Using fake church, Florida clan sold bleach as ‘miracle’ cure. Dad, 3 sons going to prison

A father and his three sons — all convicted of selling a toxic bleach solution as a “miracle” cure through a fake online Florida church — protested their prison sentences imposed by a federal judge on Friday, saying the punishment was “harsh.”

The sentencing hearing in Miami federal court took an unusual turn when the father, Mark Grenon, told the judge that he was actually the victim. He argued that his 1,152 days in custody amounted to “kidnapping” and the U.S. government should compensate him $5.76 million for being “held unlawfully.”

“Yes or no?” Grenon, 66, asked U.S. District Judge Cecilia Altonaga.

“That’s a nonsensical question,” Altonaga told Grenon. “I won’t answer that.”

In short order, Altonaga sentenced the father to five years in prison, fined him $5,000 and ordered him to pay $1,948 in restitution to victims of the Bradenton family’s scheme of selling “Mineral Miracle Solution” to thousands of consumers across the country. The judge also sentenced one of his sons, Joseph Grenon, 36, to five years, with no fine, but imposed the same restitution order.

When the four family members were charged in 2020, the father and Joseph Grenon were hiding in Colombia, according to federal authorities. The U.S. government sought their extradition. The Bogota government turned them over on the condition that they would only be charged with a conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government, which limited their punishment to a maximum of five years.

Separate contempt of court charges were dismissed against them before trial.

The father’s other two sons were not as lucky to catch that break.

The judge sentenced Jonathan Grenon, 37, and Jordan Grenon, 29, to more than 12 years in prison because they were convicted of the main conspiracy charge and a pair of contempt charges stemming from their violation of court orders to stop selling the dangerous mineral solution to the public. Jonathan was not fined, but his brother Jordan was ordered to pay $2,500. Both were also ordered to pay the same restitution as the other family members.

The Grenons represented themselves at their trial and sentencing hearing, though court-appointed defense attorneys were on standby if required. At Friday’s hearing, the Grenons did not allow those lawyers to speak on their behalf.

At trial and during sentencing, prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s Office portrayed the four defendants as con men who used a phony religious front on a website, the Genesis II Church of Health and Healing, to sell $1 million worth of their “Miracle Mineral Solution” in video pitches as a cure for 95% of the world’s known diseases, from AIDS to the coronavirus. They called it a “scam for money.”

“The defendants preyed on many vulnerable populations,” including children with autism, Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Homer said Friday.

He told the judge that the Grenon family members have never shown any remorse for their crime.

At the sentencing hearing, the four defendants invoked their faith in God and Jesus repeatedly, saying they did not “consent” to the judicial proceedings and should be released after spending about three years in custody in both the United States and Colombia.

“I have lost everything,” said Jonathan Grenon, adding that he was married with five sons. “I believe I should be released to my family.”

The other two brothers made similar pleas for mercy, to no avail.

In July, after deliberating for only 30 minutes, the Miami federal jury found all four defendants guilty of conspiring to defraud the U.S. government and the Food and Drug Administration by distributing an unapproved and misbranded drug, Miracle Mineral Solution (MMS).

During the trial, Homer and fellow prosecutor John Shipley said the Grenons called themselves “bishops” and peddled MMS as “sacraments” to consumers in South Florida and other parts of the United States in exchange for a “donation” to the Genesis church, before the Food and Drug Administration cracked down on the family in 2020.

The Grenons were charged that April with conspiring to defraud the U.S. government after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic when they defied FDA and court orders to stop distributing the toxic MMS substance. Their criminal case was the first pandemic-related enforcement action in Florida. In public warnings, FDA said it received several reports of hospitalizations and life-threatening conditions as people drank the dangerous substance.

MMS is a chemical solution containing sodium chlorite that, when mixed with water and a citric acid “activator,” turns into chlorine dioxide, a powerful bleach typically used for industrial water treatment or bleaching textiles, pulp and paper.

At trial, Altonaga, the judge, gave an instruction to jurors that the Grenons could not use the First Amendment, specifically religious freedom, as a defense for selling the dangerous product because their so-called church was not a religious entity.

In his closing argument, Shipley hit home on that point. “You cannot go out and create a fake church and violate the law,” he argued.

During the trial, a Food and Drug Administration agent testified about three Grenon-produced videos that pitched the solution as a cure for cancer, lung cancer and COVID-19, among other deadly diseases.

“We are trying to create a world without disease,” Mark Grenon said in one video, pitching the MMS substance. “It’s been proven to be tremendously effective in curing cancer.”

Another video, dated March 8, 2020, was titled: “The coronavirus is curable. Do you believe it? You better!”

Homer asked the FDA agent, Jose Rivera, if there’s a cure for the coronavirus, which can cause severe respiratory disease and death.

“No, there isn’t,” Rivera said.

To bolster his investigation, Rivera, under a different name, said he bought multiple bottles of the Grenons’ MMS product through their website at $15, $20 and $30 each. They were shipped to addresses in Florida and Georgia. In one instance, Rivera complained that his fictional wife, who was portrayed as battling cancer, did not improve after taking the substance for three weeks. The agent testified that he received an email from one of Grenon’s sons saying that she would have to use it for a longer period of time to be effective.

Prosecutors said the Grenon family’s religious front, the Genesis II Church of Health and Healing, sold tens of thousands of MMS orders in violation of federal law since 2010.