RICK KARR: And I'm Rick Karr. Kevin Trudeau's was a familiar face on late-night television. Over the years, his infomercials sold products promising everything from a better memory to the cure for cancer - that is, until 2004 when he settled a lawsuit with the Federal Trade Commission. He was barred from selling any commercial product, and they fined him two million dollars. So Trudeau did the only thing the government would let him. He released a book called Natural Cures They Don't Want You to Know About. And now, yet again, Trudeau is in trouble with the law, as OTM's Sebastian Krueger reports. [MUSIC UP AND UNDER]

ON-AIR ANNOUNCER: Call now for Kevin Trudeau's bestselling Natural Cures book. It comes with a full, unconditional, 30-day, money-back guarantee.

SEBASTIAN KRUEGER: Last year, Kevin Trudeau's book took the publishing world by surprise. Released by Trudeau's own publishing company, the non-fiction book has sold four million copies and topped the New York Times Best-Seller List nine weeks running. Trudeau explains.

KEVIN TRUDEAU: There are natural, non-drug and non-surgical ways to cure and prevent virtually every disease. The drug companies do not want people to know about them because it'll cost them too much money.

SEBASTIAN KRUEGER: One of Trudeau's four million readers is Kevin Harvell. A Web developer and college professor in California, he saw the book at Costco. Why did he buy it?

KEVIN HARVELL: Well, a general interest in taking better care of myself, of course, and somewhat a disillusionment in the medical industry, which operates like a fast-food restaurant. You know, if you've got a number one, then you're set. Just say, "I need a number one with Valium or something." [LAUGHS]

SEBASTIAN KRUEGER: It seems Trudeau has struck a chord with many Americans' dissatisfaction with modern medicine. Doctor Beth-Ann McLaughlin is a scientist with Vanderbilt University's Kennedy Center for Research on Human Development. She learned of the book through the family of an autistic girl she was treating. They thought it might help them in ways the medical establishment could not.

BETH-ANN McLAUGHLIN: I believe that the problem that is underlying the Trudeau phenomenon is one of communication, and that we're simply not doing a good enough job as clinicians and scientists of providing information that can be easily understood by our patients and their families.

SEBASTIAN KRUEGER: On the other hand, Trudeau is a master of communication. In high school, his skills earned him close to a million dollars running a mail order business, and he tried his hand at Amway. By the mid-'90s, he claims he was worth about 200 million, building his fortune through clever marketing of health care and memory-enhancing products. But Trudeau's practices haven't always been on the level. He's been a frequent defendant with a penchant for out-of-court settlement. In '91 he defrauded credit card holders of nearly 123,000 dollars, spending nearly two years in person.

KEVIN TRUDEAU: Early on in my career, it was about the money. I was on a fast track to make money. I cut corners, I made a mistake. And I paid the price. And since then - that was over almost 20 years ago, I – you know, Martha Stewart, she made a mistake in her sixties. She was a billionaire. She should have known better. I was 20 when I bounced a check.

SEBASTIAN KRUEGER: Trudeau was actually 28 at the time of his imprisonment, but he says he learned his lesson and that his mission changed – to helping people. The Federal Trade Commission felt otherwise. Trudeau settled two lawsuits with the FTC, first in the early '90s and again in 2004, this time over a product called coral calcium. He was subsequently barred from selling or advertising any products. FTC attorney Heather Hippsley led the charge against Trudeau.

HEATHER HIPPSLEY: We banned Mr. Trudeau from using infomercials because of his recidivist nature, the fact that this was our second time around with him, and also because he had had previous run-ins with state authorities on consumer protection problems, as well.

SEBASTIAN KRUEGER: Unable to market products, Trudeau turned to selling his opinion. Because of free speech protections, the FTC didn't ban Trudeau from publishing, and so he released the Natural Cures book early last year. Most doctors agree with a few of Trudeau's healthy living propositions – eating right, exercise, reducing stress. But then things get weirder. Although Trudeau admits he's not a trained medical professional, he suggests an array of home treatments, everything from 15 enemas in 30 days to taking up Scientology, to staring into the sun to prevent hunger, to quitting all prescription drugs. Even a satisfied reader like Harvell has his reservations about some assertions.

KEVIN HARVELL: He said something along the lines of AIDS not actually existing and don't wear sunscreen. You know, go out in the sun and don't worry about sunscreen.

SEBASTIAN KRUEGER: And Trudeau makes bold claims about the curative power of hydrogen peroxide.

KEVIN TRUDEAU: Hydrogen peroxide, intravenous cures cancer 90 percent of the time. Viruses could go away, herpes goes away, hep, hep-C goes away. This should be front-page news! Guess what? Hydrogen peroxide costs like a dollar fifty. If you can't patent it, nobody wants to hear about it.

DR. DAVID RAKEL: Books like this make it harder for us to do our job. [LAUGHS]

SEBASTIAN KRUEGER: Dr. David Rakel is the director of the University of Wisconsin's Integrative Medicine Program. His job is to bridge the gap between alternative and standard medicines. Despite Dr. Rakel's criticism, he does acknowledge that Trudeau has tapped into a real public health concern about money.

DR. DAVID RAKEL: That industry is based on an economic model where the more people who have that disease, the more product that they will sell. Unfortunately, that has gotten so strong from an economic standpoint, that has overpowered, if you will, the importance at looking at the complexity of how the body heals.

SEBASTIAN KRUEGER: Trudeau also sees business interests infecting government, as well. When the New York Consumer Protection Board began asking TV stations to reconsider running the Natural Cures infomercials last summer, Trudeau sued. The trial is set to begin later this year. Board Chairwoman Teresa Santiago argues that the infomercials and the book made promises they didn't deliver. Trudeau disagrees.

KEVIN TRUDEAU: This Santiago is an idiot. That's why we're suing her and that's why we're going to win, and we're going to show this is nothing more than First Amendment suppression.

SEBASTIAN KRUEGER: Although the board and Santiago would not comment for this piece, Columbia law professor Michael Dorf thinks Trudeau has a point.

MICHAEL DORF: Historically, the fraud exception to freedom of speech has been reserved for things other than publication.

SEBASTIAN KRUEGER: So why would this agency take the unusual step of confronting a book? Trudeau believes it's because of the criticism he's leveled at business and the government.

MICHAEL DORF: Its main point, he says, is to expose a conspiracy among government regulators, pharmaceutical companies, the health industry in general. And this is a profoundly political point, so that targeting his book under the guise of targeting fraud is really about suppressing political speech. And to my knowledge, there haven't been a lot of cases about this, certainly none at the Supreme Court. The courts will have to sort out what standard of review to apply where you have a book that makes both factual claims and political claims.

SEBASTIAN KRUEGER: In targeting the Natural Cures book, the government risks muffling the marketplace of ideas. But if Trudeau prevails in court, there's a different risk. Dorf explains that nefarious marketers, who may fear being charged with fraud -

MICHAEL DORF: - will have an incentive to package those as part of a larger product that makes a claim about politics.

SEBASTIAN KRUEGER: Regardless of the outcome, Dorf reminds us that by simply bringing this lawsuit, Trudeau may actually be doing an important service for our legal system.

MICHAEL DORF: It's often the case that free speech heroes are people who are making claims that are either false or not believed by the vast majority of the public.

KEVIN TRUDEAU: Let's talk about what the 25 million customers that have bought my stuff over the years, let's see what they say. They love me.

SEBASTIAN KRUEGER: Clearly for Trudeau, the nay-sayers have never been important. Free speech victory or not, he's already firmly convinced of his own heroism. For On the Media, I'm Sebastian Krueger. [MUSIC UP AND UNDER]