Kevin Trudeau, Pitchman For ‘Natural Cures,’ Sentenced to 10 Years In Prison

Kevin Trudeau, the infomercial pitchman who ceaselessly hawked his books of purported weight loss, wealth and health secrets that “‘they’ don’t want you to know,” was sentenced to 10 years in prison Monday by a federal judge who condemned him as “deceitful to the core.”

U.S. District Judge Ronald Guzman sentenced Kevin Trudeau on federal contempt charges — which rarely carry a sentence as long as 10 years — because Trudeau continued his fraudulent infomercials even after a federal court in 2004 ordered that he stop.

“He has treated federal court orders as if they were mere suggestions…or at most impediments to be sidestepped, outmaneuvered or just ignored,” Guzman said. “That type of conduct simply cannot stand.”

Trudeau was already in prison and has been incarcerated since November, when a federal jury convicted him of contempt for lying about his book The Weight Loss Cure “They” Don’t Want You To Know About. A court earlier ordered him to cease making and broadcasting infomercials claiming that the weight loss program outlined in the book required very little effort.

In fact, the program outlined by Trudeau required extreme restrictions on calories and food types — not easy by anyone’s standards.

But even with the court order, Kevin Trudeau, continued the infomercials.

The weight loss book alone made Kevin Trudeau $39 million. The book was also the subject of a civil judgement against Trudeau, ordering him to pay $37 million in fines. Trudeau claimed that he could not pay the fins because he was broke.

But at the time he was pleading poverty, he paid $359 for a single haircut and owned $100,000 in gold bars, which he claimed to have lost

After four months in prison, a haggard Kevin Trudeau Monday told the judge he was remorseful and had become changed.

“If I ever write a book again, if I ever do another infomercial again, I promise no embellishment, no puffery and absolutely no lies,” said the 51-year-old Kevin Trudeau in federal District Court in Chicago. “I know going forward I will be a better person.”

But Guzman wasn’t buying it, saying that Trudeau “has attempted to cheat others for his own personal gain” since the age of 25.

Among other books by Kevin Trudeau, which have also sold in the millions, are such titles as Natural Cures “They” Don’t Want You to Know About and Debt Cures “They” Don’t Want You to Know About.

Even though Kevin Trudeau was ordered to stop airing his infomercials in 2004, prosecutors said he broadcast 32,000 of them anyway.