A trial has begun for a Florida man and his three sons who allegedly sold bleach solution as a cure for COVID-19.

As reported by ChurchLeaders.com, Mark Grenon, 62, and his sons Jonathan Grenon, 34, Joseph Grenon, 32, and Jordan Grenon, 26, face charges of conspiring to scam people across the U.S. with misleading drugs.

Mark Grenon, the self-professed bishop of Genesis ll Church, claimed that the solution was a religious sacrament.

During the 2020 pandemic, Genesis II Church sold chlorine dioxide under the name "Miracle Mineral Solution" (MMS) and claimed it cured COVID-19, malaria, cancer and autism.

The church also provided online courses in "MMS Protocols" and training to become a "certified health minister."

Although it called itself a church, Genesis II Church was non-religious, stating, "We believe that it is each member's private responsibility to form his or her own religious beliefs and thus we remain neutral to all the religious beliefs of our members."

According to the organization's website, the church's mission was to "really change the world, not all the mamby pamby stuff that the religions have been spewing for the past thousands of years."

Food and Drug Administration reports that the "miracle mineral solution" sold by Genesis II Church has been used in treating textiles, industrial water, pulp and paper and could be fatal to ingest.

In July 2020, several months after a South Florida judge ordered the Grenons to stop selling MMS as a miracle cure, the family was hit with criminal charges.

Officials also accused Mark Grenon of deciding to sell MMS as a religious sacrament to leverage legal protections afforded to religious institutions.

According to a July 2022 statement from the U.S. Attorney's Office, "Defendant Mark Grenon, the co-founder of Genesis, has repeatedly acknowledged that Genesis ‘has nothing to do with religion,' and that he founded Genesis to ‘legalize the use of MMS' and avoid ‘going to jail.'

"The Genesis websites further stated that MMS could be acquired only through a ‘donation' to Genesis, but the donation amounts for MMS orders were set at specific dollar amounts, and were mandatory, such that the donation amounts were effectively just sales prices."

The statement continued, "The indictment alleges that the Grenons received more than $1 million from selling MMS."

During the trial, which began on Monday, the Brenons appeared in court but refused to make opening statements. As reported by the Miami Herald, prosecutors characterized all four defendants as "con men" and "snake-oil salesmen."

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