A federal jury convicted a Mineral Miracle Solution (MMS) promoter Friday of conspiracy, smuggling, selling misbranded drugs and defrauding the United States. He faces up to 34 years in prison. This author faces “hell” for reporting MMS fraud, according to threats sent to her.
The man was convicted in Washington state for selling gallons of the dangerous snake oil by labeling it “Miracle Mineral Solution.” The MMS solution is pushed by its founder Jim Humble and his “church” that he founded for the international enterprise.
A federal jury sat through seven days of testimony, alleging Louis Daniel Smith, 45, of Spokane sold the toxic MMS liquid as a miracle cure for cancer, AIDS, malaria, hepatitis, Lyme disease, asthma, the common cold and other diseases and illnesses. Evidence at the trial showed Smith operated “Project GreenLife” (PGL) from 2007 to 2011. PGL sold MMS over the Internet, according to Consumer Affairs.
“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.”
Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Benjamin C. Mizer of the Justice Department’s Civil Division said, “This verdict demonstrates that the Department of Justice will prosecute those who sell dangerous chemicals as miracle cures to sick people and their desperate loved ones. Consumers have the right to expect that the medicines that they purchase are safe and effective.”
The government presented evidence that Smith instructed consumers to combine MMS with citric acid to create chlorine dioxide, add water and drink the mixture to cure numerous illnesses. These are the same instructions other MMS salespersons provide. Chlorine dioxide is used to bleach textiles, among other industrial applications. It is a severe respiratory and eye irritant that can cause nausea, diarrhea and dehydration. Diarrhea and vomiting are signs that the miracle cure is working, according to MMS salespersons. The instructions state that despite a risk of possible brain damage, the product might still be appropriate for seriously ill pregnant women and infants.
Smith created phony “water purification” and “wastewater treatment” businesses to obtain sodium chlorite and ship his MMS without detection by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, according to evidence presented at trial. The government’s evidence included that Smith hid evidence from FDA inspectors and destroyed evidence while law enforcement agents were executing search warrants on his residence and business.
Smith was convicted 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. He faces a statutory maximum of 34 years in prison at his Sept. 9 sentencing.
Reporter Deborah Dupré solicited to ‘save Gulf Coasters’ with MMS
“Bishop” Jim Humble created his church, Genesis II Church of Health and Healing, an MMS retail business more than religion, according to Consumenr Affairs. After BP/Transocean’s 2010 Gulf of Mexico Oil catastrophe, MMS salespersons were busy successfully pushing bleach to the desperately injured Gulf Coasters. Their campaign including recruiting others to join the money-making campaign. “Bishop” Humble contacted this author, urging her to retract her article about his product and instead, join his “Church” MMS campaign to save Gulf Coasters from BP/Transocean’s life-threatening injuries and illnesses incurred from the crude oil and Corexit dispersant.
“Just wondered if you would really like to learn some truth about MMS or would you prefer to continue with no real knowledge,” Humble asked in a 2/25/10 email to Dupré during her interview with him. “Are you into helping mankind or just showing off and talking without knowing.”
Dupré firmly declined his attempt to recruit, but continued the interview. Later in 2010, the FDA received several reports of health injuries from consumers using MMS. Injuries included severe nausea, vomiting, and life-threatening low blood pressure from dehydration. Consumers with MMS should stop using it immediately and throw it away, the FDA said.
Despite the FDA’s warning and advice, MMS was rebranded with the new name, “Advanced Oxygen Therapy.” Mr. Humble continued pressuring Dupré to join his church and lead MMS sales throughout the Gulf Coast. He emailed on Jan. 4, 2011:
“I hope you understand that I in no way wish to be insulting at this time, but I do want you to understand that if you persist with you misunderstanding of MMS you will prevent many people from overcoming their suffering. Six months from now, there will be many people to ask you why you didn’t check a little closer…”
Humble denied knowing Wil Spencer, the MMS salesmen peddling the product, allegedly under a different name, to Gulf Coast people.
In a Jan. 16, 2011 email, after MMS had begun spreading from Florida to South Louisiana, Humble told Dupré, “MMS is the only real answer all those people of the gulf have. It is cheap and it will detoxify their bodies. It is the greatest detoxifier for human bodies known at this time as I have observed thousands who have used it.”
Emailing from Africa where he’d gone to peddle his product in the height of the Ebola crisis, Humble explained his Gulf of Mexico MMS plan to Dupré:
My idea would be to just go to everyone’s home and train them to use the MMS and furnish it for free. Surely someone will put up the money. If not, I can find someone who will furnish it at cost plus small expenses. You could probably get enough volunteers to do the training while distributing it. We could mix the MMS on the spot and I could send several Ministers to do the training. All we would need is expenses for their travel. Our church does these things for free hoping to get donations. If I had more money at this time we could do much more. I really don’t want my people to make money from this disaster.
Later that month, Gulf region health took a turn of events from the MMS scare. Leading Gulf activist Kindra Arnesen agreed with Gulf Coast Barefoot Doctors in a public statement. Ms. Arnesen publicly stated that Miracle Mineral Supplement (MMS), subsequently branded as Advanced Oxygen Therapy (AOT), was dangerous and those selling it were not to be trusted.
At the time, MMS was to be rebranded as “Cleansing Water,” according to Humble when interviewed by Dupré. BJ Skane, a Vanuatu Post reporter, highlighted in an article that, according to a Dupré article, Wil Spencer was allegedly selling a reinvented MMS under a different name to Gulf Coasters. He’d first claimed his product was a ‘sister to MMS’ and later conceded that “the two are one and the same.” (See: Crude oil, Corexit and now, Snake Oil to fix it) Ms. Skane had become a lead MMS reporter after the 2009 death in Vanuatu of a Mexican woman, Sylvia Fink, after consuming MMS as Humble had instructed. “In Port Vila in 2009 MMS was being promoted and sold by resident yachts-people as not only a cure for malaria but also as a prophylactic (preventive) regime against the disease,” Skane reported in her article, Health authorities ‘Down Under’ concerned over “snake oil” MMS promotional tours.
Ms. Fink, yachtsman Doug Nash’s wife, died within 12 hours of ingesting MMS. Mr. Fink wrote:
From almost the moment Silvie drank the mixture of MMS and lime juice — which she’d brewed up according to the instructions of Jim Humble, the principal proponent of the stuff — things went wrong. She became nauseated, and was soon both vomiting and suffering from diarrhea. But since the MMS literature emphasized that this was a normal reaction, she assumed it would pass. It didn’t. It turned into a day of torture…
U.S. New Zealand, Canada, Brunei and Denmark are among the growing list of countries that have issued warnings about the “miracle cure.” Australia’s TGA banned MMS advertising due to marketers’ inability to substantiate their claims as to its efficacy. Last year in the Australian state of Victoria, where one of Humble’s seminar was held, the AMA called for what they termed “the controversial healing cult Genesis II” to be banned entirely, according to Skane writing for Vanuatu Daily Post. “President Dr Tony Bartone slammed the promoters of MMS as ‘snake oil salesmen’ preying upon vulnerable sick people with ‘magic potions’.”
“At least ten Victorians have been poisoned by MMS in the past five years with four needing to be hospitalized. It is not listed on the Therapeutic Goods Administration’s register, cannot be legally sold as a health product and has no place in our society,” Bartone says.
Nevertheless, North Carolina remains an American hub for MMS. WNCN Investigates went to the church in Benson, North Carolina to learn more. The church website led to a home address in the middle of town.
“On our way to the door we met the homeowner on the porch and asked if we could talk about MMS,” WNCN reported. “‘No, sorry,’ he replied. When we tried to further question him, he said, ‘I don’t know anything,’ and hurried back inside his house.”
So far, four people in the U.S., co-conspirators of Louis, have been charged in federal court for selling MMS online. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Tammy Olson, Karis Delong and Chris Olson pleaded guilty to the interstate shipment of misbranded drugs.
As for repercussions for Dupré refusing to peddle MMS and instead report on it, she’s been name-called “Madame FDA Dupre” and threatened. One such threat left under one of her MMS articles by “Martelle,” a commenter reads: “Madame FDA Dupre, I have contacted the appropriate parties re: your commentary. There will be HELL to pay, I am quite sure.”
MMS is obviously big business.
He should know better.
