Florida father and sons jailed for selling fake bleach Covid cure

Prosecutors called the Grenon family ‘snake-oil salesmen’ after they made over $1m selling a potentially lethal fake ‘miracle’ drug

Four members of a Florida family have been jailed for making more than $1m by selling a fake “miracle” cure for COVID-19 which was actually a harmful bleach concoction.

Mark Grenon, 66 and his three sons were all convicted of distributing an “unapproved and misbranded drug” made up of toxic industrial bleach, according to the Southern District of Florida Attorney’s Office.

Grenon and his son Joseph Grenon, 36, were both sentenced to five years in federal prison.

Meanwhile, Grenon’s other two sons Jonathan Grenon, 37 and Jordan Grenon, 29, were sentenced to 12 years in prison as they were also convicted of charges of contempt of court.

The father and son team sold the drug under the “guise” of a church they co-founded, named Genesis II Church of Health and Healing, the attorney’s office said in a statement on Friday.

The organisation had been created so that the group could forgo government regulation and “shield themselves from prosecution”.

On the church’s website, the Grenons claimed that they were running a “non-religious church” with Mark Grenon repeatedly saying they only set it up to “legalise the use of MMS” and avoid “going to jail”.

The Grenons, all from Bradenton, Florida, created their “Miracle Mineral Solution (MMS)” – a drug that they touted would treat, prevent and cure COVID-19 – and sold it as a “donation” to Genesis.

They claimed the fake drug was so miraculous that before they marketed it to treat Covid-19, they also claimed it could cure various other very serious illnesses, such as cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, HIV/AIDS and leukaemia.

The US Food and Drug Administration never approved the church’s MMS drug for any sort of use and warned against its use as far back as 2010, reported ABC.

Mark Grenon was selling bleach as a cure for Covid (YouTube)

Despite this, the Grenon family made over $1m off selling it to customers who believed the misinformation they spread through their online videos, the attorney’s office said.

Little did the buyers know, they would be ingesting a chemical solution that when mixed with water became chlorine dioxide – a very strong bleach that is usually used in bleaching textiles, pulp and paper.

The attorney’s office said that some people were hospitalised, developed life-threatening conditions and even died after taking MMS.

The organisation was hit with a court order, banning it from selling any more of the harmful product.

Yet, Jordan and Jonathon Grenon both continued to sell and distribute MMS to people despite the orders.

The pair also threatened the federal judge presiding over a civil case seeking to ban sales of MMS, saying that should the government attempt to enforce the court orders, the Grenons would “pick up guns” and instigate “a Waco,” the attorney’s office said.

Image shared by prosecutors of the drugs (United States Attorney’s Office, Southern District of Florida)

The “Waco” was in reference to the siege where 86 people died inside a compound in Waco, Texas, in 1993 during a standoff between federal agents and the Branch Davidians cult.

Because of this, Jordan and Jonathon Grenon were both given an extra charge of contempt of court, landing them a longer prison sentence.

They were first arrested in Bradenton, while Mark and Joseph Grenon fled to Colombia where they were later arrested and extradited to Florida.

The family members went on trial in July, with the court footage of Jonathan Grenon’s backyard where the family members manufactured MMS in a “dirty rundown shed,” said the attorney’s office.

There were dozens of blue chemical drums containing nearly 10,000 pounds of sodium chlorite powder and thousands of bottles of MMS.

The four men all represented themselves during the two-day trial, according to The Miami Herald.

Prosecutors allegedly called the four men “con men” and “snake-oil salesmen” in court, said NBC.