A three-year pursuit of a Utah man accused of impersonating a medical doctor to peddle fraudulent remedies, including a COVID-19 cure, has concluded. Gordon Hunter Pedersen marketed a product called “structural alkaline silver” online as a preventive solution for COVID-19 during the early stages of the pandemic.
He presented himself as a board-certified “Anti-Aging Medical Doctor” with credentials in immunology and naturopathic medicine in YouTube videos, often wearing a white lab coat and stethoscope.
After failing to appear in federal court for an indictment in August 2020, an arrest warrant was issued for Pedersen. He was apprehended this month by federal agents during a surveillance operation. The charges against him include mail fraud, wire fraud, and introducing misbranded drugs into interstate commerce with the intent to defraud and mislead.
Pedersen's fraudulent activities trace back to around 2014, where he promoted silver products as treatments for various ailments like arthritis, diabetes, influenza, pneumonia, and COVID-19. He was exposed in April 2020 when his hoax treatments were sent to an undercover agent of the Food and Drug Administration using an alias.
The products were distributed through his companies, GP Silver LLC and My Doctor Suggests LLC, both of which he had a 25% ownership stake in. In a podcast interview from March 2020, Pedersen falsely claimed that his product could simultaneously eliminate bacteria, viruses, and yeast, asserting that no manufactured drug could achieve the same effect.
Pedersen is set to make his initial appearance at a detention hearing on Tuesday.
