As for catching up on the lawsuit: Let me 'splain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up.
An obese but clever sociopathic narcissist gained footage at a popular established low carb diet site, where she claimed to have lost 198 lbs. in a year and to have maintained for 5 years. Her drastic claims and caustic passive-aggressive personality sparked flame wars which ultimately provided excuse to stomp off and open a paid membership site with impressive success stories and before/after photos.
All seemed wonderful at first. People were happy and losing weight. In June, 2007, a magazine featured the diet, 40,000 people joined, and the owner made a million+ dollars in a month. But to validate her marketing claims of "No faster weight loss, none" she pushed lower and lower calories, fasting, and even daily laxative use. People began having problems, for which she ALWAYS had an explanation (usually with a little dig at the complainant.) The gloss began to wear off and the spell was broken.
People questioned things, including photos. When her responses were unsatisfactory, some of us left. Things blew up completely when, about a month later, she was photographed at 300+ lbs, with NO resemblance to her supposed 'after' photos. The site boiled with protest and she summarily banned any "lifetime" members who dared to speak up.
Various online sites and personalities got involved in internet battles. Her supporters wanted to cling to their addictively fast weight loss and the site that enabled it, though many switched sides as evidence emerged.
Her detractors/victims felt used and abused, crushed, betrayed, defrauded, and outraged.
A fiesty woman named Jeanessa stepped up and found a brilliant health-crusading attorney named John Tiedt, who believed in the case enough to take it on contingency.
Discoveries were made which revealed that Heidi Diaz lived in a labyrinthian world of her own making, a convoluted web of deviousness and deception. She never lost any significant amount of weight, even with gastric bypass surgery. Most of her success stories were complete fabrications, with photos stolen from Russian mail-order bride sites.
She has hidden behind false identities, claimed someone else owned the site, spitefully dissipated assets to keep them from her victims, and launched vengeful campaigns, legal and otherwise, against some of the principle witnesses in the case.
She tried to countersue us; the court threw it out. She tried to file bankruptcy to halt the suit; the court threw it out. She has tried threats and intimidation; it backfires.
Meanwhile, John Tiedt and associates have scored victory after victory. John has won unprecedented rulings from the court. The case has been granted class action status, and John has petitioned the court for summary judgment. Since the defendant already admitted under oath in deposition to everything in the suit, we hope the court sees it our way. We should know soon.
. . . I clearly need to tighten up my summaries and use fewer words. But, believe me, this barely scratches the surface.
This story really ought to be a book or movie.
I guess I can add that several televison news shows and newspapers have covered this.
Here is a fuller explanation from Laura Dolson of about.com:
http://lowcarbdiets.about.com/od/populardietplans/a/kimkinsdiet.htm
(I might quibble with a couple of minor points, such as when I actually left Kimkins vs. when 'Kimmer" admitted I had left, but this is overall a thorough, well-researched report.)
I hope this helps pull the highlights into one place.j
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