Florida family found guilty of selling bleach as COVID-19 cure through fake online church
A Florida man and three of his sons who duped consumers into purchasing more than $1 million worth of a "Miracle Mineral Solution" through a fake online church to cure ailments including COVID-19 and cancer that was nothing more than a poisonous "powerful bleach" when ingested, were convicted on federal fraud charges Wednesday.
Mark Grenon, 65, who served as the leader of Genesis II Church of Health and Healing and his sons Jonathan, 37; Joseph, 35; and Jordan, 29; were all convicted more than two years after they were indicted in April 2021, ABC 7 reported.
Before their conviction, prosecutors called Grenon and his sons "con men" and "snake-oil salesmen" who used their fake church to sell MMS as a "religious sacrament" able to cure 95% of known diseases.
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The 2021 indictment described MMS as a toxic "chemical solution containing sodium chlorite and water which, when ingested orally, becomes chlorine dioxide, a powerful bleach typically used for industrial water treatment or bleaching textiles, pulp, and paper."
The men represented themselves at the trial this week. Jurors were shown rodent droppings on the floor of a shed where they produced MMS. They also recoiled from bottles of the product they were asked to smell that was delivered to an undercover federal agent.
Prosecutors highlighted in their indictment how Genesis II, a non-religious entity, exploited religion as a cover to avoid government regulation of MMS and escape prosecution.
Mark Grenon argued in an interview with Natural News in 2020 that his family has been fighting with federal authorities about their support for MMS for about 10 years, but admitted that things only escalated when the Food and Drug Administration sent a warning to "stop" distributing their MMS "sacraments."
"The FDA said we should stop giving our sacraments to the world and we just basically said 'No, we have the First Amendment,'" Grenon said. "It says we have the free exercise of religious beliefs," despite being a "non-religious church," as was noted on his website at the time.
"Defendant Mark Grenon, 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,'" the Department of Justice noted in a 2021 release.
Authorities also noted that donations to acquire MMS were "effectively just sales prices" because orders were set at specific dollar amounts. The Grenons were also charged with criminal contempt, according to the indictment, for violating a court order in a civil case to stop distributing MMS.
"The Grenons also allegedly threatened the federal judge presiding over the civil case, and threatened that, should the government attempt to enforce the court orders halting their distribution of MMS, the Grenons would 'pick up guns' and instigate 'a Waco,'" the DOJ said.
The family is expected to be sentenced on Oct. 6.
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