PHONY

Utah Man Hit With Fraud Charges for Posing as Doc to Peddle Bogus COVID Cure: Feds

Gordon H. Pedersen allegedly presented himself as a doctor while selling “ingestible silver-based products as a cure for COVID-19.”

A Utah man who masqueraded as a doctor to sell bogus COVID-19 cures over the internet has been indicted on fraud charges, the Justice Department announced Tuesday. Gordon H. Pedersen was indicted by a federal grand jury in Salt Lake City last week for a scheme federal prosecutors say began in early 2020. Pedersen is accused of “falsely presenting himself as a medical doctor and promoting and selling silver products on the Internet based on fraudulent claims of protection against, and treatment for, COVID-19, in the midst of a worldwide pandemic,” according to the DOJ. He allegedly went so far as to don a stethoscope and white lab coat in promotional materials for his supposed miracle cure. A company Pedersen previously co-owned called My Doctor Suggests LLC is cooperating with prosecutors in the case against Pedersen, and the company is said to have agreed to plead guilty in connection with its own misleading promotions of the phony silver cure.