Members of a Florida family are facing charges after reportedly selling at least 28,000 bottles of bleach marketed as a cure for COVID-19.
The family, according to reports, netted more than $1 million over the last year.
What are the details?
According to an NBC News report, 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 Friday 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.'”
He is alleged to have said, “Do they want a Waco?” referring to the 1993 Texas siege that saw 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 reportedly 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 reportedly jumped 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 more bottles of the solution. Loaded guns were also discovered at the property, including a pump-action shotgun hidden in a custom-made violin case.
The outlet reported that authorities arrested Jonathan and Jordan, and both are expected to be arraigned Monday. Mark and Joseph are reportedly in Colombia at the time of
