MIAMI — A circle of Florida relatives accused of promoting a poisonous commercial bleaching agent as a fake cure for COVID-19 through their online church is on trial this week in Miami.
Mark Grenon, 65, and his sons, Jonathan, 37, Joseph, 35, and Jordan, 29, are charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States and deliver misbranded drugs, according to court records.
The Grenons represent themselves but declined to make opening statements when the trial began Monday, the Miami Herald reported. They have pleaded not guilty.
Prosecutors called the Grenons “criminals” and “snake oil salesmen” and said the Bradenton family’s Genesis II Church for Health and Healing sold their so-called Miracle Mineral Solution for $1 million. In videos, it has been touted as a purported cure for 95 percent of known diseases, adding COVID-19, Alzheimer’s disease, autism, brain cancer, HIV/AIDS and sclerosis, prosecutors said.
What the Grenons were promoting was chlorine dioxide, officials said. When ingested, the solution becomes a bleaching agent that is typically used for things like textile processing, commercial water, pulp and paper, according to the Food and Drug Administration. Authorities said it was the same as drinking bleach and it could be deadly.
A federal ruling in Miami ordered the church to stop selling the content in 2020, but that was ignored.
Jonathan and Jordan Grenon were arrested in Bradenton, south of the Tampa Bay area. Mark and Joseph Grenon fled to Colombia, where they were arrested and extradited to the United States.