1

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS

EASTERN DIVISION

FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION, )

Plaintiff, )

)

v. ) Civil Action No. 03-C-3904

)

KEVIN TRUDEAU, ) Honorable Robert W. Gettleman

Defendant. )

DEFENDANT KEVIN TRUDEAU’S RESPONSE IN OPPOSITION TO THE FTC’S 

POST-HEARING BRIEF IN SUPPORT OF ITS CONTEMPT MOTION

The relief sought be the FTC is neither proper nor supported by the evidence. The FTC 

asks the Court to incarcerate Trudeau until one of following conditions is met: (1) Trudeau pays 

the FTC $37.6 million or (2) Trudeau completes a full accounting and turns over all of his assets. 

The FTC does not maintain – nor could it – that Trudeau has $37.6 million to pay to the FTC. 

Nobody seriously believes that. Instead, the FTC argues that because Trudeau has failed to 

prove beyond any doubt that he cannot pay some amount greater than zero, the Court should 

incarcerate him until he pays the entire $37.6 million. That is not, and cannot be, a proper 

remedy for civil contempt. Instead, it is unlawful debtor’s prison. 

Recognizing the absurdity of its first request, the FTC offers the Court a second option.1

 

But this option does not justify imprisonment unless and until Trudeau refuses to cooperate with 

a third-party accounting. To incarcerate Trudeau is not permitted for civil contempt. To date, 

Trudeau has proposed such an accounting (which the FTC prior to its filing on July 15 had 

refused) (see Ex. 28), has undertaken an expedited third party accounting (which the FTC 

incredibly argues is not admissible and should not be considered by the Court), and has even 

 1

 The FTC states that it offers three options, but the third – the Court finds that incarceration no 

longer serves its coercive purpose – is not a purge condition.

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gone so far as to suggest that the Court appoint a receiver to oversee his financial matters. Yet, 

astonishingly, the FTC maintains that he should be imprisoned because maybe, down the road, 

he will decide to stop cooperating with an accounting, and incarceration is the only way to 

coerce him to cooperate with an accounting which has not commenced. But, incarceration to 

deter future misconduct is a remedy for criminal contempt, not civil contempt. See In Re Grand 

Jury Proceedings, 280 F.3d 1103, 1107 (7th Cir. 2002) (“A contempt order is considered . . . 

criminal if its purpose is to . . . deter future misconduct.”)

The absurdity of the FTC’s relief position is apparent on its face. But, the FTC 

complicates matters further by putting conditions on the accounting which entirely places the 

keys to the prison in the accountant’s and the FTC’s hands. The FTC does not address this 

problem at all. Who decides if Trudeau has cooperated with the accountant? By what criteria? 

What if he asserts his Fifth Amendment privilege during an interview?2

 

Trudeau has already proposed and agrees with the FTC’s suggestion – which should have 

been made a year ago – that the Court (or the parties) select an appropriately qualified 

independent accounting firm to complete a full accounting of Trudeau’s assets. Trudeau should 

not and cannot be incarcerated while the accounting takes place unless and until the FTC proves 

and the Court finds that Trudeau has somehow failed to cooperate with the accounting. To do 

otherwise would be criminal punishment to deter future misconduct.

I. ARGUMENT

A. Trudeau Does Not Have $37.6 Million, And Therefore He Cannot Be 

Incarcerated Until He Pays That Sum.

The FTC’s request that Trudeau be incarcerated until he pays the full $37.6 million 

judgment is not tenable because compliance is impossible. There is no evidence to support the 

 2 The FTC seems to be suggesting that Trudeau may be imprisoned until he decides to waive his 

Fifth Amendment rights. The Court cannot impose those conditions.

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conclusion that Trudeau presently has (or ever had) $37.6 million. The FTC’s evidence of 

available assets – even after the voluminous discovery that it took – comes nowhere close to 

establishing that Trudeau has $37.6 million with which he could pay the judgment. 

The FTC acknowledged that Trudeau never received the $37.6 million on which the 

judgment entered in this case was based. (Ex. 48, 10/20/08 Tr. at 27:24-28:1 ( “We do not 

dispute that of that amount the record shows that Mr. Trudeau has only actually received the 

close to $2 million figure.”); Docket No. 267 at 11 (“[T]he amount of consumer loss is 

significantly greater than any estimate of Trudeau’s ill-gotten gains[.]”); Docket No. 161, 

7/25/08 Tr. at 267 (“Now, we are not saying he has received that money from ITV. The 

evidence we have is that he has not.”). And the FTC never once points to any current assets 

totaling anywhere near that figure in its briefs, in its findings of fact, or in any of its exhibits. 

(See generally Docket Nos. 713 & 716.) Instead of showing present assets, the FTC’s evidence 

centers almost exclusively on money spent. (E.g., Docket No. 716 at 8-10, 13.) And the FTC 

repeatedly argues that Trudeau’s inability to pay is self-induced, virtually conceding that 

Trudeau does not have a present ability to pay $37.6 million (or any amount for that matter). 

(Id. at 3-4, 13.)

In addition, the Court has not found that Trudeau has $37.6 million available to satisfy 

the judgment. Indeed, the Court in the past referred to the $37.6 million figure as “rather 

Draconian,” which is consistent with the fact that Trudeau never received the money. (Docket 

No. 161, 7/25/08 Tr. at 354-55 (“[T]o say that everybody who bought this book should be given 

a refund strikes me as a bit overdoing it[.]”).)

Trudeau spent a great deal of time in his brief explaining that no such assets exist. 

(Docket No. 710 at 8-12, 18-19.) Trudeau has been forced to try to prove a negative (a nearly 

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impossible task), and has attempted in good faith to show the Court that he is unable to pay the 

gargantuan judgment against him. The FTC has not attacked the veracity of the evidence, but 

rather indicates that it is “incomplete” without providing its own evidence in rebuttal. (E.g., 

Docket No. 716 at 7-8.) The Court should not acquiesce to the FTC’s persistent demands of 

incarceration when the FTC has not provided this Court with any affirmative evidence of 

presently available funds. Trudeau simply does not have $37.6 million available to pay the 

judgment in this case, and the FTC cannot and does not seriously maintain that he does. As a 

result, the FTC’s request that Trudeau be incarcerated until he pays the full $37.6 million 

judgment is invalid on its face.

B. Incarcerating Trudeau To Ensure That He Cooperates With A Prospective 

Accounting Is Not A Proper Remedy.

The FTC argues that, as an alternative to incarcerating Trudeau until he pays the full 

$37.6 million judgment, the Court should incarcerate Trudeau until a full accounting is 

completed and all available assets are turned over to the FTC. But, this “relief” is criminal 

punishment and is falsely presuming that Trudeau will not cooperate with an accounting that he 

has already proposed and tried to complete without the cooperation of the FTC. The FTC asks 

the Court to incarcerate Trudeau not because he has failed to cooperate with an accounting, but 

because he might refuse to do so in the future. Clearly, such an approach is not appropriate in 

civil contempt. See In Re Grand Jury Proceedings, 280 F.3d at 1107. Furthermore, while 

liberty can be taken away in certain circumstances, it is never taken away lightly. In criminal 

cases, an individual is not deprived of his or her liberty until a jury of twelve of the defendant’s 

peers finds that the individual is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt – a very high standard of 

proof. Yet the FTC essentially argues that Trudeau should be imprisoned because at some point 

in the future he might decide not to comply with the Court’s order for a third-party accounting. 

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The FTC’s argument is reckless and is not a proper remedy here even if the Court finds Trudeau 

in contempt for failing to pay the judgment.

Also, as Trudeau has argued countless times, coercive incarceration is only appropriate 

when the defendant carries the keys to his own prison, i.e. has the means to get himself out of 

prison as soon as he complies. Gompers v. Buck’s Stove & Range Co., 221 U.S. 418, 442 

(1911). But the FTC asks the Court to incarcerate Trudeau and put the keys to the prison in a 

third-party accountant’s hands. This begs the question: if Trudeau is civilly incarcerated for 

contempt as the FTC requests, what can he do to purge that contempt and be released from 

prison? The answer, according to the FTC, is that he can do nothing to gain his freedom except 

wait. In other words, Trudeau must be incarcerated indefinitely as the FTC continues to 

investigate Trudeau’s finances. The FTC’s proposal thus invites the Court to ignore the 

boundaries of civil contempt and punish Trudeau. 

The FTC’s argument for incarceration until a full accounting is completed is 

disingenuous given the fact that Trudeau specifically offered a full independent accounting 

several months ago, which the FTC refused. (See Ex. 28.) On May 10, 2013, counsel for 

Trudeau emailed the FTC to discuss the manner in which Trudeau could purge a possible 

contempt finding. (Id.) Counsel understood that the “FTC’s position in the event of a contempt 

finding would be that Trudeau must provide a complete accounting of his assets, including any 

entities that the court finds that he controls . . . .” (Id.) Trudeau then agreed to provide such an 

accounting, and asked the FTC to provide a list of entities that the FTC would want included in 

the accounting along with a list of any accountants/auditors who could perform this work. (Id.) 

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The FTC, however, refused to engage with counsel for Trudeau regarding this plan.3

 And yet, 

now this is precisely what the FTC asks from this Court. 

Trudeau suggests that the Court order an accounting to determine what sum of money 

could be paid and then incarcerate Trudeau only if he fails to pay that sum (or specifically fails 

to comply with a legal obligation imposed by the Court in connection with the accounting). In 

FTC v. Leshin, a case that this Court found instructive and specifically asked the parties to 

review, the court ordered the defendant to pay an amount that the court found that the defendant 

was then able to pay, or else face jail time. -- F.3d --, 2013 WL 2420363, at *1 (11th Cir. June 

5, 2013). In other words, the court first determined the amount of money that the defendant was 

affirmatively able to pay, and only then threatened jail time if that amount was not paid. Leshin

undercuts the FTC’s “incarcerate now, sort out the finances later” approach. 

C. The Court Should Proceed Under The FDCPA

The appropriate path towards final resolution in this case is to proceed under the Federal 

Debt Collection Procedures Act (“FDCPA”). The FTC concedes in its brief that this Court may 

proceed with collection of the judgment in this case under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 69

and the FDCPA, but argues that the Court should ignore the FDCPA, and instead proceed only 

under the Court’s contempt power. (Docket No. 716 at 15-17.) But the FDCPA, which is the 

“exclusive civil procedures for the United States to . . . recover a judgment on a debt,” provides 

important protections to debtors, including notice of their rights, procedures for putting liens on 

property, exemptions for certain property, and limitations on garnishment of their salary as just a 

 3 When the FTC refused to identify the entities it wished to be included in a third party 

accounting, or provide a list of acceptable accountants/auditors, Trudeau sought to provide his 

own accounting of his assets in hopes of satisfying the FTC’s request for an accounting. (Ex. 

55.) Now, incredibly, that FTC argues that this report is inadmissible and the Court should 

disregard it.

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few examples. See generally 28 U.S.C. § 3001 et seq. The FTC cites no authority for the 

proposition that it is entitled to run rough-shod over those rights. To be sure, the FDCPA does 

not eviscerate a federal court’s contempt powers. It is equally certain, however, that the FDCPA 

does not allow the FTC or a court exercising its contempt powers to eviscerate a debtor’s 

statutory rights. Where, as here, civil contempt sanctions such as fines and incarceration would 

be wholly inappropriate and ineffective, the FDCPA provides a fair and methodical way to 

collect the judgment, thus bringing order to the years of chaos in this case.4

D. Trudeau Should Not Be Held In Contempt Because He Has Shown An 

Inability To Pay And The FTC Has Failed To Meet Its Burden To Show 

That Trudeau Has The Ability To Pay Any Specific Sum Of Money.

1. Trudeau’s Evidence Meets His Burden of Production.

Trudeau has met his burden of production to show inability to pay, and the FTC’s 

argument to the contrary focuses on issues that are completely irrelevant. According to the FTC: 

(1) Trudeau offered no evidence demonstrating that he does not control certain corporate entities, 

(2) Trudeau’s financial records are incomplete and drawn from a self-selected subset of the 

entities, (3) the expert report of Mary O’Connor is inadmissible and does not prove inability to 

pay, and (4) Trudeau does not explain where corporate and personal assets have gone. But none 

of these arguments wins the day. 

First, Trudeau has offered evidence demonstrating that he does not legally control the 

entities that the FTC has identified as so-called “Trudeau-Affiliated Entities,” but regardless of 

who controls the entities, Trudeau has shown that the companies control no appreciable assets. 

In his initial brief opposing the FTC’s contempt motion, Trudeau explained that he does not 

 4 The FTC also argues that execution against Trudeau’s assets is not “feasible.” (Docket No. 

716 at 18.) The FTC has not even tried to attach to any of Trudeau’s assets to date, and therefore 

has no basis to claim that it is not practical. 

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legally control the various corporate entities, and that they are actually legally owned and 

controlled by others. (Docket No. 508 at 4-8.) As the FTC admits, Trudeau is not the legal 

owner, officer or director of the majority of these entities, and his name is not on nor is he a 

signer for the majority of the bank accounts. (See, e.g., Docket No. 481-1 at 5-6, PX 2 (Att. A & 

B).) Through Trudeau in a practical sense does exercise some influence over these companies, 

the fact of the matter is that the actual owners, officers and directors of these companies could 

tell Trudeau to “take a hike” at any time and he would have no recourse.5

 The FTC has never 

argued otherwise. But regardless of whether the Court believes that Trudeau controls these 

entities, Trudeau provided the Court with ample evidence that the companies have no net assets, 

and therefore any alleged control of the entities is irrelevant since there is nothing to pay over to 

the FTC. (Docket No. 710 at 8-12, 17-18.) 

Second, the FTC argues that Trudeau has produced “incomplete” financial records drawn 

from a “self-selected” subset of the entities. This position is untenable given that Trudeau 

offered to move forward with a third-party accounting with the FTC’s cooperation (and by the 

FTC’s rules – the FTC was offered the chance to pick the accountant/auditor and to choose the 

companies that would be included in the accounting), and the FTC’s outright refused. (See supra

at 1-2, 4-5.) Moreover, Trudeau’s evidence is not “incomplete.” Trudeau submitted a sworn 

financial statement outlining all of his assets and liabilities, and provided this Court with an 

accounting by a third-party accounting firm, Sikich LLP, regarding the assets of a dozen 

 5 See Ex. 50, 6/26/13 Tr. at 110:23-111:4, 112:10-13 (“I fully understood at that time that this 

was a bona fide arrangement whereby Ms. Babenko would in fact own this company not as 

anybody’s nominee, but in her own right and based upon her own capabilities.”), 113:4-10 (“Q: 

[D]o you know whether Mr. Trudeau and Ms. Babenko have any sort of prenuptial or postnuptial agreement? . . . A. I know of none. Q: So if they separated and Natalie Babenko owned 

an entity, who would keep the entity? A: Presumably she would, unless and until some Judge 

decided otherwise.”); see also Ex. 49, 5/21/13 Tr. at 120-121.) 

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companies that the FTC has indicated are “Trudeau-Affiliated Entities.” (Exs. 25 & 55.) The 

FTC has not disputed that any of this evidence is inaccurate, and simply argues that the evidence 

is “incomplete.” (E.g., Docket No. 716 at 7-8.) But the FTC has no basis to suggest that Trudeau 

has access to any additional financial records that have not already been produced.6

 In reality, 

Trudeau has presented this Court with the evidence he has to show that he and the corporate 

entities do not have appreciable net assets available to pay the judgment. This is enough to 

satisfy his burden and put the onus on the FTC to prove an ability to pay. See SEC v. Custable, 

1999 WL 92260, at *3 (N.D. Ill. Feb. 11, 1999).

The FTC also asks this Court to disregard the expert report of Mary O’Connor, arguing

that it is inadmissible and does not prove inability to pay. The FTC’s conclusory argument that 

the report is inadmissible, without any explanation or analysis whatsoever, is insufficient.7 In 

any event, the FTC’s arguments are without merit. This is not a jury trial and the Court has 

indicated that it is not concerned with admissibility so much as weight to be afforded to the 

evidence. The Court should admit the report and accord it the weight it deserves. Moreover, the 

 6

 Trudeau does not have access to the financial records of all of the companies that the FTC has 

identified as “Trudeau-Affiliated Entities,” including Global Information Network Foundation 

(“GIN FDN”). Trudeau’s counsel requested financial records from GIN FDN in connection with 

the Sikich third-party accounting but the executive director of that organization refused this 

request out of concern that the foundation’s financial information would eventually be filed 

publicly in this case, subjecting the organization to competitive harm. GIN is a Nevis foundation 

with no owners, and there has been no suggestion by the FTC that Trudeau controls the 

executive director (he does not). The executive director has a fiduciary responsibility to the 

foundation and its members. The executive director has indicated that if this Court were to allow 

all GIN FDN information to be filed under seal, he would consider releasing that information for 

the Court’s eyes only.

7 The FTC argues that the report is inadmissible because “the evidentiary hearing had concluded 

already; Trudeau never disclosed his purported expert pre-trial; the FTC did not have an 

opportunity to take expert discovery; the Court never qualified the author as an expert; and the 

document is an inadmissible report, not opinion testimony.” (Docket No. 716 at 11.) the FTC 

does not provide any detail as to why any of these points render the report inadmissible.

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evidentiary hearing in this case is not complete and evidence is not closed. As this Court 

indicated during the hearing on May 21, 2013, the Court understood that the parties would 

submit briefing after the in-court hearing proceeded, and that the parties would have the 

opportunity to offer evidence at that time. (See Ex. 49, 5/21/13 Tr. at 5.) But Trudeau submitted 

the O’Connor report on July 1, 2013 before briefing was even scheduled in this case. (Ex. 55.) 

Indeed, as soon as the FTC rejected Trudeau’s offer to work cooperatively on a third-party 

accounting, Trudeau’s counsel leapt into action and secured an accounting firm to complete this 

work in light of the FTC’s demand for an accounting. The accounting report was filed within a 

week after it was received. The FTC therefore has no grounds to criticize the timeliness of the 

report. In addition, the FTC’s arguments that it has not had an opportunity to take expert 

discovery and the Court has not qualified O’Connor as an expert are nonsensical (and certainly 

not a justification to immediately incarcerate Trudeau). Now that the report has been filed, the 

FTC is free to take expert discovery and independently verify the information in that report. 

Nothing is stopping them. And the Court now has all of O’Connor’s credentials in order to 

determine the weight that it will give to the report. The FTC is grasping at straws and tries to 

create inadmissibility problems where there are none.

The FTC also criticizes the substance of the O’Connor report and argues that its 

conclusions do not help Trudeau. The FTC glosses over O’Connor’s conclusions that the 

financial records of the companies show that they have no net assets and presents no evidence 

that those conclusions are wrong, and instead criticizes the scope of the report and the accounting 

approach used. Again, the FTC has the opportunity months ago to dictate the terms of the 

accounting but refused to do so, and should not be allowed to argue now that they would have 

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done the accounting differently.8

 (See supra at 1-2, 4-5.)

Finally, the FTC criticizes Trudeau’s evidence of inability to pay by arguing that 

“Trudeau does not explain where significant corporate and personal assets have gone.” Once 

again, the FTC insists on looking backwards, not forwards. But civil contempt is forward 

looking, and can only be used to coerce Trudeau to comply with this Court’s order, not to punish 

Trudeau for how he or the corporate entities may have spent money. The only relevant inquiry 

in deciding a coercive contempt motion is whether Trudeau has the present ability to comply

with the court order. See Maggio v. Zeitz, 333 U.S. 56, 73 n.6 (1948) (“A contempt order should 

not be issued unless there is a present ability to comply.”); McNeil v. Director, Patuxent 

Institution, 407 U.S. 245, 251 (1972); United States v. Rylander, 460 U.S. 752, 757 (1983); 

Leshin, 2013 WL 2420363, at *1; United States v. Drollinger, 80 F.3d 389, 393 (9th Cir. 1996). 

He does not have a present ability to comply, and therefore where certain monies were spent is 

irrelevant to the issues before this Court. Indeed, the FTC cites to no authority for the 

proposition that Trudeau must account for where every single nickel has gone out over the past 

several years. That is not his burden, and in any event the place for such an accounting is in a 

third-party accounting (not in contempt briefing), which Trudeau has asked for and agreed to 

over and over again.9

 8 The FTC makes a few additional convoluted arguments about the content of the O’Connor 

report, such as suggesting that the fact that Trudeau and Babenko owe the corporate entities $3.6 

million somehow indicates that Trudeau could have paid more than $54,000 towards the 

judgment. This $3.6 million includes the $2 million bond that Trudeau borrowed from GIN in 

order to re-enter the infomercial business, and the other $1.6 million does not represent cash that 

Trudeau ever received. Rather, this represents personal expenses that the corporate entities have 

paid on Trudeau’s behalf (legal bills, credit card bills, etc.), which Trudeau is obligated to repay. 

Thus, this figure supports Trudeau’s argument that he is unable to pay the judgment in this case.

9 In any event, the FTC is incorrect to suggest that Trudeau has not explained where personal 

and corporate assets have gone. With respect to personal assets, the FTC has not shown that he 

even has any. And as for the corporate assets, Trudeau has repeatedly explained that the vast 

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Thus, the FTC’s argument that Trudeau has not established an inability to pay fail. 

Trudeau has met his burden of production and the FTC must now come forward with evidence of 

ability to pay the judgment. Custable, 1999 WL 92260 at *3.

2. The FTC Has Not Put Forward Evidence In Rebuttal Showing That 

Trudeau Is Presently Able To Pay Any Amount Of Money.

The FTC has certainly failed to establish that Trudeau has an ability to pay. In an effort 

to show ability to pay, the FTC again spills much ink regarding sums that the so-called TrudeauAffiliated Entities have allegedly spent on business expenses in the past. (See e.g., Docket No. 

716 at 13 (regarding $12 million that the FTC alleges the so-called “Trudeau-Affiliated Entities

have “dissipated” in years past).) However, the FTC fails to identify even a single cent that 

Trudeau currently possesses that could be used to pay down the judgment. The law is clear that 

evidence concerning monies spent in the past—i.e. which the Defendant necessarily no longer 

possess—have no bearing on whether a contempt order should issue. This is because the only 

relevant inquiry in deciding a coercive contempt motion is the present ability of the defendant to 

comply with the court order. See Maggio, 333 U.S. at 73 n.6; McNeil, 407 U.S. at 251; 

Rylander, 460 U.S. at 757; Leshin, 2013 WL 2420363, at *1; Drollinger, 80 F.3d at 393.

Nowhere in its brief does the FTC identify a specific amount of money that Trudeau has 

the present ability to pay. Instead, the FTC insinuates—without providing any evidence—that 

there must be some money somewhere that Trudeau could use to pay down the judgment, even 

though the FTC fails to tell us how much or where it allegedly is. (See, e.g., Docket No. 716 at 1 

(“There is no real dispute that Trudeau...could pay vastly more than the token $54,000 he 

 

majority of the corporate expenditures are for business-related operating expenses, and any 

personal expenses that the corporations paid on behalf of Trudeau have been documented as 

loans (which Trudeau has the obligation to pay back). Importantly, there is no evidence that 

corporate or personal assets were ever transferred by Trudeau or anyone else to some hidden 

account. 

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volunteered.”); Id. at 12 (same).) The FTC’s unsubstantiated conjecture is woefully insufficient 

under Leshin and other authority which holds that a defendant can only be found in coercive civil 

contempt after failing to turn over a specific amount of money that the defendant is presently 

able to pay. (See supra at 4-5; U.S. ex rel. Thom v. Jenkins, 760 F.2d 736, 738-40 (7th Cir. 

1985) (incarcerating defendant only after affirmatively finding that defendant had present ability 

to pay $115,172 but failed to do so); United States v. Harris, 582 F.3d 512, 521 n.13 (3d Cir. 

2009).) 

a. FTC’s Authority Regarding A “Self-Induced” Inability To Pay 

Is Misleading And Inapposite. 

The FTC is also wrong to suggest that this Court may coercively incarcerate Trudeau if 

his inability to pay the $37.6 million judgment is “self-induced.” The FTC cites United States v. 

Bryan for the alleged proposition that a civil contemnor can be coercively incarcerated for failing 

to comply with an order if “he is responsible for their unavailability.” (See Docket No. 716 at 3.) 

This is not the holding of Bryan for the simple reason that that case involved criminal contempt, 

and not civil contempt. In Bryan, the defendant was charged with contempt of Congress (a 

federal crime) for failing to turn over documents in response to a subpoena issued by the House 

Committee on Un-American Activities. 339 U.S. 323, 341 (1950). In the context of criminal 

contempt, the Court noted, in dicta, that punitive incarceration might be appropriate where the 

contempt is self-induced. (Id. at 330-31.) While punishment may be an appropriate remedy in a 

criminal contempt case, it is forbidden in the coercive civil contempt context. See F.T.C. v. 

Trudeau, 579 F.3d 754, 769-70 (7th Cir. 2009) (“civil contempt is remedial, and for the benefit 

of the complainant, while criminal contempt is punitive, to vindicate the authority of the 

court....coercive sanctions are not intended as a deterrent to offenses against the public.”); In re 

Grand Jury Proceedings, 280 F.3d at 1107 (“A contempt order is considered . . . criminal if its 

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purpose is to punish the contemnor, vindicate the court’s authority, or deter future misconduct.”). 

This is because when a contemnor is jailed merely as punishment, he does not carry the keys to 

his own prison in his pocket. Gompers, 221 U.S. at 442. Indeed, it is revealing that the FTC 

would cite a criminal contempt case in support of its efforts to incarcerate Trudeau because it 

underscores that its purpose is purely punitive and therefore unlawful. 

Similarly, the FTC’s citation to United States v. Seetapun, 750 F.2d 601, 605 (7th Cir. 

1984) has no bearing on the present case because the Court there did not impose any coercive 

sanctions (incarceration or coercive fines) on the alleged self-induced contemnor. In fact, the 

FTC has not cited a single case where self-induced inability to pay has led to a defendant being 

incarcerated or coercively sanctioned. This is not surprising because inability to pay—selfinduced or otherwise—is a complete defense to coercive civil contempt. See Falstaff Brewing 

Corp. v. Miller Brewing Co., 702 F.2d 770, 782 n.7 (9th Cir. 1983).

b. The FTC’s “Evidence” Is Heavy On Conclusions And Light 

On Facts.

As noted above, the FTC is unable to identify a specific dollar amount that Trudeau is 

currently able to pay. What little “evidence” the FTC puts forward in its brief amounts to little 

more than unsubstantiated conclusions, not objective facts. To name just a few examples:

• The FTC baldly asserts that Trudeau withdrew $2 million from a bank account in 

Liechtenstein. (Docket No. 716 at 7.) However the finding of fact which the FTC cites 

in support of this alleged conclusion notes only that GIN USA received $2 million from 

WSU. (Docket No. 713 at II.B.1.e.i.6.)

• Similarly, the FTC asserts that Trudeau personally arranged to have his salary paid from 

the alleged account in Liechtenstein. (Docket No. 716 at 7.) However, the exhibit cited 

in finding of fact (FTCX 11R)10 which supposedly supports this assumption is an email 

exchange between Trudeau and Suneil Sant discussing transactions which might occur in 

 10 The FTC cites a number of exhibits which they do not attach to their brief. As these exhibits 

were not properly submitted to the court in connection with the FTC’s brief, they should be 

disregarded. 

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the future. There is no indication in this email whether Trudeau’s salary was ever 

actually paid from this account and if it was, who authorized it.

• The FTC claims that APC Trading Limited owns 100% of six other entities associated 

with GIN. (Docket No. 716 at 7.) However the finding of fact cited in support of this 

alleged conclusion notes only that that APC owns three entities (KTRN, NBT Trading 

Limited, and WSS). (Docket No. 713 at II.A.2.d.)

• The FTC argues that Trudeau moved assets offshore. (Docket No. 716 at 18-19.) 

However, the FTC’s support for this assertion, (Docket No. 713 at III.D), contains only 

prospective statements made by Trudeau with no indication whether these statements 

were ever acted upon. Moreover, the record is clear that no fraudulent transfers ever took 

place. (Ex 50 at 114:16-19 (“Q: Sir, are you aware of Mr. Trudeau transferring any 

asset after 2007 or 2008? A: . . . I cannot think of an example.”), 119:15-17 (“Q: And 

we’ve talked about transfer[ring] any assets, which to your knowledge never happened, 

right? A: That’s right.”), 121:10-17, 123:24-124:2.) Thus once one cuts through the 

FTC’s speculation, it is clear that the FTC is unable to point any concrete facts which 

demonstrate that any assets were ever transferred offshore. 

The FTC has completely failed to identify any specific assets that Trudeau could use to 

satisfy the judgment against him. The FTC’s unsupported conjecture cannot displace reality.

II. CONCLUSION

For the reasons set forth above and as explained in Trudeau’s opening post-hearing brief 

(Docket No. 710), the FTC’s motion for contempt is an illegitimate attempt to punish Trudeau, 

including by deterring future misconduct. Because incarceration would be unlawful, and 

because the FTC has already acknowledged that a monetary sanctions would be ineffective (see

Docket No. 481-1 at 16-17; Docket No. 716 at 19-20, n.30), the FTC’s contempt motion should 

be denied. The parties should instead move forward under the FDCPA and with an independent 

third-party accounting to effect consumer remediation and bring this matter to a close.

July 23, 2013 Respectfully submitted,

KEVIN TRUDEAU

By: /s/ Kimball R. Anderson

One of His Attorneys

Case: 1:03-cv-03904 Document #: 725-1 Filed: 07/23/13 Page 15 of 16 PageID #:12689
1

CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE

I, Kimball R. Anderson, an attorney, hereby certify that on July 23, 2013, I caused to be 

served true copies of DEFENDANT KEVIN TRUDEAU’S RESPONSE IN OPPOSITION TO 

THE FTC’S POST-HEARING BRIEF IN SUPPORT OF ITS CONTEMPT MOTION, and 

accompanying exhibits by filing such documents through the Court’s Electronic Case Filing 

System, which will send notification of such filing to all counsel of record including: 

Michael Mora

Jonathan Cohen

Amanda Kostner

Federal Trade Commission

601 New Jersey Avenue NW, Suite 2215

Washington, DC 20001

David O’Toole

Federal Trade Commission

55 West Monroe Street, Suite 1825

Chicago, IL 60603

/s/ Kimball R. Anderson

Kimball R. Anderson

Case: 1:03-cv-03904 Document #: 725-1 Filed: 07/23/13 Page 16 of 16 PageID #:12690