--- description: The judge called Trudeau "deceitful to the core" at sentencing Monday, after the author violated a 2004 court order prohibiting him from running misleading ads for his bestseller "The Weight Loss Cure 'They Don't Want You To Know About" title: Infomercial scam artist Kevin Trudeau is going to federal prison for 10 years image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf5137607062f2e6a/698685f413c79facc0191163/112818158.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [U.S.](/section/us/) ## U.S. Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Infomercial Star Kevin Trudeau Jailed For 10 Years by [Laura Stampler](/author/laura-stampler/) ## Laura Stampler Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Mar 18, 2014 12:43 PM CUT  Kevin Trudeau walks through the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse in Chicago, Illinois Kevin Trudeau walks through the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse in Chicago, IllinoisChicago Tribune/Getty Images by [Laura Stampler](/author/laura-stampler/) ## Laura Stampler Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Mar 18, 2014 12:43 PM CUT Too-good-to-be-true TV infomercial star and best-selling author Kevin Trudeau was sentenced to [10 years in federal prison](http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/tv-pitchman-kevin-trudeau-10-year-sentence-22947552 "undefined") Monday for defrauding millions of people with a phony weight-loss book. “Since the age of 25, \[Trudeau\] has attempted to cheat others for his own personal gain,” [U.S. District Judge Ronald Guzman said at the 51-year-old’s sentencing Monday](http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/17/justice/illinois-pitch-man/ "undefined"), adding that the scam artist was “deceitful to the core.” A jury convicted Trudeau for violating a 2004 court order that prohibited him from running misleading ads for his bestseller _The Weight Loss Cure ‘They Don’t Want You To Know About_, which encouraged 500-calorie-a-day diets and hormone treatments. In spite of the order, Trudeau reportedly ran infomercials for the book 32,000 times. The _NYT_ bestseller sold 850,000 copies and created $39 million in revenue, but when Trudeau was fined $37 million he claimed to be broke — and that he didn’t know where he put [$100,000 in gold bars he bought](http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/03/17/kevin-trudeau-sentenced/6546433/ "undefined"). While Trudeau’s defense claimed that the 10-year sentencing over a $30 book was “overblown and unfair”, Guzman noted that the huckster had been violating similar court orders since the 90’s. Trudeau sold millions of other books including _Debt Cures ‘They’ Don’t Want You to Know About_ and _Natural Cures ‘They’ Don’t Want You to Know About_ and was fined $2 million by the FTC for claiming that [Coral Calcium could cure cancer.](http://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2009/01/judge-orders-kevin-trudeau-pay-more-37-million-false-claims-about "undefined") Trudeau’s attorneys plan to appeal the case. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/28469/infomercial-star-kevin-trudeau-jailed-for-10-years/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/28469/infomercial-star-kevin-trudeau-jailed-for-10-years/"},"headline":"Infomercial Star Kevin Trudeau Jailed For 10 Years","datePublished":"2014-03-18T12:43:05.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T06:49:14.665Z","description":"The judge called Trudeau \"deceitful to the core\" at sentencing Monday, after the author violated a 2004 court order prohibiting him from running misleading ads for his bestseller \"The Weight Loss Cure 'They Don't Want You To Know About\"","url":"https://time.com/28469/infomercial-star-kevin-trudeau-jailed-for-10-years/","keywords":["Crime","scam"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf5137607062f2e6a/698685f413c79facc0191163/112818158.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Laura Stampler","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/laura-stampler/"}],"articleSection":"U.S.","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf5137607062f2e6a/698685f413c79facc0191163/112818158.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Kevin Trudeau","caption":"Kevin Trudeau","creditText":"Chicago Tribune/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/us/","name":"U.S."}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/28469/infomercial-star-kevin-trudeau-jailed-for-10-years/","name":"Infomercial Star Kevin Trudeau Jailed For 10 Years"}}]}] ```