In April, when President Trump mused whether injecting patients with disinfectant could kill the novel coronavirus, perhaps no one was more thrilled about the suggestion than Mark Grenon.
Grenon runs a fake church with his sons in Florida that sells people a life-threatening toxic bleach product he calls the Miracle Mineral Solution (MMS), federal officials say, which he fraudulently claims cures everything from covid-19 to cancer.
“Trump has got the MMS and all the info!!! Things are happening folks!” Grenon, 62, wrote on Facebook on April 24, linking to Trump’s comments. “Lord help others to see the Truth!”
Grenon had made $500,000 in 2019 alone selling his solutions to thousands of vulnerable, sick people across the country, according to the Justice Department, even though the Food and Drug Administration had warned for years that people could die if they drank MMS products, which are essentially bleach.
From the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida:
Federal prosecutors in Miami have charged four Florida residents who allegedly marketed “Miracle Mineral Solution,” a toxic bleach, as a cure for COVID-19, with conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to violate the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, and criminal contempt.
Ariana Fajardo Orshan, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and Catherine Hermsen, Assistant Commissioner of the FDA’s Office of Criminal Investigations, made the announcement.
According to the criminal complaint affidavit, Mark Grenon, 62, and his sons, Jonathan Grenon, 34, Jordan Grenon, 26, and Joseph Grenon, 32, all of Bradenton, Florida, manufacture, promote, and sell Miracle Mineral Solution (“MMS”), a chemical solution containing sodium chlorite and water. The Grenons allegedly directed their customers to ingest MMS orally, which causes the solution to become chlorine dioxide, a powerful bleach, typically used for industrial water treatment or bleaching textiles, pulp, and paper. FDA has received reports of people requiring hospitalizations, developing life-threatening conditions, and dying after drinking MMS.
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The affidavit also alleges that, before marketing MMS as a cure for COVID-19, the Grenons marketed MMS as a miracle cure-all for dozens of other serious diseases and disorders, including cancer, Alzheimer’s, autism, multiple sclerosis, and HIV/AIDS, even though the FDA had not approved MMS for any use. The Grenons allegedly sold tens of thousands of bottles of MMS nationwide, including to consumers throughout South Florida. They sold this dangerous product under the guise of Genesis II Church of Health and Healing (“Genesis”), an entity they allegedly created in an attempt to avoid government regulation of MMS. According to the charging documents, Genesis’ own websites describe Genesis as a “non-religious church,” and 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.”
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Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or at http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov, under case number 20-MJ-03050.
