Courts Halt Two COVID-19 Treatment Scams
In the last week, federal courts in Utah and Texas issued respective injunctions against two groups halting the sale of coronavirus “cures” and “treatments” that have been deemed fraudulent. In Utah, the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah issued a temporary restraining order against defendant Gordon Pedersen of Cedar Hills, Utah, and his companies, My Doctor Suggests LLC and GP Silver LLC. In a civil complaint and accompanying court papers filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, the Department of Justice (DOJ) alleges that Purity Health and Wellness Centers and one of the firm’s principals, Jean Juanita Allen, fraudulently promoted so-called ozone therapy as a treatment for COVID-19.
According to a DOJ release, Allen claimed Purity’s ozone treatments were 95 percent effective in increasing oxygen in a person’s blood, making it impossible for the virus to survive, even for someone who had tested positive for COVID-19. Allen claimed a team of “doctors” had recommended an “ozone steam sauna” for someone with COVID-19. On Instagram, Purity Health & Wellness claimed ozone was the “only prevention” for COVID-19 and insisted the treatment could “eradicate” the virus. The center also claimed ozone could combat other deadly diseases, including cancer, SARS, and Ebola.
In the Utah case, the DOJ release explains, Pedersen conducted a scheme promoting and selling silver products based on fraudulent claims of protection against, and treatment for, COVID-19.
According to the complaint, Pedersen and his companies made a wide variety of “false and misleading claims touting silver products as a preventative for COVID-19, including that having silver in the bloodstream will ‘usher’ any coronavirus out of the body and that ‘it has been proven that Alkaline Structured Silver will destroy all forms of viruses, it will protect people from the Coronavirus.’”
“The Department of Justice will take swift action to protect consumers from those who would recklessly exploit this public health crisis by offering phony cure-alls for the treatment and prevention of COVID-19,” said Assistant Attorney General Jody Hunt of the Department of Justice’s Civil Division. “We work closely with our partners at the Food and Drug Administration and will move quickly to shut down schemes that promote and sell unlawful products during this pandemic.”
TAKEDOWN UPDATE: In September 2019, FEDagent reported on a Florida man being charged by a federal grand jury for making racially motivated threats against a prospective candidate for a local city council position in Charlottesville, Virginia. Today, the Department of Justice announced, McMahon pled guilty. He faces a maximum sentence of one year in prison for threatening D.G. and five years in prison for cyberstalking Victim 2.