WASHINGTON
A federal judge sentenced a man to four years and three months in prison for selling industrial bleach as a miracle cure for numerous diseases and illnesses, including cancer, AIDS, malaria, hepatitis, Lyme disease, asthma and the common cold, the Department of Justice announced today.
U.S. District Court Judge Rosanna Malouf Peterson of the Eastern District of Washington also on Tuesday ordered that Louis Daniel Smith, 45, serve three years of supervised release after his release from prison.
“Today’s sentence is a just result reflecting the defendant’s role as the leader of a business that sold dangerous chemicals as miracle cures to sick people and their desperate loved ones,” said Deputy Assistant Attorney General Benjamin C. Mizer, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Division. “Consumers have the right to expect that the medicines that they purchase are safe and effective.”
After a seven-day trial in June, the jury convicted Smith of conspiracy, smuggling, selling misbranded drugs and defrauding the United States, officials stated.
This is what the evidence indicated at Smith’s trial:
Smith operated a business called “Project GreenLife” (PGL) from 2007 to 2011. PGL sold a product called “Miracle Mineral Supplement,” or MMS, over the Internet.
MMS is a mixture of sodium chlorite and water.
Sodium chlorite is an industrial chemical used as a pesticide and for hydraulic fracking and wastewater treatment.
Sodium chlorite cannot be sold for human consumption and suppliers of the chemical include a warning sheet stating that it can cause potentially fatal side effects if swallowed.
The evidence also showed that Smith instructed consumers to combine MMS with citric acid to create chlorine dioxide, add water and drink the resulting mixture to cure numerous illnesses.
Chlorine dioxide is a potent agent used to bleach textiles, among other industrial applications.
Chlorine dioxide is a severe respiratory and eye irritant that can cause nausea, diarrhea and dehydration.
According to the instructions for use that Smith provided with his product, nausea, diarrhea and vomiting were all signs that the miracle cure was working.
The instructions also stated that despite a risk of possible brain damage, the product might still be appropriate for pregnant women or infants who were seriously ill.
According to the evidence presented at trial, Smith created phony “water purification” and “wastewater treatment” businesses in order to obtain sodium chlorite and ship his MMS without being detected by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
The government stated that Smith hid evidence from FDA inspectors and destroyed evidence while law enforcement agents were executing search warrants on his residence and business.
Before trial, three of Smith’s alleged co-conspirators, Chris Olson, Tammy Olson and Karis DeLong, Smith’s wife, pleaded guilty to introducing misbranded drugs into interstate commerce.
Chris Olson, along with alleged co-conspirators Matthew Darjanny and Joseph Lachnit, testified at trial that Smith was the leader of PGL.
The jury convicted Smith of one count of conspiracy to commit multiple crimes, three counts of introducing misbranded drugs into interstate commerce with intent to defraud or mislead and one count of fraudulently smuggling merchandise into the United States.
The jury found Smith not guilty on one out of four of the misbranded drug counts.