Virus unleashes wave of fraud in US amid fear and scarcity

A 39-year-old former investment manager in Georgia was already facing federal federal charges that he robbed hundreds of retirees of their savings through a Ponzi scheme when the rapid spread of COVID-19 presented an opportunity.

Christopher A Parris started pitching himself as a broker of surgical masks amid the nationwide scramble for protective equipment in those first desperate weeks of the outbreak, federal authorities said.

Within weeks, Parris was making millions of dollars on sales orders. Except there were no masks.

Law enforcement officials say Parris is part of what they are calling a wave of fraud tied to the outbreak.

Homeland Security Investigations, an arm of the Department of Homeland Security, is leading a nationwide crackdown.

It has opened over 370 cases and so far arrested 11 people, as part of Operation Stolen Promise, according to Matthew Albence, acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

It's incredibly rampant and it's growing by the day, Albence said.

We're just scratching the surface of this criminal activity.

Parris was on pretrial release for the alleged Ponzi scheme when he was arrested last month in what federal authorities say was an attempt to secure an order for more than USD 750 million from the Department of Veterans Affairs for 125 million face masks and other equipment.

He was trying to sell something he didn't even have, said Jere T Miles, the special agent in charge of the New Orleans office of Homeland Security Investigations, which worked the case with the VA Office of Inspector General.

That's just outright, blatant fraud. Parris has not yet entered a plea to fraud charges and his lawyers did not respond to requests for comment from The Associated Press.

Nationwide, investigators have turned up more than false purveyors of PPE.

They have uncovered an array of counterfeit or adulterated products, from COVID-19 tests kits and treatments to masks and cleaning products.

Steve Francis, director of the National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center, which is overseen by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, says authorities have tracked counterfeits flowing into the US from 20 countries and for sale through thousands of websites.

There are people popping up who have never been in the business of securing equipment on a large scale, Francis said. Enter Parris.

From his home outside Atlanta, he claimed to represent a company, the Encore Health Group, that had 3M respiratory masks and other protective equipment. At the time, there was a mad scramble for supplies that pitted state and local governments against each other.

As outlined in court documents and interviews, his pitch reached a company in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, that had previously done business with the state and was trying to help government agencies buy PPE.

In late March, it contacted the VA, which was then dealing with a critical shortage of protective equipment.

The VA was suspicious of the price, about 15 times what it was paying amid the shortage, and alerted its inspector general, which brought in Homeland Security. That resulted in a sting that led to Parris.

He had no means of producing any PPE, Albence said. It was just a scam. But it had some takers.

Federal authorities say a Parris-controlled bank account received more than USD7.4 million, with most appearing to come from unidentified entities trying to buy safety gear in March and April, according to court documents.

He wired some of the money to accounts overseas, including more than USD1.1 million to a Swiss company's bank that authorities may be a shell corporation.

The U.S. government seized more than USD3.2 million from his accounts.

The Ponzi scheme was unrelated to the alleged attempt to defraud the VA but is sufficiently similar to the conduct in this case that it is relevant to his plan, intent, and modus operandi, according to a search warrant affidavit.

Miles said a person running a Ponzi scheme is a special kind of criminal to begin with, but a person that will run a completely fraudulent scheme in the middle of a pandemic ... that rises to a whole other level of special criminal."