A Florida family is facing charges after selling at least 28,000 bottles of bleach that they marketed as a cure for COVID-19.
The family profited over $1 million over the last year from their scam, according to reports.
As NBC News reported, 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 “cure,” which they promoted as “Miracle Mineral Solution,” or “MMS.”
Documents filed in federal court in the state’s southern district said that during a 2020 podcast, Mark “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?” Mark allegedly said, referring to the 1993 Texas siege that left at least 76 people dead.
NBC News reported, “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 described 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.”
Mark is described as an archbishop and founder at the church. Prosecutors argue that Mark founded the institution — which he has repeatedly stated “has nothing to do with religion” — in order to legalize the use of the solution and avoid prosecution.
The family’s monthly income at the time allegedly went from $32,000 per month to $123,000 per month.
Following a raid on the family’s Bradenton property, authorities seized “dozens of chemical drums,” including 10,000 pounds of sodium nitrate and thousands of more bottles of the solution. Authorities also discovered loaded guns at the property, including a pump-action shotgun hidden in a custom-made violin case.
Authorities arrested Jonathan and Jordan. Both are expected to be arraigned Monday. Mark and Joseph are in Colombia. The Grenons were each charged with conspiracy to commit fraud and criminal contempt. If convicted, they could each face life in prison.
On Sunday, The New York Times reported that Mark and Joseph reportedly operate a “health restoration center” in Colombia, where they charge people $5,000 per month to stay at a compound and “dose themselves with the Miracle Mineral Solution.”
The Times also reported that a Florida grand jury indicted Mark and his sons and accused them of marketing and profiting from an “unproven and potentially harmful” solution for various diseases.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida said that the solution contains sodium chlorite and water.
“When it is ingested orally, it becomes chlorine dioxide, a strong bleach used in industrial water treatments and in bleaching textiles, pulp, or paper,” the Times reported.
The family apparently relied on a “book, radio station, and newsletter and cited Bible verses to market the solution to vulnerable customers.”
With a little research, you find that sodium chlorite activated with a acid reactor, makes chlorine dioxide, which is NOT bleach. Another article I read on this states that fact, and I think was the same Times article being quoted here. Anyway, the statement in the headline that reads “That Was Actually Just Bleach”, is false. Bleach is sodium hypoclorite. Two different things, which have different affects. Saying it’s bleach, and showing pictures of Chlorox, is just plain irresponsible.
Furthermore, the article states when ingested, it becomes chlorine dioxide. That is also incorrect. It is chlorine dioxide before it’s ingested. If you mix sodium chlorite with an acid activator like hydrohoric acid, you get chlorine dioxide, which is what people are doing with this. They are making chlorine dioxide, and then taking it internally as an oxidizer. The article is misrepresenting what this is exactly and what’s going on with it.