The self-proclaimed archbishop of an allegedly fake Florida church who sent a letter to Donald Trump peddling bleach as a miracle COVID-19 cure has been charged alongside his three sons after they ignored a judge’s order to stop selling the toxic mixture.
Mark Grenon, 62, and his sons, Jonathan, 34, Joseph, 32, and Jordan, 26, all face charges of conspiracy to defraud the US, conspiracy to violate the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, and criminal contempt, the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida announced Wednesday.
The family team are accused of marketing and selling Miracle Mineral Solution (MMS) as a ‘miracle cure-all’ for coronavirus as well as a range of illnesses including cancer, Alzheimer’s, autism, multiple sclerosis, and HIV/AIDS.
They peddled the toxic substance through a fraudulent church called the Genesis II Church of Health and Healing – which the criminal complaint says Grenon admitted ‘has nothing to do with religion’ but was set up ‘in an attempt to avoid government regulation of MMS.’
Mark Grenon, 62, (pictured) and his sons, Jonathan, 34, Joseph, 32, and Jordan, 26, all face charges of conspiracy to defraud the US, conspiracy to violate the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, and criminal contempt, the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida announced Wednesday
Federal prosecutors said Wednesday they believe the Grenons sold tens of thousands of bottles of MMS under the cover of religion and instructed their customers to drink it.
Before they touted it as a COVID-19 cure they were already selling the substance as a treatment for several other illnesses and disorders.
Their actions could have helped cause multiple deaths over the years, with the Federal Drug Administration saying it received numerous reports of people requiring hospitalizations, developing life-threatening conditions and dying after drinking the bleach.
Drinking MSS causes the mixture to become chlorine dioxide, a powerful bleach usually used for ‘industrial water treatment or bleaching textiles, pulp and paper’, according to the criminal complaint.
Prosecutors said the Genesis II church’s main claim was that MMS has healing powers and that leader Grenon admitted the church was created with the sole purpose to ‘legalize the use of MMS’ and avoid ‘jail.’
‘Not only is this MMS product toxic, but its distribution and use may prevent those who are sick from receiving the legitimate healthcare they need,’ said Ariana Fajardo Orshan, US attorney for the Southern District of Florida.
‘Making claims that unproven drugs, especially potentially dangerous and unapproved chlorine dioxide products, can cure or prevent COVID-19 or any other disease is unacceptable,’ added Catherine Hermsen, assistant commissioner of the FDA’s Office of Criminal Investigations.
The family team peddled the toxic substance through a fraudulent church called the Genesis II Church of Health and Healing (pictured) – which the criminal complaint says Grenon admitted ‘has nothing to do with religion’ but was set up ‘in an attempt to avoid government regulation of MMS’
The family team are accused of marketing and selling Miracle Mineral Solution (MMS) (pictured) as a ‘miracle cure-all’ for coronavirus as well as a range of illnesses including cancer, Alzheimer’s, autism, multiple sclerosis, and HIV/AIDS
‘The Genesis II Church of Health and Healing has actively and deliberately placed consumers at risk with their fraudulent Miracle Mineral Solution and Americans expect and deserve medical treatments that have been scientifically proven to be safe and effective.’
Back in April, the church was ordered to stop selling the dangerous substance by a federal judge in Miami.
The Grenons initially agreed to comply with the order but then ignored it and continued to peddle MMS to customers, authorities said.
‘We will NOT be participating in any of your UNCONSTITUTIONAL Orders, Summons, etc,’ Mark Grenon wrote in an email to US District Judge Kathleen Williams about her order.
‘Again and again I have written you all that… you have NO authority over our Church.’
Grenon proudly took credit back in June for Donald Trump’s bleach gaffe, where the president recommended injecting disinfectant as a possible treatment for COVID-19.
Joseph, Mark and Jonathan Grenon (left to right). The Grenons have been charged after they ignored a judge’s order to stop selling the toxic mixture
Grenon proudly took credit back in June for Donald Trump’s bleach gaffe, where the president recommended injecting disinfectant as a possible treatment for COVID-19. Grenon had written a letter to Trump just days before his comments where he said MMS was ‘a wonderful detox that can kill 99 percent of the pathogens in the body’ and ‘can rid the body of Covid-19’
The so-called church leader had written a letter to Trump just days before his comments where he said MMS was ‘a wonderful detox that can kill 99 percent of the pathogens in the body’ and ‘can rid the body of Covid-19.’
Days later, Trump baffled scientists and threw public health experts into damage control mode when he suggested disinfectant as a cure in his daily coronavirus briefing.
‘I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in a minute, one minute, and is there a way we can do something like that by injection inside or almost a cleaning because you see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs so it’d be interesting to check that,’ Trump said in June.
It is not clear whether Trump had read Grenon’s letter prior to his comments.
The president later backtracked on his comments saying he was being sarcastic but a worrying surge in cases of people ingesting bleach came off the back of his comments.
New York City’s Health Department recorded 30 cases of possible exposure to disinfectants in the 18 hours after his briefing.