine Timing" (could this have something to do with his long-time buddy from the Hybrid Group?)... while Janine natters on and on and on, and Nelson Mandela rolls over in his grave.

PS ~ It appears that some of the mainstream journos are finally starting to see the comedy gold in Janine-as-Katie's silly Facebook posts, which I've been throwing potshots at since November. Here's NBC5 Chicago's Phil Rogers, for instance.
And here's my first post about the silliness (19 November 2013), including (later on, in the comments section) some lyrics that seem more appropriate now than ever. And here, just in time for last year's Xmas holidays, is a tale of a seasonal miracle.

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