A Norfolk, Massachusetts man has been charged with price gouging scarce N95 filtering facepiece respirators (N95 masks). The defendant, Jason Colantuoni, aged 35, has agreed to plead guilty to the charges, according to a press release published by the United States Department of Justice.
Colantuoni was charged by an Information with one count of conspiracy to commit price gouging in violation of the Defense Production Act. The Justice Department states that from March to April 2020, Colantuoni conspired with two other individuals to use a newly-formed Florida company to exploit and profit off of the urgent need for N95 masks during the early outbreak of the pandemic.
As per the charging documents, Colantuoni and his accomplices allegedly accumulated N95 masks from various sources and then sold them to desperate hospitals in Massachusetts and other regions at prices significantly higher than the prevailing market price. Prior to the pandemic, hospitals typically paid between $0.44 and $0.70 per mask. However, the company, led by Colantuoni's longtime friend (Individual 1) and its head of sales (Individual 2), offered to sell masks for as much as $11.95 per mask.
It is alleged that the company sold approximately 1,000 boxes of N95 masks to various hospitals, with each box containing 20 or 30 masks. The Justice Department states that the weighted average price for the company’s purchases of N95 masks was approximately $4.48 per mask, while the weighted average price for the company’s sales of N95 masks to hospitals was about $9.91 per mask.
A conviction of conspiracy to commit price gouging in violation of the Defense Production Act could give Colantuoni up to one year in prison, one year of supervised release, and a fine of up to $10,000. The sentence will be determined by a federal district court judge based on the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and statutes governing sentencing.
COVID-19 pandemic-related fraud has been a constant concern, and the Department of Justice established the COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force on May 17, 2021, to address the issue. The task force aims to marshal the resources of the department in cooperation with agencies across the government to combat and prevent pandemic-related fraud. It investigates and prosecutes the most culpable domestic and international criminal actors and assists agencies in administering relief programs to prevent fraud.
Anyone with information about allegations of attempted fraud involving COVID-19 can report it by calling the Department of Justice’s National Center for Disaster Fraud (NCDF) Hotline or via the NCDF Web Complaint Form. This site offers more information on the department’s response to the pandemic, and this site provides further details on combating fraud related to the virus.
