| N95 Mask Price Gouging Results in
SDNY Defense Production Act Indictment of
Schirripa
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon
BBC
- Guardian
UK - Honduras
- The
Source
SDNY COURTHOUSE,
May 26 – The
Coronavirus pandemic has
provided an opportunity for a
variety of fraudsters, from
price gougers to some
defrauding the Paycheck
Protection Program through
lenders, to sometimes the
lenders themselves, an issue
Inner City Press has been
inquiring into and reporting
on.
On May 26 the
U.S. Attorney for the Southern
District of New York announced
the arrest of Richard
Schirripa, a/k/a “the Mask
Man,” a licensed pharmacist,
on charges of violating the
Defense Production Act by
hoarding and price gouging
scarce N95 masks; making two
false statements to law
enforcement; committing
healthcare fraud; and
committing aggravated identity
theft.
U.S.
Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman
said: “As alleged,
Richard Schirripa exploited an
unprecedented crisis to engage
in profiteering. He
allegedly spent over $200,000
accumulating N95 masks and
then sold masks at inflated
prices, charging customers up
to 50% more than he had paid
to acquire those N95
masks. As alleged,
during a sale to an undercover
officer, Schirripa said, ‘I
feel like a drug
dealer.’ He also
allegedly committed several
additional, unrelated crimes,
including lying to law
enforcement, defrauding
Medicare and Medicaid, and
exploiting the personal
information of his pharmacy’s
customers to fill
prescriptions.”
Berman's office
also said that
Schirripa
surrendered
today and will
be presented
before U.S.
Magistrate
Judge Ona T.
Wang in
Manhattan
federal court
- but no time, much less
place, was given. Inner City
Press will stay on this. The
case is US v. Schirripa,
20-mj-5275 (Wang).
***
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