From the SGU forum, this lament regarding Not-A-Real-Dr. Leonard Coldwell:
This guy is a scam artist - but here's the problem: Leonard has done a fantastic job of manipulating Google's search results so that when you search for his name, the first 5 or 6 results are from his own website, blog, and publications. I want this to change. Skeptical Inquirer, the JREF, RichardDawkins.net, or some other skeptic website needs to publish a very well-seen article that Google will cache - so that it shows up in the top search results. And the title should make it clear right away. Something like, "FRAUD - QUACK - Leonard Coldwell - "CANCER CURE" SCAM" to make it immediately clear that he's full of **** to anyone who Googles his name.
Well, hey, JQ, let's say we do something about that!
First, let's meet the sleazebag...
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I have to admit, I only had a passing awareness of this character, and that was from reading about his buddy-in-scams, Kevin Trudeau and GIN - GLOBAL INFORMATION NETWORK (GIN).
But then I ended up at Cosmic Connie's wonderful blog, Whirled Musings and started reading more about this jerk-off. WOW! (Say, what the hell do they put in the water down in Texas anyhow that makes you ladies so snarky?)
Where do you start with this clown anyhow?
I suppose the best place would be to share a message Connie sent me and gave me the green light to share. She's been after this charlatan for quite some time and has tons of inside information. So here goes for starters:
Well, how's that for a start?I appreciate the additional info you sent me about Lenny's co-author on the Tyranny book. BTW, in case it wasn't clear to everyone on the Quatloos forum, the breakup of Lenny and Kevin T is not "new" news. It occurred in 2012 -- in May, as I recall. There had apparently been trouble brewing for some time before that, though. But Lenny started talking trash about Kevin and GIN even before they "broke his contract" (his words). I never saw the letter he supposedly got from Kevin's lawyers explaining why they booted him out, and he has told different versions of the story.
What I heard from GIN insiders is that there were numerous complaints about Lenny's total lack of decorum at GIN events -- his foul-mouthed presentations, his ostentatious womanizing (even pointing out attractive women in the audience and telling everyone, "I hit that last night"). He was (and perhaps still is) married, but that didn't matter. He made no secret of the fact that he was a skirt chaser. Some people, particularly those who had teens and minor kids with them at the GIN events, did not take kindly to the profanity or the boasting about women he'd slept with.
Lenny also reportedly liked to get drunk on the cruises and stick his little bourbon-soaked paw up the skirts of unsuspecting women, and/or invite them all up to his room for some good old-fashioned group sex.
I've heard all of these stories, and worse, from eyewitnesses.
Others have said that one factor in the decision to boot him out was that Kevin was tired of Lenny's shtick and the fact that Lenny had nothing new or original to offer GIN members. It was the same old thing, over and over and over. Supposedly Kevin even made snarky remarks about this in one of his videos last year (without mentioning any names, though).
Others say that since GIN was rapidly running out of money, Kevin was getting desperate and wanted to jettison the dead weight from the GINtanic. Lenny was, after all, getting paid nearly $17,000 a month just for being a GIN speaker and showing up at a few events per year. The contract also included business-class airline travel to the events, as well as payment for accommodations and meals. (And no doubt for the copious amounts of bourbon Lenny likes to consume.)
But Lenny likes to frame the story with himself as a hero who, along with Peter Wink -- and with a little help from disillusioned rank-and-file ex-GIN members such as Abe Husein -- "discovered" how awful Kevin was, and blew the whistle on him... and THAT'S why he was kicked out.
To me, Kevin and Lenny are turds of a feather, and whenever I read or hear anything about the conflicts between the two, I just roll my eyes and think, "No honor among thieves."
Regarding the info about the lawsuit in Germany, to which someone else on the Quatloos forum linked, I wrote at length about that on my "Bernd Bridges" blog post. I originally published that post in May 2012, with updates in September 2012. At the time I first published the post, I wasn't sure what the German legal action was all about, because I do not read German, and the Google English translation is so bad it's hard to make sense of it. However, a friend of mine in Germany reviewed the German documents and gave me a summary, which I added to the post (the newer material is in pink text, to match Bernd/Lenny's favorite shirt color). Here is the link:
Whirled Musings: Paging Dr. C: Bernd bridges in Deutschland?
That post angered little Lenny. Well, that and other things I've written about him, in addition to my very public support of Salty Droid. It all angered Lenny so much that, in addition to writing all sorts of lies ABOUT me on public pages on Facebook (he called me "the cosmic slut,' and said I am a former prostitute who is "involved with drugs" and who gave a client a bad STD -- ALL LIES), he also wrote a direct threat TO me, via private message on Facebook. He pretended to be his brother, but I recognized the bad grammar and clumsy sentence structure as his.
In the threat, he wrote that the information I published on my blog about the German lawsuit was inaccurate and that it was my responsibility to make sure it was accurate. He said that my disclaimer that I do not understand German, and that the English translation was puzzling, will not protect me legally from his lawyers, who, he promised, are going to ruin me financially. (Note: On my blog I had actually invited him to tell his side of the story, because I really do want to be fair. But he never did. Instead he told lies about me and sent threats. That's just the way he rolls.)
But it gets worse. In the same private message, he implied that my writing about him had also endangered his mother (he didn't say how, but I presume it is because I mentioned her maiden name on my Bernd Bridges blog post -- a name that is visible on Bernd/Lenny's name change letter, which is public record, and has been linked to on several blogs). He wrote to me that after he published his first book, in which he had mentioned healing his mom from all of those diseases, he and his whole family received many death threats. So he said he had to take pains to hide his mom and sisters. He added that his mother is one of the world's most loved women, and that if she gets hurt, and he and his people determine that it was because of anything I have written, he will share all of my personal information with his millions of fans who have said they are willing to die for him -- and he will let THEM deal with me.
Although the threat was crazy and illogical, I was concerned enough by it that I notified law enforcement. I am not so worried about that pink-shirted little twerp showing up at my home as I am about dim-witted vigilantes who think they are ridding the world of a "cancer," per Lenny's assessment. (Yes, he actually did publicly write that I am a cancer and "we" need to rid society of people like me, for the good of everyone.)
Anyway, I find the discussion about GIN and Kevin and Coldwell on the Quatloos forum very interesting, but I think participants might also be interested to know that discussions about Lenny have been going on for nearly a year now on other forums -- my blog of course, and also on Salty Droid's blog. Here's a link that will lead you to the Salty posts tagged "Leonard Coldwell": » Leonard Coldwell
Particularly amusing is the "Known Unknowns" post, in which Salty writes about how Lenny offered a monetary reward for anyone who could find out Salty's real name and get him a recognizable picture of Salty. All of this info was already on the Internet and quite easy to find. In fact, Salty himself sent the info in to Lenny and tried to claim the reward.
I hope these insights add some pieces to the puzzle for you. Feel free to quote from this email on the forum.
CC
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