Feds: Bradenton ‘church’ got rich selling bleach as cure for COVID-19
MANATEE
Court documents filed this week shed light on how a Bradenton family allegedly profited for years by selling a toxic bleaching agent as a miracle cure for a host of diseases and medical conditions, including COVID-19.
The substance, known as “Master” or “Miracle Mineral Solution” (MMS) was peddled by the family through an organization called Genesis II Church of Health and Healing.
The product was manufactured in a shed behind a home in Bradenton before it was shipped out to thousands of consumers around the U.S., according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Office of Criminal Investigations.
The Bradenton men behind the “church” now face federal criminal charges after they openly refused court orders to cease operations.
Bank account information obtained by FDA-OCI agents revealed that Mark Grenon and sons took in approximately $500,000 in one year alone from the sale of MMS, with an average monthly revenue of about $32,000.
The income nearly quadrupled in March when they began to promote the substance as a cure for COVID-19.
The FDA has issued multiple consumer warnings about MMS since
2010 and recorded incidents of its ingestion leading to serious illness, hospitalization and death.
The active ingredient in MMS, chlorine dioxide, is a chemical compound used as a disinfectant and industrial bleaching agent that has not been proven to treat any diseases or approved for medical use, but it is a confirmed poison.
The American Association
of Poison Control Centers recorded more than 16,000 cases involving chlorine dioxide in a five-year span, a 2019 NBC investigation found.
Of those cases, more than 2,000 involved serious illness, 50 were considered life-threatening and eight were fatal.
FEDS: BRADENTON FAMILY HAS BEEN BREAKING THE LAW SINCE 2010
The Genesis II Church of Health and Healing has marketed the substance in violation of federal law since 2010, a criminal complaint filed this week states.
It was in that year that Mark Grenon claims to have founded the organization with a man named Jim Humble in a plan to avoid governmental regulation and arrest as they promoted MMS as a miracle cure.
Humble, a man who has dabbled in Scientology and professed to be a billion-year-old god, began promoting MMS as early as 2006 in self-published works after he claimed to have discovered its medical properties while on a gold-mining expedition in South America.
Court documents do not name Humble, but refer to Grenon’s founding partner as “Co-Conspirator 1.”
After Humble supposedly stepped away from the organization in 2017, Grenon continued to manufacture, promote and sell MMS with his three sons Jonathan, Jordan and Joseph Grenon. The Grenons utilized a “complex network of websites” to reach potential users, according to federal prosecutors, as well as “countless newsletters, posts, and articles.”
All four men were named in a civil case brought by the federal government earlier this year after Genesis II began marketing MMS as a cure for COVID-19. The case resulted in numerous court orders that banned the Grenons from distributing MMS. They responded with written statements of refusal and threats, and continued the defiance in weekly Genesis II podcasts.
In one instance, investigators noted Mark Grenon threatening an armed standoff.
“You’ve got the 2nd [Amendment]. Right? When Congress does immoral things, passes immoral laws, that’s when you pick up guns, right?” court papers quote Grenon saying. “You want a Waco? Do they want a Waco?”
In 1993, outside of Waco, Texas, a deadly shootout between federal agents and members of the Branch Davidian cult and ensuing 51-day-long siege ended with the deaths of some 80 cultists.
A federal investigation also found the Grenons continued to actively provide the toxic substance to consumers despite court orders. Undercover agents were able to obtain MMS through Genesis II before and after the bans were issued.
Court documents outline each family member’s alleged responsibilities within the organization.
Mark and Joseph Grenon were “primarily responsible for promoting the supposed curative powers of MMS,” court documents state, while Jonathan Grenon was primarliy responsible for manufacturing and Jordan Grenon for distribution.
Criminal charges against the Grenons were announced by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida on Wednesday. A motion was also filed supporting detention of the defendants until trial.
Two of the Grenons,
Jordan and Jonathan, were arrested in Bradenton on Wednesday by the U.S. Marshals Service and booked into the Pinellas County jail. They are being held without bail.
“The whole idea of bond is that the defendants can be trusted to comply with court orders requiring their appearance and setting conditions for their release,” prosecutors argued in the motion. “There is no basis to think these Defendants will comply with any order, let alone bond terms. They are a danger to the community, especially in this public health crisis; they also present a serious risk of flight and of obstructing justice.”
TWO FAMILY MEMBERS IN SOUTH AMERICA
As his sons were arrested and Genesis II’s Bradenton headquarters were dismantled by federal agents on Wednesday, Mark Grenon claimed to be in Colombia with his other son, Joseph, expecting arrest and extradition.
Mark Grenon appeared in an online interview posted on Thursday. It was conducted by Mike Adams, a publisher of several websites known to promote conspiracy theories and scientific innacuracies.
In the interview, Grenon stood by his actions and continued to promote MMS.
“The FDA said we should stop giving our sacraments to the world,” Grenon said. “And we said no.”
Grenon also cited his First Ammendment right to “exercise religious beliefs.”
The FDA investigation detailed in federal court documents draws heavily from another interview that Grenon gave in February on a YouTube channel that explores conspiracy theories and the paranormal.
As previously reported by the Bradenton Herald, Grenon acknowledged in the interview that he established a religious outfit to evade government regulation.