After Jail and More, Salesman Scores Big With Cure-All Book

New York Times business-section profile of Kevin Trudeau at the height of the first Natural Cures book's success. Byline and date confirmed directly from the fetched page (2026-07-10, via an Internet Archive Wayback capture after the live nytimes.com page blocked automated access): "By Melanie Warner, Aug. 28, 2005." Reports that Natural Cures "They" Don't Want You to Know About had been on the New York Times list of best-selling how-to and advice books for eight weeks and was then No. 1, outsold in the prior three weeks only by the latest Harry Potter novel per Nielsen BookScan, with roughly three million copies sold since the book's August 2004 release per Trudeau's publisher. Reports Trudeau's biography: prior federal prison time for credit-card fraud in his mid-20s, an Illinois attorney general suit over an alleged pyramid marketing scheme, and two prior FTC actions over infomercial claims (context for Coral Calcium Supreme and Biotape). Explains that Natural Cures could still be sold via infomercial despite the 2004 FTC ban because books are protected as free speech under the First Amendment, per an FTC lawyer quoted in the piece. Quotes the New York State Consumer Protection Board's chairwoman, Teresa A. Santiago, on an early-August 2005 board statement: the book is full of "empty promises," "exploiting and misleading people who are searching for cures to serious illnesses," leaving readers with "page after page of pure speculation." Reports that the book directs readers to a subscription website, naturalcures.com, priced at $9.95 a month or $499 for life. Includes reader Carol Boruk's account of buying the book after seeing an infomercial and finding it "eye-opening." Quotes Trudeau describing his own lifestyle and a 1990s-era promotional claim of a $200 million net worth.