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Daily Breeze

When Carol Boruk of La Marque, Texas, saw Kevin Trudeau selling his book on a late-night infomercial last November, she was mesmerized.

Trudeau was good-looking, energetic and articulate, and talked about nonpharmaceutical remedies that could eradicate virtually any disease -- and that he said were being suppressed by the government and the drug industry.

Boruk, who suffered from allergies and recurring headaches, called the number on the screen and happily forked over $30 for a copy. So have millions of others. For the last three weeks, the 570- page, updated and expanded version of Natural Cures "They" Don't Want You to Know About, which Trudeau published himself, has been outsold only by Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, according to Nielsen BookScan.

The total number of copies purchased since August 2004 is roughly 3 million, according to Trudeau's publishing company. The book has been on the New York Times list of best-selling how-to books for eight weeks and is currently No. 1.

Trudeau, 42, a publishing novice, is not a doctor or scientist, and has had some run-ins with the law.

In the early '90s, he served two years in federal prison for credit card fraud. He was later sued by the Illinois attorney general over an alleged pyramid marketing scheme, and he has tangled twice with the Federal Trade Commission over claims that he made in infomercials for various alternative remedies.

Last year, the Federal Trade Commission barred him from selling products through infomercials. Natural Cures was able to skirt that rule because books are protected as free speech under the First Amendment, a lawyer for the agency said.

Some of the book's assertions have prompted some readers to declare it a fraud. "Nothing more than a latter-day snake oil salesman," D. Bellini of Grand Rapids, Mich., posted on Amazon.com. Another reader called it "the worst rip-off I have gotten sucked into."

Officials at the New York State Consumer Protection Board also did not like the book. In early August the board issued a statement warning that Natural Cures is full of "empty promises."

"This book is exploiting and misleading people who are searching for cures to serious illnesses," Teresa A. Santiago, the board's chairwoman, said in the statement. "What they discover is page after page of pure speculation."

The board points out that in the book Trudeau directs readers to his subscription-based Web site, naturalcures.com, for more information. On the site they are offered subscriptions for $9.95 a month or $499 for life.

Boruk, the allergy sufferer in Texas, said the book was not entirely what she was expecting, but she found it "eye-opening" and says it has inspired her to discontinue several medications and make significant changes to her diet. "I've lost 30 pounds, never get headaches anymore and hardly notice my allergies," she said.

Trudeau says those who would call him a fraud misunderstand him. In a telephone interview, he said he was preaching a holistic gospel he firmly believed in. He said that he eats mostly organic and natural food, never takes drugs, travels with a shower filter to strip the chlorine and fluoride from water and recently completed a seven-day fast to purge toxins.

"I can't remember the last time I was sick," he said, speaking after just returning from what he said was a 14-mile hike.

He noted that lawsuits filed by the trade commission and by Illinois had been settled out of court, and had not contained findings of wrongdoing. He called the prison time stemming from activities in his mid-20s a "youthful mistake."

"I changed my priority from making money to positively impacting people," said Trudeau, who lives in Ojai, a town popular with Hollywood producers and writers. His main base of operations is Chicago, where he runs half a dozen businesses related to his book and Web site.

Trudeau has amassed millions from producing infomercials and from direct sales of products. Promotional materials he used in the mid- '90s boasted of a net worth of more than $200 million. Today, Trudeau says he does not know how much money he has, but it is "probably a lot."

Former partners and associates said that Trudeau had been successful because of his sales skills. "There's no doubt in my mind that he could sell anything," said David Bertrand, who worked with Trudeau from 1995 to 1997 at Nutrition for Life, a seller of vitamin and nutritional supplements.