Pitchman Behind Bars, but His Infomercials Play On

Kevin Trudeau still hawking dubious books on late-night TV
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 28, 2014 1:21 AM CDT
Updated Apr 28, 2014 6:32 AM CDT
With Pitchman Behind Bars, Infomercials Play On
In this Oct. 28, 2013 photo, television infomercial pitchman Kevin Trudeau speaks to the media after leaving the Metropolitan Correctional Center in downtown Chicago.    (AP Photo/Sun-Times Media, Michael Jarecki)

Infomercial pitchman Kevin Trudeau is serving a 10-year sentence for fraud, but some of the commercials he stars in are still at large and can be seen on late-night TV across the country. In one ad still airing, he hawks a book called "Free Money 'They' Don't Want You to Know About," the Chicago Tribune reports. "I just couldn't believe it," one surprised viewer says. "Wasn't this guy in prison for doing the exact same thing? It was just very, very strange." Any royalties that Trudeau, who was jailed for lying in ads for a weight-loss book, receives from the ads will be held by the government and put in a trust to help pay off a $37 million fine levied against him.

Trudeau has also kept his Facebook page active since his sentencing, and regularly compares himself to civil rights leaders. "Had a great night's sleep after the sentencing!" he wrote in a post last month. "Mandela got 28 years, I was blessed to get only 10." He claims he is so broke that he can't even afford the $500 filing fee for an appeal against his sentence, though he lived a lavish lifestyle before being sent to prison and prosecutors suspect he still has millions stashed in accounts around the world, ABC reports. (More Kevin Trudeau stories.)

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