4 Members of a Florida Household Are Convicted of Promoting a Pretend COVID-19 Treatment By way of On-line Church

MIAMI (AP) — 4 members of a Florida family had been convicted Wednesday of promoting a poisonous industrial bleach as a pretend COVID-19 remedy by way of their on-line church.

A federal jury in Miami discovered Mark Grenon, 65, and his sons, 37-year-old Jonathan, 35-year-old Joseph and 29-year-old Jordan, responsible of conspiring to defraud the USA and ship misbranded medicine, in response to court docket data. That cost carries as much as 5 years in jail. Their sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 6.

The Grenons represented themselves however declined to talk in the course of the two-day trial, the Miami Herald reported. After the jury delivered its verdict, Joseph Grenon stated they might be interesting.

Prosecutors referred to as the Grenons “con males” and “snake-oil salesmen” and stated the Bradenton household’s Genesis II Church of Well being and Therapeutic offered $1 million value of their so-called Miracle Mineral Resolution. In movies, it was pitched as a remedy for 95% of recognized ailments, together with COVID-19, Alzheimer’s, autism, mind most cancers, HIV/AIDS and a number of sclerosis, prosecutors stated.

What the Grenons had been promoting was really chlorine dioxide, officers stated. When ingested, the answer turns into a bleach that’s sometimes used for things like treating textiles, industrial water, pulp and paper, in response to the Meals and Drug Administration. Authorities stated it’s the identical as ingesting bleach and might be deadly.

A Miami federal decide ordered the church to cease promoting the substance in 2020, however that was ignored.

Jonathan and Jordan Grenon had been arrested in Bradenton, simply south of the Tampa Bay space. Mark and Joseph Grenon fled to Colombia, the place they had been arrested and extradited again to the U.S.

In addition to the fraud convictions, Jonathan and Jordan Grenon had been additionally convicted of violating federal court docket orders requiring them to cease promoting Miracle Mineral Resolution in 2020. U.S. authorities agreed to drop those self same contempt prices in opposition to Mark and Joseph Grenon as a situation of their extradition from Colombia.

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