Man accused of selling fake COVID cure found after three-year manhunt, feds say

A man accused of posing as a doctor to sell a fake COVID-19 cure has been arrested in Utah following a three-year manhunt, federal officials reported.

Federal agents performing surveillance spotted Gordon Hunter Pedersen, 63, of Cedar Hills, Utah, in Utah County on July 5, leading to his arrest, a news release by the U.S. Attorney’s Office of Utah said.

Pederson had been on the run since August 2020, when he failed to appear in court for his indictment on charges including mail fraud, wire fraud and felony introduction of misbranded drugs into interstate commerce with intent to defraud and mislead, prosecutors said.

In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, Pederson sold a “structural alkaline silver” product online, which he claimed “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,” prosecutors said.

The FDA has warned against silver-based products as not being effective treatment for any known disease or condition.

“Silver has no known functions or benefits in the body when taken by mouth, and it is not an essential mineral,” according to the National Institutes of Health.

Pederson sold the fake cure before COVID-19 vaccines were available, prosecutors said.

In his sales pitches, Pederson misrepresented himself as a board-certified “anti-aging medical doctor” with advanced degrees in immunology and naturopathic medicine, officials said.

Utah County is about 60 miles south of Salt Lake City.

This story was originally published August 15, 2023 at 8:55 AM with the headline "Man accused of selling fake COVID cure found after three-year manhunt, feds say."