Man posing as doctor to sell fake COVID-19 cure arrested after three-year manhunt

Utah authorities said that a three-year manhunt has ended after they arrested a man accused of posing as a doctor on charges of selling a fake COVID-19 cure. 

In a news release Monday, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Utah announced that authorities were able to spot Gordon Hunter Pedersen during surveillance last month. 

According to court documents, authorities handed down an arrest warrant on Pedersen in August 2020 after he failed to appear on an indictment in federal court. 

Pedersen, a native of Cedar Hills, Utah, was indicted on charges including mail fraud, wire fraud and felony introduction of misbranded drugs into interstate commerce with intent to defraud and mislead.

Court documents also state that at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, Pedersen began selling a “structural alkaline silver” product online, claiming it “resonates, or vibrates, at a frequency that destroys the membrane of the virus, making the virus incapable of attaching to any healthy cell, or to infect you in anyway.”

The 63-year-old also falsely claimed on YouTube videos to be a board certified “Anti-Aging Medical Doctor,” in addition to falsely claiming to have Ph.D.s in in immunology and naturopathic medicine, court documents said. 

Pedersen is scheduled to make his initial court appearance Tuesday.

Last month, a Florida man and his three sons were convicted of using their online church to sell a toxic industrial bleach as a fake COVID-19 cure. They were found guilty of conspiring to defraud the country and deliver misbranded drugs, according to CBS News.

—Updated at 2:52 p.m.