File 02 · The recordDoc 02.02

Is GIN an MLM or a pyramid scheme?

The FTC used the words pyramid scheme about GIN in 2013. That is a matter of record. Here is what it referred to, what happened to it, and what membership is now.

The claim

In 2013 the FTC argued that GIN's affiliate program made it a pyramid scheme

What it referred to

A program that paid members commissions for bringing in new members

What happened

The court-appointed receiver ended that program in 2013

Membership today

Dues for training, events, and chapters. The membership page lists no compensation plan.

Verdict

The program the FTC objected to ended in 2013. What is sold today is training.

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What the FTC said

In its long-running case against Kevin Trudeau, the Federal Trade Commission argued that GIN was his asset in practice and described it as a pyramid scheme. The argument rested on GIN's affiliate level: members could earn commissions on the dues of new members they brought in, and Trudeau had promoted that as a money-making opportunity.

What happened to that program

When the court placed Trudeau's assets in receivership in 2013, the receiver took over management of GIN and eliminated the affiliate program. GIN was sold in 2014 and has operated since as GIN Unite, LLC. The full timeline is in the record.

How membership works now

An MLM sells you a product and a place in a compensation plan, and your income depends on the people you recruit. What the GIN membership page sells is this: $1,650 to join and $150 a month, for two training courses, ninety processes, a Major Event ticket, and monthly chapter meetings. There is no compensation plan in that list. What gets you anywhere in the club is working the training and building relationships.

There is an affiliate program for the publisher's products, and this site takes part in it: refer a customer, earn a commission on that sale.

The test I would apply

Ask what you are paying for. If the answer is the right to earn from other people's sign-ups, walk away. In GIN the answer is training and events, and the review lists exactly which ones.

Sources

• FTC v. Trudeau — FTC motion summarizing the case history (ftc.gov)
• FTC v. Trudeau — September 2024 opinion, N.D. Illinois (CourtListener)
• ABC News, January 2014 — the receivership and the sale of GIN
• Chicago Sun-Times, June 2023 — Trudeau as a GIN Unite employee
• Trudeau's December 2024 announcement of the consent order