Thinking about trying the Kimkins diet?

Perhaps you should think again. The court ordered statement was just posted on the Kimkins diet website.

The California Riverside County Superior Court has ruled in Jeanessa Fenderson, et al. v. Heidi Diaz, Kimkins, Case No. 483005 that Heidi Diaz and Kimkins have engaged in false advertising and fraudulent business practices. The Court found that Defendants Kimkins and Heidi Diaz aka "Kimmer" during the class period, (January 1, 2006 through October 15, 2007, hereinafter "Class Period") have falsely represented the success of the Kimkins diet in that Heidi Diaz, as creator of the Kimkins diet, lied about her representations concerning the amount of weight she lost on the Kimkins diet. The Court also found that the "after diet" images promoted to be Heidi Diaz aka "Kimmer" following the alleged use of her Kimkins diet, posted on the Kimkins.com website and advertisements during the Class Period were not Heidi Diaz, but were actually misappropriated images of models who were used to mislead the public into believing that Heidi Diaz aka "Kimmer" was successful in her weight loss. The Court also found that Defendants, Kimkins and Heidi Diaz aka "Kimmer" used false testimonials on the Kimkins website during the Class Period to mislead the public as to the success of the Kimkins diet. The Court also found that Kimkins and Heidi Diaz aka "Kimmer" used misappropriated photographs of 41 models that were used with false testimonials on the Kimkins.com website during the Class Period to mislead the public as to the success of the Kimkins diet.

Is this really a diet you would want to follow? Paying money to this woman?

Kimkins Trial Verdict

The Court found in favor of the plaintiffs on all points.

We have a judgement based on fraud for $1.8 Million.

We have punitive damages for $500,000

We have injunctive relief, which includes she can not further lie to promote her diet. She can not use fake photos, success stories or testimonials to promote her diet.

While we won't see a court ordered 404 message we got something even better.

Heidi must put a notice on ANY website she starts for any purpose, diet or otherwise, that explains that she lied, used fake success stories and testimonials, that she mislead, that she used deceptive practices. She is going to have to post a notice that explains that low calorie diets can be dangerous, with a list of possible adverse side effects (the wording of the notice is to be worked out between the lawyers and the judge). There is NO expiration of these notices.

The Judge included a PERMANENT restraining order wherein Heidi (or any of her socks) are prohibited against contacting in ANY form with any/all class members, class plaintiffs, lawyers, their families, their staffs (which includes me, Laura) for the rest of our lives.

Oh, all of her assets have been frozen until the judgement is entered and served.

This may be appealed, of course, but today, WE WON!!!!!

The official version:
Today, October 29, 2010, Judge Rick Brown of the Riverside County Superior Court entered a verdict for the plaintiffs in a certified national class action lawsuit. The court entered a verdict against Heidi Diaz the owner of the diet website Kimkins.com for fraud and false advertising. The court awarded the class members restitution in the amount of $1,824,210.39. The court also awarded an additional $500,000 in punitive damages as well as attorney fees. The court then issued a temporary restraining order to freeze all of the assets of Ms. Diaz.

Most notably, the court also imposed an injunction requiring Heidi Diaz to post on all of her websites that: (1) she lied about her weight loss; (2) she lied about her after diet pictures; (3) she lied about testimonials on her website; and (4) she lied about the photographs used with the testimonials to promote the Kimkins website.

An injunction was also issued to prevent Heidi Diaz from contracting, harassing or cyberbulling the plaintiffs and the witnesses. A formal judgment will be entered before November 19, 2010.

The original complaint was filed over three years ago on October 15, 2007. I want to thank everyone who supported the class action lawsuit. The Ducks were wonderful. I met a lot of great people and made a lot of new friends fighting for a good cause. Heidi Diaz lied on her website and made the fatal mistake of lying in the courtroom. You cannot trust Heidi Diaz. I anticipate more legal (illegal) maneuvering by Heidi Diaz to evade the judgment. We will be prepared and I will be relentless. Again, I thank all you.


John E. Tiedt
TIEDT & HURD

Kimkins Meet-Up

Remember how Kimmer - Heidi Diaz - announced Kimkins meet-ups in Vegas, more than once, and they never happened? The first time it was something about gas prices, the second time never got off the drawing board if I remember correctly.

Now, she finally got her meet-up but not the way she envisioned it, I'm sure. Not in Vegas either. Court house in Riverside, CA.

It is likely the first time Kimmer has ever met any Kimkins dieters but I doubt she has any interest in socializing or chatting with them. The girls are former Kimkins members that are there to bring Heidi to justice and to have the Kimkins website removed from the internet. I'm sure that the testimony by these girls is nothing like the praise that Heidi would have expected from a meet-up at the time Kimkins operated as a cult. But perhaps even then, the people meeting her would have had this reaction:



Picture courtesy of CarolynF on LCF.

Kimkins Trial is Underway

The trial should have started yesterday but due to a busy schedule, it was postponed until today. Heidi Diaz was not present yesterday but she is expected to show up today. Will she wear stretch pants to court?



Probably not. But perhaps red as here at the deposition almost 3 years ago:


Rumor has it that she is no smaller than in the pictures above. I think that may not be helpful to convince the judge (no jury trial) that Kimkins is a great diet that helps obese people to shed the weight and keep it off. The fake success stories and fake photos don't lend any credibility to the diet either.

The trial is attended by a number of plaintiffs and other people that have been involved in bringing Heidi to justice. We are lucky to get updates directly from court. Find out what is going on at the thread on Lowcarbfriends.

You will have to register at Lowcarbfriends to access the thread, but registration is free.

Kimkins Trial

It just took 3 years but all our work is hopefully going to pay off.

Heidi Diaz of Kimkins is going to trial on October 25. She is being sued for fraud in a class action suit initiated by former members with help from our eminent attorney John Tiedt.

While many of us would want to see Heidi aka Kimmer punished for the dangerous diet advice she handed out (egg white challenge, anyone?) that is not what the trial is about. It is for fraud.

Members paid for access to a diet forum led by an alleged diet guru that claimed to successfully have lost 180 pounds and maintained that loss for years. The claims of how efficient the diet is was backed up with success stories with accompanying before and after pictures.

None of it was true. Heidi is morbidly obese and never lost the weight. Not with Kimkins, nor any other diet. The success stories were completely fabricated and the photos were "borrowed" from the 'net, namely websites for "Russian brides." These imaginary people had clearly never followed the Kimkins diet either.

The outcome from the lawsuit that we plaintiffs are hoping for is to have Heidi to refund the membership fee to all members of the class. That would be some 30,000 people @ $39.95 that signed up before the scam was revealed and the lawsuit filed in October of 2007.

The plaintiffs are also requesting that the Kimkins website is shut down.

As I wrote a long time ago Kimmer - so dumb I have no doubt that she regrets that she didn't offer refunds way back when the scam was found out. I'm sure she has spent a lot more money on lawyer fees by now than what the refunds would have cost her at that time.

I want to thank the principals that will represent the rest of us plaintiffs in the class during the trial. Good luck to you all, and we hope for a favorable outcome!

Kimkins hearing 07/28/2010

07/28/2010 8:30 AM DEPT. 05

HEARING RE: MOTION TO/FOR DECERTIFICATION OF CLASS BY HEIDI DIAZ, KIMKINS

Denied

Kimkins Class Notice

Although late, Heidi Diaz finally complied with the court order to post a notice about the class action lawsuit on her website kimkins.com. Or rather, she almost complied.

She was ordered to

THE COURT ORDERS THAT CLASS NOTICE SHALL BE PROVIDED THROUGH DEFENDANTS WEBSITE. THE NOTICE MAY BE THROUGH A LINK ON THE WEBSITE WHICH LEADS TO THE CLASS NOTICE.

She posted the notice with a link that is not functional. No doubt will she blame "technical difficulties." You would think after having had a website business for over two years, she would have learned some basic things. Like a simple file upload.

Just to show how easy it is: To open a pdf of the document, click this link: NOTICE OF PENDENCY OF CLASS ACTION

It took me all of two minutes to upload it to my website.

Of course, she could have made it even easier for herself by linking to any of the anti-kimkins blogs that have already posted the notice.

Hopefully the court will find Heidi in contempt and fine her for not complying with the court order in a timely fashion. Surely, even a person that is not familiar with web sites and web technology must find any excuse of "technical difficulty" to be ridiculous. Really, if she can not perform such a simple thing, she has no business selling membership to a website that she is running.