| For COVID Price Gouging on
Instagram EDNY Gets Bobby Singh To Donate
$450000 in PPE
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon
BBC
- Guardian
UK - Honduras
- The
Source
SDNY COURTHOUSE,
Sept 25 – Amid the Coronavirus
pandemic, the US Attorney for
the U.S. District Court for
the Eastern District of New
York in April filed a
complaint against Bobby Singh
for hoarding for face masks,
surgical gowns, hand
sanitizer, PPE face shields
and PPE coveralls, and selling
them at inflated prices on,
among other places, Instagram.
Now in
September it has settled the
criminal case in exchange for
$450,000 in PPE, see below.
From the April 24
complaint:
"On or about and
between March 25, 2020 and
April 14, 2020, both dates
being approximate and
inclusive, within the Eastern
District of New York and
elsewhere, the defendant
AMARDEEP SINGH, also known as
“Bobby Singh” and “Bobby
Sidana,” did knowingly
and intentionally accumulate
(i) in excess of the
reasonable demands of
business, personal, and
home consumption, and (ii) for
the purpose of resale at
prices in excess of
prevailing market prices,
materials which had been
designated by the President of
the United States as
scarce materials and materials
the supply of which would be
threatened by such
accumulation, in violation of
the Defense Production Act of
1950. between
March 25, 2020 and April 14,
2020, SINGH accumulated PPE
and other health and
medical resources—some of
which had been designated as
scarce and threatened
materials by the Secretary of
HHS—in quantities that far
exceeded the reasonable
demands of SINGH’s
retail business, which, until
that point in time, had not
dealt in such products.
16. For
example, in the approximately
two weeks between March 25,
2020 and April 8, 2020,
SINGH, by and through one or
more of the Singh Entities,
received or attempted to
receive the following
deliveries at the Retail
Premises and/or the
Warehouse Premises: (i)
40 shipments of disposable
face masks, weighing more than
1.6 tons; (ii) 14
shipments of disposable
surgical gowns, weighing more
than 2.2 tons; (iii) six
shipments of hand
sanitizer, weighing more than
1.8 tons; and (iv) seven
shipments of digital
thermometers, weighing
approximately 253
pounds...WHEREFORE, your
deponent respectfully requests
that the defendant
AMARDEEP SINGH, also known as
"Bobby Singh" and "Bobby
Sidana," be dealt with
according to law.
Now on
September 25: "An agreement
was filed today in federal
court in Central Islip
resolving the criminal case
against Amardeep Singh, who
was charged in April 2020 with
violating the Defense
Production Act of 1950 by
hoarding personal protective
equipment (PPE) amid the
COVID-19 pandemic and
price-gouging customers of his
retail store. Under the terms
of his Deferred Prosecution
Agreement with the Government,
Singh will donate PPE valued
at more than $450,000 to
hospitals, health care
providers, first responders
and other essential workers
involved with addressing
the needs of those
affected by the pandemic and
working to prevent the spread
of COVID- 19. Seth D.
DuCharme, Acting United States
Attorney for the Eastern
District of New York,
Craig Carpenito, head of the
Department of Justice’s
nationwide COVID- 19 Hoarding
and Price Gouging Task Force,
and Philip R. Bartlett,
Inspector-in-Charge,
United States Postal
Inspection Service, New York
Division (USPIS), announced
the disposition. “The
defendant has accepted
responsibility for taking
advantage of a public health
emergency for personal
profit,” stated Acting United
States Attorney DuCharme.
“Today’s deferred prosecution
agreement is a victory for
heroic healthcare workers and
first-responders who will
benefit from the personal
protective equipment
relinquished by the defendant
in their continuing battle
against the COVID-19 virus.”
“This defendant’s attempt to
charge unnecessarily high
prices for badly needed and
vitally important protective
gear was an early example of
how some people will try to
unscrupulously profit from a
national health care
emergency,” stated head of the
Department of Justice’s
nationwide COVID-19 Hoarding
and Price Gouging Task Force
Carpenito. 'Today’s agreement
thwarts that attempt, and
resolves the matter by getting
this personal protective
equipment to the people who
need it.'"
The case is US v.
Singh, 20-mj-326 (EDNY). Inner
City Press aims to continue to
cover it, as it has other EDNY
cases, like here.
***
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