OAN’s Abril Elfi
6:02 PM – Sunday, October 8, 2023
A Florida father and his three sons were sentenced to prison on fraud charges after selling bleach as a COVID-19 cure.
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According to a news release from the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida, a man and his sons were sentenced by a federal judge in Miami, Florida, three months after their conviction for selling toxic industrial bleach as a fake COVID-19 cure.
Mark Grenon, 66, and his son Joseph Grenon, 36, who fled to Colombia when the federal government initially revealed allegations against them, were sentenced to five years in prison, which is the maximum punishment agreed upon between the United States and Colombia after the pair’s extradition.
Jonathan Grenon, 37, and Jordan Grenon, 29, were sentenced to 12 and a half years in prison for conspiracy and contempt for attempting to “defraud the United States by distributing an unapproved and misbranded drug.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Homer spoke at the sentencing, saying, “The defendants preyed on many vulnerable populations.”
The Grenon family had been selling “Miracle Mineral Solution” (MMS), a chemical solution that turns into bleach after ingested orally.
According to the Department of Justice (DOJ) the solution is typically used to treat industrial water and for bleaching, textiles, pulp, and paper.
“The Grenons claimed that ingesting MMS could treat, prevent, and cure COVID-19,” the Justice Department said.
The relatives sold the fake “COVID-19 cure” through the Genesis II Church of Health and Healing, which they set up to “avoid government regulation of MMS,” according to officials.
They further claimed that MMS could heal 95% of ailments such as cancer, Alzheimer’s, diabetes, and AIDS.
To obtain MMS, patients were forced to make a donation to Genesis, which was fixed at a certain amount, resulting in the family receiving more than $1 million.
According to the DOJ, the government obtained court orders to halt the production of the fake cure, but the Grenons “willfully violated those court orders and continued to distribute MMS.”
The FDA had strongly advised people not to buy or use MMS for any purpose, claiming that it was the same as drinking bleach and might induce deadly side effects such as severe vomiting, diarrhea, and life-threatening low blood pressure.
According to the FDA, after ingesting MMS, many were hospitalized, developed life-threatening diseases, and some even died.
During the trial, the jury was shown images and video of a shack in Jonathan Grenon’s backyard in Bradenton, Florida, where the defendants were making the MMS.
Several blue chemical barrels containing over 10,000 pounds of sodium chlorite powder, hundreds of bottles of MMS, and other materials used in the manufacture and distribution of MMS were also photographed.
The blue chemical barrels containing sodium chlorite powder, the principal active ingredient in MMS, were labeled with warnings that the substance was hazardous and unsafe to consume.
Genesis’ websites reportedly describes Genesis as a “non-religious church.” The father, Mark Grenon, who was also the co-founder of Genesis, has repeatedly acknowledged that Genesis “has nothing to do with religion,” and that he founded Genesis to “legalize the use of MMS” and avoid “going to jail.”
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