A Florida father and his three sons will spend years in prison after they were convicted on fraud charges for selling bleach as a COVID-19 cure.
Mark Grenon, 66, and son Joseph Grenon, 36, who fled to Colombia after the federal government first announced charges against them, were each sentenced to five years behind bars — the maximum sentence agreed upon between the US and the South American country during the pair’s extradition.
Mark Grenon’s other two sons, Jonathan Grenon, 37, and Jordan Grenon, 29, were each sentenced to 12.5 years in prison for conspiracy and contempt for trying to “defraud the United States by distributing an unapproved and misbranded drug,” the DOJ wrote in a news release.
They were all ordered to pay nearly $2,000 in restitution each.
“The defendants preyed on many vulnerable populations,” Assistant US Attorney Michael Homer said at the sentencing hearing.
The patriarch argued with a judge that he was actually a victim because he’d spent 1,152 days in jail.
The elder Grenon accused the government of “kidnapping” him, according to the Miami Herald.
He is asking the US to compensate him $5.76 million for being “held unlawfully.”
When asked if he would be awarded the hefty amount, the judge told him it was a “nonsensical question” and he wouldn’t “answer it.”
The Grenons represented themselves at their summer trial.
Jonathan, a father of five himself, argued he has spent enough time in custody and should be “released to [his] family.”
“I have lost everything,” he said, according to the Miami Herald.
His brothers made similar claims, but all were denied.
The Grenon family sold “Miracle Mineral Solution” (MMS), a chemical solution that would turn into bleach after ingested orally.
The solution is typically used to treat industrial water and for bleaching, textiles, pulp, and paper, the DOJ said.
“The Grenons claimed that ingesting MMS could treat, prevent, and cure COVID-19,” the Justice Department said.
“The FDA, however, had not approved MMS for treatment of COVID-19, or for any other use.”
The family, of Bradenton, Fla., sold the faux COVID-19 cure out of the Genesis II Church of Health and Healing — a fake house of worship they created to “avoid government regulation of MMS,” authorities said.
They also claimed MMS could cure 95% of diseases, including cancer, Alzheimer’s, diabetes, AIDS, and more.
In order for patients to obtain MMS, they had to make a donation to Genesis, which were set at specific amounts — acting as sales prices — which resulted in the clan raking in more than $1 million.
The government, at one point, obtained court orders to halt the production of the fake cure, but the Grenons “willfully violated those court orders and continued to distribute MMS,” the DOJ said.
The family threatened to “pick up guns” and to instigate a “Waco” if the government enforced the stoppage.
Prosecutors accused the family of never showing remorse for their actions.
