| PPE Scam Results in SDNY
Indictment of Romano Under Defense Production
Act
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon
BBC
- Guardian
UK - Honduras
- The
Source
SDNY COURTHOUSE,
May 26 – The
Coronavirus pandemic has
provided an opportunity for a
variety of fraudsters, from
price gougers to some
defrauding the Paycheck
Protection Program through
lenders, to sometimes the
lenders themselves, an issue
Inner City Press has been
inquiring into and reporting
on.
On May 26 the
U.S. Attorney for the Southern
District of New York announced
the arrest of Ronald Romano
for attempting to deceive and
price gouge New York City into
paying him and his
co-conspirators approximately
$45 million for personal
protective equipment that
ROMANO did not possess and was
not authorized to sell.
ROMANO committed this scheme
in an attempt to exploit NYC
as it was trying to manage the
impact of the COVID-19
pandemic and obtain these
resources to help protect the
lives of hospital and other
frontline workers.
ROMANO is charged in a
criminal Complaint, unsealed
today, with one count of
conspiring to commit wire
fraud, one count of wire
fraud, and one count of
conspiring to violate the
Defense Production
Act.
U.S.
Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman
said: “As alleged, used
car salesman Ronald Romano saw
the current health emergency
as an opportunity to cash in,
using lies and deception in
what he envisioned as a
get-rich-quick scheme.
Romano allegedly lied
repeatedly about his authority
and ability to sell large
quantities of personal
protective equipment to the
City – equipment he knew was
desperately needed for use by
frontline medical workers and
first responders. And he
allegedly offered to sell this
phantom equipment to the City
at grossly inflated
prices. Now Ronald
Romano’s short-lived second
career as a purveyor of vital
protective gear is
over.”
His office also
said that Romano is to be
presented this afternoon in
Manhattan federal court before
U.S. Magistrate Judge Ona T.
Wang - but no time, much less
place, was given. Inner City
Press will stay on this. The
case is US v. Romano,
20-mj-5276 (Wang).
***
Your
support means a lot. As little as $5 a month
helps keep us going and grants you access to
exclusive bonus material on our Patreon
page. Click
here to become a patron.
Feedback:
Editorial [at] innercitypress.com
SDNY Press Room 480, front cubicle
500 Pearl Street, NY NY 10007 USA
Mail: Box 20047, Dag
Hammarskjold Station NY NY 10017
Reporter's mobile (and weekends):
718-716-3540
Other, earlier Inner City Press are
listed here,
and some are available in the ProQuest
service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.
Copyright 2006-2019 Inner City
Press, Inc. To request reprint or other
permission, e-contact Editorial [at]
innercitypress.com for
|
,
