A man from Georgia has been charged with fraud after he allegedly attempted to scam the federal government by offering to sell millions of non-existent respirator masks in exchange for upfront payments, the Justice Department announced on Friday.
Christopher Parris, 39, is accused of making multiple false misrepresentations when he tried to sell the Department of Veterans Affairs 125 million face masks and other personal protective equipment in a scheme that would have totaled over $750 million. The DOJ said Parris promised that he could obtain millions of genuine 3M masks from domestic factories even though he knew that would not be possible. He was also accused of doing the same to state governments.
