In August 2020, a Florida man and his son were arrested in Colombia after fleeing as U.S. federal investigators alleged the pair had used a fake church as a cover to peddle industrial bleach as a “miracle cure” for COVID-19.
Mark Grenon, the 64-year-old who led Genesis II Church of Health & Healing and claimed to be the source of Donald Trump’s bleach fixation, has spent the past two years jailed in the South American country with his 34-year-old son Joseph. Grenon’s two other sons, Jonathan, 36, and Jordan, 28, who were arrested at the same time on U.S. soil, remain incarcerated at Miami’s Federal Detention Center pending a September 12 trial.
According to an indictment filed last year, the Grenons manufactured, promoted, and sold a product they called “Miracle Mineral Solution” (MMS), a chemical solution containing sodium chlorite and water that, if ingested orally, becomes chlorine dioxide, a toxic compound used as an industrial disinfectant. Even before the pandemic descended, the Grenons were selling jugs of the substance, claiming it could prevent and cure all manner of ailments. Prosecutors contend that the family raked in more than $1 million in sales.
As of now, he is representing himself.
