Kevin Trudeau's commercials, filmed years before his recent criminal conviction, continue to pitch one of his books. (HANDOUT / ) 
 
 Seattle resident Dave Churchman had settled in for a little late-night cable business news last month when he noticed a familiar face flickering on his TV, one he thought he wouldn't see for a long time. 
 
 Churchman sat up and watched in disbelief as Kevin Trudeau, the dapper, effusive pitchman who had just been sentenced in Chicago to 10 years in prison for lying in an infomercial about his weight-loss book, held up a different book called "Free Money 'They' Don't Want You to Know About." 
 
 "Over 4,000 different government programs, an additional 15,000 free programs, over 100,000 ways to get free money!" Trudeau exclaimed in the 30-minute spot on the Fox Business Network. "If you don't see $500 or more coming into your bank account in the next 30 days, just send it back for a full refund." 
 
 "I just couldn't believe it," Churchman, who'd followed news reports about Trudeau, told the Tribune by phone. "Wasn't this guy in prison for doing the exact same thing? It was just very, very strange." 
 
 While Trudeau isn't scheduled for release until 2022, he remains a presence on TV and the Internet. 
 
 Some of his infomercials continue to run on late-night TV because other companies bought the rights to them before Trudeau's criminal case began, records show. 
 
 The "Free Money" infomercial that Churchman saw was actually shot years ago and produced by a California company called Free is My Favorite LLC, which also owns the rights to Trudeau's book, records show. Under their sales agreement, the owners of Free is My Favorite were to pay Trudeau a small percentage of the sales in royalties. 
 
 That money is now being forwarded to the government and being held in a trust. Eventually it will go toward paying off a whopping $37 million fine levied against Trudeau by the Federal Trade Commission, a fine that Trudeau has long claimed he's too broke to pay. 
 
 Repeated efforts to reach owners of Free is My Favorite were not successful. 
 
 A Fox Business executive said in a written statement Friday the network ordered the Free Money infomercial pulled immediately after being notified of Trudeau's conviction — although the spot did run one additional time due to a "technical error made by an outside media buyer" that had purchased the rights to the air time. To prevent future miscues, "the tape has since been destroyed," said Brian Jones, senior vice president of programming and operations. 
 
 Fox was not the only network airing the spot, though. Cable television viewers from Illinois to Florida have also reported seeing the Free Money infomercial on various stations, often late at night after regular programming has ended. 
 
 "How is he able to still scam people while in jail?" Valarie Blanco, of Tampa, Fla., wrote in an email to the Tribune about her Trudeau sighting on a local cable station there. "Is there anyone who can pull these commercials?" 
 
 Trudeau, 51, has been jailed since last year and a federal jury convicted in November him of criminal contempt for lying in several infomercials about the contents of his hit book, "The Weight Loss Cure 'They' Don't Want You to Know About." Last month, U.S. District Judge Ronald Guzman sentenced him to a decade behind bars, citing Trudeau's long history of fraud and calling him "deceitful to the core." 
 
 In addition to the TV spots, Trudeau also maintains an active Facebook page, where missives he emails from the Metropolitan Correctional Center to a colleague are regularly posted. In the writings, Trudeau often likens himself to jailed civil rights leaders of the past and waxes poetic about the positive effect life behind bars has had on him. 
 
 "Had a great nights sleep after the sentencing!" Trudeau wrote in a March 19 post. "Mandela got 28 years, I was blessed to get only 10. I have deep love and appreciation for the Judge and the prosecutors." 
 
 The traffic Trudeau's posts attract suggest he still has a large number of devotees, despite his convictions for fraud. His Mandela posting, for example, received more than 1,200 "likes" and 323 comments. Most of the comments expressed support, but some were less than kind. 
 
 "You are gonna have a FUN time in Prison!!! YOU ARE A CROOK," one person wrote. 
 
 Also on social media, there has been an ongoing effort to raise money for Trudeau's substantial legal fees. The "KT Legal Defense Fund" website accepts credit card donations of up to $50,000 a pop. Checks for any amount can be sent directly to Winston and Strawn, the high-priced Chicago law firm that has represented Trudeau for years. 
 
 The website also advertises a fundraiser scheduled for next month at a yet-to-be-determined hotel in Los Angeles where participants are urged to "send good vibes to KT through a positive celebration." 
 
 "Listen as his close friends, advisors and leaders open up and share their insights on business, life and relationships," the website says. "They will open up with honest in depth lessons never discussed before. The vibrations, energy and love will be in sync and so will the learning!" 
 
 Prosecutors in Trudeau's criminal trial accused him of violating a court order when he produced three infomercials claiming his weight-loss book was filled with "easy" techniques when it actually called for prescription injections of a hormone found only in pregnant women, a month of colon hydrotherapy and a 500-calorie-per-day diet. 
 
 U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman has repeatedly found Trudeau in civil contempt for failing to pay the $37.6 million fine in spite of continuing to live a lavish lifestyle up until his jailing. 
 
 Between mid-2010 and March 2013, Trudeau spent at least $12 million on first-class airfare, gym memberships, trips to a salon, $12,000 cuff links, a six-figure Bentley automobile and a mansion in Oak Brook and a California residence that cost a combined $15,500 a month, according to court records. The FTC has alleged he's stashed millions in offshore bank accounts to avoid paying up. 
 
 For the past eight months, a court-appointed receiver has been selling Trudeau's assets piece by piece. Next month, the receiver will be asking for court approval to sell the jewel of Trudeau's portfolio, the Global Information Network — billed as an international club that charges membership fees in exchange for success "secrets" — to a consortium of its members for a $300,000 down payment and a percentage of future sales, records show. 
 
 In court, Trudeau has continued to cry poor. At his sentencing March 17, he said he has been "completely wiped out" financially and that he and his wife, Nataliya Babenko, 26, are "effectively homeless." Last week, Guzman rejected his bid to have the approximately $500 filing fee for his appeal waived because of his extreme poverty. 
 
 Meanwhile, his books aren't exactly selling like hot cakes. On Amazon.com last week, a hardcover edition of "Free Money" was going for just $3 — and even at that price the reviews from many readers were not kind. 
 
 "One of the biggest wastes of money that I have seen in a long while," one person wrote. "Shame, shame, shame on me — there IS NO SUCH THING as 'Free Money.'" 
 
 jmeisner@tribune.com 
 
 Twitter @jmetr22b 

 The I-Team investigates an unlikely pauper, Kevin Trudeau, who made millions on late night TV selling weight loss books. Now in prison, Trudeau claims he can't afford to pay for his appeal. 
 
 Kevin Trudeau used to spend about as much on haircuts as the filing fee for his appeal, and now he claims that he can't afford either of them. 
 
 Trudeau has long-claimed that he didn't have the money to pay his $37 million fine for consumer fraud, but Friday he has made it official, filing with the court what is known as "in forma pauperis," in the manner of a pauper. 
 
 Trudeau says taxpayers should fund his $500 appeal filing because he can't, but the paperwork also tells us a few other things. 
 
 This is Kevin Trudeau's current residence: the Metro Correctional Center in Chicago where he has begun serving a 10-year federal prison sentence. 
 
 But before he was taken away in the prisoner wagon, Trudeau drove a Bentley. Trudeau drove a Bentley, while claiming to be on the brink of bankruptcy, had a castle-like home here in Chicago, complete with a full domestic staff and as an ABC News investigation found, traveled in style between the U.S. and Switzerland, where he also stayed in style and spent lavishly at nearby, high-end boutiques. And when Trudeau was charged with federal crimes, he approached that the same way. 
 
 "I have to hire lawyers for huge amounts of money but it is worth every penny," said Trudeau. 
 
 On Friday though, he claims to be penniless- or just about - in this pauper's declaration, a financial affidavit supporting his request for the taxpayers to fund his appeal filing. 
 
 In his own handwriting, Trudeau claims that he was last paid in the summer of 2013, "14,000 Swiss Francs" or about $15,000, from a website company he operated in Switzerland. 
 
 Trudeau also discloses that in the past 12 months his wife received approximately $100,000 although he notes that he's not sure, apparently, of the exact amount. 
 
 His wife, Natalia Babenko, a former New York film student who became a business partner as well, is now effectively homeless according to Trudeau in court. 
 
 In this paperwork Trudeau states he's not sure what his wife may or may not have. "I think she has nothing," he writes. 
 
 Trudeau also discloses that he received a gift in the last year of approximately $10,000, but he is not sure of that either. 
 
 For now Trudeau claims to be indigent just for the purpose of his court costs. He would have to file separately if he wanted the taxpayers to cover his Chicago attorney's fees. The I-Team didn't get a response from them Friday. 
 
 However, two federal judges haven't thought much of Trudeau's vows of poverty, suspecting he has stashed millions in foreign accounts. And prosecutors have called him a "habitual liar." 
 
 We do know from federal prison records that Trudeau has $370.84 in his prison account. 
 
 (Copyright ©2014 WLS-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.) 
 
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– 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.