US charges Chinese manufacturer of exporting defective N95 respirators

A Chinese company has been charged of sending nearly 500,000 defective masks to the United States that were misbranded as N95 respirators, the US Justice Department said in a statement.

"A Chinese manufacturer was charged today with producing and exporting to the United States in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic nearly half a million misbranded and defective masks that falsely purported to be N95 respirators," the release said on Friday.

The company, King Year Packaging and Printing, for each of the four counts faces a fine of up to $500,000 or the total gain and/or loss, whichever is greater, according to the release.

The company was identified and charged due to the efforts of the Justice Department's new Covid-19 Hoarding and Price Gouging Task Force, the release added.