His organization collapsed after a number of lawsuits, and regulatory investigations of investments sold by Paris, central Florida radio personality Jack Dicks, and former vacuum cleaner salesman Charles C Smith Jr. Givens was born and raised in Decatur, Illinois.
His father, a construction company owner, deserted the family and left them poor.
[1] Givens slowly built a multimillion-dollar empire in the late 1980s, publishing such ghost-written books as the best-selling Wealth Without Risk and Financial Self-Defense.
[4] Over his career Givens was the target of dozens of lawsuits and two court cases for defrauding customers, one in California and one in Florida.
Givens was also sued for advocating dropping insurance to save money by a woman whose husband was killed by an uninsured driver.