Charles J. Givens

Charles J. Givens is one of the original financial gurus seen in book stores and on late night infomercials. His death in the late nineties, at the age of 57, left a lot of unanswered questions about his books, business, and courses.

Throughout his lifetime Charles Givens wrote three best selling books including, Wealth Without Risk, Financial Self-Defense, and More Wealth Without Risk. Much like all his financial advice these had mixed reviews with critics claiming that his strategies were too risky and at times simplistic and proponents saying that his advice has helped them.

Charles Givens was known for his lavish lifestyle and was known for arriving to seminars in a chauffeured white and gold limousine. Under the mantra be all you can be he charged people almost one thousand dollars to attend his seminars.

Eventually Charles Givens' companies and products became the targets of lawsuits and criminal investigations. These were centered around false profit claims and the refund policy attached to his materials.

One of the most damaging of these cases was in California where a jury convicted Charles Givens of consumer fraud. The court concluded that he misrepresented the effectiveness of his strategies to almost 30,000 people and was ordered to pay $14 million in refunds.

The prosecuting attorney came to the obvious conclusion that Charles Givens was making the majority of his money selling his courses. The crime being that his financial strategies themselves don't produce income like he said, and that his wealth was derived from people's hard earned money.

This court case forced Charles Givens' company to file for bankruptcy and he eventually lost control of his business in 97.

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Customer Reviews for 'Charles Givens'

Comments to date: 6. Page 1 of 1. Average Rating:

Investment Guy New York	9:44am on Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009
Forget about Givens as an investment adviser. His best work is Superself, a book about personal effectiveness. Buy a copy, it's old (1993) but timeless - it's the best book you'll read all year. I've read mine 3 times.
robert m hennigan III hampton va 23663	4:41pm on Friday, May 29th, 2009
I still read and used MR.Givens information and find the material still working.
Tim Tennessee	12:41pm on Thursday, May 14th, 2009
Givens gets a bad rap because of the civil-law standards of evidence. The initial lawsuit against him was by the widow of a man who didn't properly follow his advise regarding insurance. Because ALL the evidence in a civil case can be used in future cases against the defendant, even if they are ridiculous and outright falsehoods, Givens settled out of court to avoid a trial. That settlement, however, led to still more accusations of mismanagement and wrong-doing, and the legal dominos started falling. Givens's estate had the last laugh, however. His personal wealth was so insulated, legally, from his business endeavors that even successful litigants against him got little recompense for their efforts.
Dan Northern Michigan	5:30pm on Wednesday, February 11th, 2009
When I first read Wealth Without Risk it opened my eyes. I never followed many of Givens recommendations on investments. There is one piece of advice he gave and that is to learn to recognize bad investment or money management advice. That one thing has saved me more grief and created more ability to recognize when someone is trying to scam me. Givens seemed to be a clairvoyant type and actually I probably learned more from the simplest stragegies. His subsequent business failings in the end surprised me and his death also surprised me. I knew things were going sour when he didn't appear on the talk shows anymore. These days most people have never heard of him. Dave Ramsey and Suze Orman are the new financial guru's.
Mike Austin Texas	8:55pm on Tuesday, September 23rd, 2008
Wealth without risk is still a great read. I read it the first time in 1990 and the stratagies still hold true. I did not join the orginization when I had the chance as I did not see value in paying for information I already possessed from reading the book.I spoke with represenatives from the orginization and I made my own choice. Those who chose to join probably had not read his books or had unrealistic expectations. Bottom line this is a great book and should be read even now, in 2008.
KEVIN SOUTHERN INDIANA	4:41pm on Thursday, January 3rd, 2008
I PURCHASED GIVENS PRODUCT IN THE LATE 80'S. AFTER READING & RE-READING OVER & OVER I DIVED IN. I HAD TREMENDOUS SUCCESS. I HAD A GOOD 10 YEARS, AND THEN LOST TRACK OF WHAT I WAS DOING. MAINLY DUE TO THE CELEBRATIONS THAT I WAS ENCOUNTERING CONSISTENTLY. NOW I AM RE-ESTABLISHING MY SELF, , AND I JUST HAPPENED TO GOOGLE GIVENS, TO SEE WHAT WAS NEW, AND FOUND OUT THAT HE HAS PASSED, AND HIS REPUTATION IS IN DISTRESS. I WENT TO HIS FREE SEMINAR WITH TWO OTHER COUPLES, WE ALL THREE SPENT $300 ON THE COURSE, AND AFTER MONTHS THE OTHER TWO, SHELFED IT, AND COMPLAINED OF A LESSON LEARNED, AND BEING A RIP-OFF. I KEPT ON, AND FINALLY UNDERSTOOD THINGS, AND STARTED TO FOLLOW THE GUIDANCE. I DID VERY WELL IN EVERY ASPECT OF THE INFO. AND BUILT A COMFORT LEVEL I HAD NEVER DREAMED IMAGINABLE. I DID DROP OUT OF THE ORGANIZATION, BECAUSE I DID NOT THINK THE MONTHLY DUES WERE WORTH THE ADDITIONAL INFORMATION THAT I WAS RECEIVING, BUT NOW I GUESS I AM LIMITED TO THE MATERIAL THAT I HAVE,AND I WILL RE-TRACE MY STEPS, AND TRY TO GET BACK ON TRACK.IT WORKED ONCE, AND I DO NOT SEE WHY IT WON'T WORK AGAIN.