in the 1990s, hawking memberships in an ill-fated networking marketing company. >> his name is keith ranierit is consumers byline. >> reporter: consumers buyline featured eddie alvers of "green acres" fame and an awkward ranieri, pitchman. >> good to see you. >> good to see you. >> it's an amazing idea. >> sometimes it even amazes me. but consumers byline is wonderful and it's working. >> it really was a brilliant idea, based on the premise of as a group collectively, we can buy in bulk, we can save a lot of money. >> reporter: tony natali knew ranieri before he was vanguard. when you met him did he seem like a genius? >> he seemed like a geek. i asked him, you have a 240 iq, why are you doing this? he said, this is the platform that i'm going to use, and i'm going to change the world. >> reporter: but not everyone was buying what ranieri was selling. attorneys general in several states began looking into consumers buyline's practices. >> we told you about consumers buyline last may when the company was accused of being an illegal pyramid scheme -- >> reporter: the company settled without ad