the Mega Memory products. Trudeau was selling automobiles at Neponset Lincoln Mercury in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston in 1982 when he first met Van Masters. Shortly after meeting Van Masters, he joined the latter's business in Chicago. Non-surgical facelift In addition to Natural Cures, Trudeau also hosted an infomercial that features the "Perfect Lift" non-surgical facelift. In the United Kingdom, this infomercial was found to violate the ITC advertising rules. In 2008, Trudeau began airing another infomercial, for a product called Firmalift, with Leigh Valentine. Collaboration with Donald Barrett and ITV Direct On September 11, 2006, Donald Barrett and ITV Direct, a direct marketing company based in Beverly, Massachusetts, announced that they would work with Trudeau to market both of his Natural Cures books. Trudeau also worked with ITV to create ITV Ventures, a new MLM group based out of ITV's home office. As of December 2006, ITV Direct has pulled all information concerning both this relationship and Trudeau's books from its corporate website; however, the infomercials continued to run for several years thereafter. International Pool Tour In 2005, Trudeau founded the International Pool Tour (IPT). His goal was to transform billiards into a "major league" sport with aggressive promotion and the largest purses ever offered. The initial three events in 2005 and early 2006 were successful, but at the fourth, the IPT World Open tournament in Reno, Nevada, promoters announced that they did not have sufficient funds on hand to cover the purse. Winners were assured that they would receive their prizes in small installments, but most were never paid. The Reno fiasco marked the demise not only of IPT but of professional pool competitions as a whole. As one commentator put it, "The pool hustler wasn't murdered by any single suspect, but the last man holding the knife was Kevin Trudeau." Legal proceedings In connection with his promotional activities he has had a felony conviction and has been an unsuccessful defendant in several US Federal Trade Commission lawsuits. Trudeau has been charged several times by agencies of the United States government for making claims without evidence. In these cases, Trudeau signed a consent decree in which he did not plead guilty but did agree to stop making the claims and to pay a fine. Trudeau subsequently began to sell books, which are protected by the First Amendment. Trudeau was convicted of fraud and larceny in the early