A Florida man and his three sons were accused in federal court of selling tens of thousands of bottles of bleach that were marketed as a “miracle cure” for the coronavirus and other illnesses, authorities said.
The man, Mark Grenon, and his sons, Jonathan, Jordan and Joseph Grenon, were accused of fraud and violating civil court orders instructing them to stop selling the fake cure, which they promoted as “Miracle Mineral Solution,” or MMS, according to documents filed Friday in Florida’s southern district.
The Food and Drug Administration has warned people not to ingest the potentially deadly chlorine dioxide solution, which is typically used for industrial water treatment.
Court documents filed in the civil case allege that on a podcast released last year, co-host Mark Grenon referred to the 2nd Amendment and threatened a federal judge over a court order halting the sale of MMS, saying she was committing “treason.”
“Do they want a Waco?” he is alleged to have said, referring to the 1993 siege in Texas that left 76 people dead.
According to court documents, the family manufactured the solution in a backyard shed in Bradenton, about 45 miles south of Tampa. Through what the documents describe as an “avowedly” nonreligious church called Genesis II Church of Health and Healing, the solution was marketed and sold as a cure-all for cancer, autism, diabetes and other disorders and diseases, according to the documents.
The documents say the family had a massive jump in revenue — from an average of $32,000 a month to $123,000 — after they began marketing the solution as a Covid-19 cure in March 2020.
The family has sold more than 28,000 bottles, earning more than $1 million, the documents say.
During a raid on the Bradenton property, authorities discovered dozens of chemical drums, 10,000 pounds of sodium nitrate and thousands of bottles of the solution, the U.S. attorney’s office for southern Florida said in a news release.
Two of the sons — Jonathan and Jordan Grenon — were arrested and are scheduled to be arraigned Monday, the release says.
Mark and Joseph Grenon are in Colombia, the release says. It doesn’t provide additional details about their location, and a spokeswoman didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
It isn’t clear whether the family has attorneys. Court records don’t list one, and a message sent to Genesis seeking comment wasn’t immediately returned.
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