A Class Act(ion) Part Deux

Some recent court developments deserve some attention. In a previous post, I described the bankruptcy filed by Heidi Diaz. It was filed just a few days before the January 14th court hearing to rule on the motion to make the lawsuit against Heidi a class action. The January 20th hearing went forward in spite of the bankruptcy filing. The judge approved the motion. However, the court's ruling could not be filed because the bankruptcy court held jurisdiction at the time.

John Tiedt hired a bankruptcy attorney to join his team. I love people who know their limitations. Clearly, John knew he needed bankrutcy expertise, and he sought it. On May 25, 2009, the bankruptcy was dismissed, paving the way for a second look at class action.

On May 20, 2009, John Tiedt again appeared before the court. The honorable Michael B. Donner considered and granted the motion for class action, agreeing that fraud had been committed. Because there was no longer a pending bankruptcy holding jurisdiction, the court filed the grant and we now have a certified class action. Part deux.

On June 2, 2009, John Tiedt filed a motion for a summary judgement. As of this writing, the hearing for that motion is set for August 24, 2009. John, we cannot thank you enough.

A Class Act(ion)

January 14th was a great day of vindication in Duckdom. After many months of scoffing and being told repeatedly by those who were sure they knew the case better than we did that it would never happen, the judge granted class action certification in the case against Heidi Diaz. John Tiedt is a rare breed of attorney. He has a strong sense of right and wrong, and a tenacious spirit that makes him want right to triumph against wrong. I have said many times to many people over the past year plus, if you don't see anything wrong with what Heidi Diaz did, then you have no moral compass. That was my less-than-tactful way of telling them they are just as bad as Heidi is. John Tiedt is at the opposite end of the spectrum.

So my hat is off to John Tiedt, a class act of a man and attorney if ever I saw one! Well done John, and let's move on to the next phase of this quest for justice.

Heidi Diaz files bankruptcy!

Heidi Diaz had tongues wagging a few weeks ago when her attorney was taken off the case. That is nothing compared to what she did today. There are no words to describe it. The paperwork says it's a personal bankruptcy, and there is no mention of Kimkins. I suppose we'll learn more as time goes on, but I will close with the words of John Tiedt, the attorney handling what will eventually become the class action suit against Heidi.

Kimkins Class Action Lawsuit attorney, John Tiedt says, “We will not be deterred. We will not stop until we have justice. We anticipated the possiblity of bankruptcy. This is Ms. Diaz’s third bankruptcy. We are now obtaining a bankruptcy litigator to join our team. Our attack on the bankruptcy will start immediately. I will never stop.”

This is a man on a mission. Heidi Diaz, you have a tiger by the tail!

Out With the Old, in With the New

Oddly enough, this post is nothing about Heidi Diaz. I'm taking a break from her. As a year draws to a close, we cannot help but to look back upon the last one and reflect on what we did, what we didn't do, and what might have been. At the end of the year, introspection is a natural thing. So as you take inventory of the past year, I ask you to contemplate what lies beyond this life. For some, the subject of this video brings a blessed hope. For others, fear and dread, and still for others, no meaning at all. Happy New Year!

What's In a Word?

The following paragraphs come from an e-mail sent by Heidi Diaz to Jeannie Baitinger, who was her employee at the time. To read the e-mail in its entirety, you can visit Jeannie’s blog and read the post “Stealing and Justifying It”.

Heidi wrote:

“Thanks for the nice words. The thing is, we all operate on trust on the internet. Most of our vendors charge up front, but the tech guys and affiliates work a month behind. They trust that I’ll pay them. I can’t betray that.

If we assume for one minute that maybe I’m NOT the person “they” are describing … maybe I’m the person you know … then it’s easier to understand. I don’t screw people over. I couldn’t live with myself. Really, I couldn’t.

Let me take that back. I resented Catherine getting 50% of the profits. She hadn’t done anything to build the Kimmer/Kimkin’s reputation. She didn’t have a reputation to help bring members. Her job was marketing which was … well, I’m not sure what she did because it didn’t produce sales.”

For the sake of retaining the context, I have quoted the first three paragraphs in the e-mail, but the part I am concerned with is at the end of the third paragraph. Heidi was speaking disparagingly about Catherine, Heidi’s original business partner who helped her launch the Kimkins website. Let’s look at the last part of the last sentence – “well, I’m not sure what she did because it didn’t produce sales.” Did anything in that sentence stand out to you? To me, there is a glaring issue in those words.

If you read her depositions, Heidi claims she runs the website for the purpose of motivating people and helping them lose weight. She would have us to believe that she’s a great philanthropist who cares deeply about people and wants only to help them. It’s the reason she runs the website, after all. But what are the words she uses in her e-mail to Jeannie to describe the members she claims she wants to help? Sales! They’re not people she has the opportunity to help. For her, it boils down to cold, hard cash. Members aren’t people to her, they are sales. They represent money.

Let us not forget that in order to keep the money coming in, Heidi must sign up new members……ahem……she must sell new memberships. She claims that people like me who are telling the truth about her are cutting into those profits. We’re affecting her sales, so she’s SLAPPed some of us with a lawsuit. We’re not stopping her from helping people, we’re denying her the hard-earned cash of people her depositions say she wants to help. But do not ever forget that to her, they are nothing more than sales. It’s all about the money, people! When you live in the alternate universe, your words don't mean what people think they do.

The Alternate Universe

Imagine with me for a moment. For years, you have been on the internet pretending to be something you’re not. You've created an entire persona based on lies. And you’re good at it. You have a lot of people fooled. They look up to and admire you for the accomplishments you’re claiming. But not everyone is fooled. A lot of people are skeptical of your claims and want to see proof. Of course, you are offended they should demand such. How dare they question you? You are shocked that anyone should not simply take your statements at face value.

It seems you’ve amassed for yourself quite the following. People fight with you and they fight for you. Your presence and your statements have a polarizing effect. Either people vehemently agree with you, or they vehemently disagree. When the time is right, you create a space elsewhere on the internet where your like-minded followers can go continue to believe and admire you. They want to accomplish what you say you have, and they clamor for your attention and advice. They want it so badly, they’re willing to pay for it.

You’re not happy with the small following you have and you begin a marketing campaign to bring in more paying customers. You manage to get a major article in a national magazine, where you tell more lies about your "accomplishment" and even provide a fraudulent picture of "yourself" for publication. You’re flooded with new paying customers. You raise your price several times, and you become very rich, very quickly.

But there’s trouble in paradise. Your business partner begins to wonder if you’ve really been telling the truth. She’s suspicious because you won’t meet with her in person. She thinks you’re hiding something. She has you investigated, and the fruit of that investigation is that her suspicions are confirmed. People start talking, and they pay for that talk. En masse, people are banned from your website and denied access to their paid membership. So they talk more.

One of the people you’ve duped demands a refund, which you refuse to render. She hires a lawyer to hold you to account for defrauding many. And people talk more. They start blogs devoted to the subject of your lies and fraud. More and more is exposed all the time, more and more sign up for the lawsuit, and more and more people talk.

You’re deposed as a part of the lawsuit, and in four separate depositions, you furnish much proof of the lies and fraud. It would seem you have been caught red-handed. Even in your depositions, so much proof comes out that you are in an indefensible position, unless you live in the alternate universe.

In the alternate universe, there is no honesty. Instead of manning up for the lies you’ve told and taking your medicine, you countersue the people who have been talking about you. You countersue the ones who have been telling the truth. And why? Because they told the truth. Yes, Virginia, there really is an alternate universe, and Heidi Diaz lives there.

How about a great big SMACK?

My friend Prudentia has been doing some great posts in the past week, going into lots of detail about the SLAPP lawsuit filed by Heidi Diaz. In California, a SLAPP is filed in order to intimidate witnesses into silence. SLAPP is an acronym for Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation. Unfortunately for Heidi, there's a pesky little thing called the First Amendment to the Constitution that makes what I am doing here protected under the law. If you haven't already done it, I really encourage you to go read Prudentia's blog posts about SLAPPs. She has done a yeoman's job in researching this and making it easy for us to understand.

You see, I'm entitled to tell you about the many ways in which Heidi scammed and deceived people. There are four depositions furnished by Heidi herself that describe in detail the level of duplicity connected with her business concern. So I've been SLAPPed for telling the truth about a lying liar that lies.

In response to Heidi's SLAPP, I've come up with a little acronym of my own. You see, I want to play the role of the cheerleader here. I want you to join in loud and proud. Join Prudentia, me, and lots of others who are not backing down from telling the truth about what Heidi Diaz has done. We won't be intimidated, we won't be stopped, we won't be silenced. We won't be defeated. We stand together, arm in arm, ready, willing, and equipped to fight the good fight against lies and deception. So I encourage you to join us in giving Heidi a great big SMACK. After all, a SLAPP deserves a SMACK. So let's See More Activists Confronting Kimkins! We need you, we want you, and we will win. Everyone loves being a winner, so here's your chance. The more the merrier!