Father and sons charged for marketing toxic bleach as COVID-19 cure through 'church'
Mark Grenon, leader of the Genesis II Church of Health and Healing, is now on the run after federal prosecutors in Miami charged him and three of his sons for allegedly marketing a toxic bleach as a cure for COVID-19.
A statement released by the Department of Justice Wednesday explains that Grenon, 62, and his three sons — Jonathan, 34; Jordan, 26; and Joseph, 32 — all of Bradenton, Florida, are charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to violate the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act and criminal contempt.
The men, according to a criminal complaint, manufacture, promote and sell a chemical solution containing sodium chlorite and water. Grenon and his sons allegedly directed their customers to ingest the solution, which they call “Miracle Mineral Solution,” orally.
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The complaint notes that once the product is ingested, it becomes chlorine dioxide, a powerful bleach that is typically used for industrial water treatment or bleaching textiles, pulp and paper, which can be toxic to the body.
While the Grenons claim that MMS can treat, prevent and cure COVID-19, federal officials note that the Food and Drug Administration has not approved the solution for the treatment of COVID-19 or any other use.
Rather, the FDA has strongly urged consumers not to purchase or use MMS in a prior statement, warning that drinking MMS is the same as drinking bleach. Side effects can including severe vomiting, diarrhea and life-threatening low blood pressure.
“We continue to protect the public from criminal conduct that takes advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic,” U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida Ariana Fajardo Orshan said in a statement.
“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. A United States District Court already has ordered the defendants to stop distributing this product; we will not sit idly by as individuals purposefully violate Court orders and put the public in danger.”
In an interview with Natural News Wednesday, Grenon confirmed that he is in Colombia expecting to be arrested and extradited at any moment. Grenon also will not resist any attempt to extradite him to the U.S. He plans to fight for what he claims are his First Amendment rights in court.
Grenon said his family has been fighting with federal authorities about their support for MMS for about 10 years but admitted that things only escalated in April when they were 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.”
However, Genesis’ website describes the operation as a “non-religious church.”
Grenon explained that when he started his church in 2010 in the Dominican Republic, within a week, he was contacted by U.S. authorities.
Grenon argues that “MMS is a mineral salt.”
“[B]asically, we use that to detox the body but we use it as a sacrament,” he said.
Grenon added that while people donate money to his church to get MMS, many receive it for free to help with their healing.
“Anybody wants anything, they just write us, give us a donation and we send it to them. And that’s the way it’s been for ten years,” Grenon said.
He further explained that he believes in using MMS because it cured his Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus — also known as MRSA — infection he developed years ago while working as a missionary pilot. Other family members suffered from the infection and it cured them too, he said.
“That really motivated us to tell the world, we cannot stop telling people what happened to us,” he added.
Thousands of people from around the world have already testified to the benefits of using MMS, Grenon continued.
He argued that the only reason the FDA wants to shut down his ministry is that the agency wants to protect the interests of big pharmaceutical companies.
According to the Justice Department, Grenon and his sons have presented MMS also as a cure for other diseases and disorders like cancer, Alzheimer’s, autism, multiple sclerosis and HIV/AIDS.
“The Grenons allegedly sold tens of thousands of bottles of MMS nationwide, including to consumers throughout South Florida,” the Justice Department statement explains. “They sold this dangerous product under the guise of Genesis II Church of Health and Healing, an entity they allegedly created in an attempt to avoid government regulation of MMS.”
The Justice Department alleges that Grenon has repeatedly acknowledged that Genesis “has nothing to do with religion,” and that he founded Genesis to “legalize the use of MMS” as well as avoid jail time.
