| N95 Mask Price Gouger Schirripa Freed
on Bail With SDNY Consent Old DWI Complaints
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 Richard
Schirripa, a/k/a “the Mask
Man,” a licensed pharmacist,
on charges of violating the
Defense Production Act by
hoarding and price gouging
scarce N95 masks; making two
false statements to law
enforcement; committing
healthcare fraud; and
committing aggravated identity
theft.
Inner City
Press live tweeted Schirripa's
presentment, at which he was
released on $250,000 with the
SDNY's consent: "Magistrate
Judge Ona T. Wang asked, and
was told that Schirripa turned
himself in today to Homeland
Security - and is doing his
presentment by video from
there. He is represented by
Lefcourt, retained since
beginning of April, who says
"we have previously consulted
with the government about a
consent bail package."
Schirripa says he
doesn't really understand the
charges and would like to
confer about them with his
lawyer. His lawyer says give
US' bail package talk, just
release him and he can talk
about it later. Judge Wang
said she may not be able to
proceed on that basis.
Schirripa
says he understand the price
gouging charge but not the ID
theft. Asks, "Whose identify
was stolen?" His lawyer says,
he does understand that he has
been charged. The details and
defense are down the road. He
wants to get to bail.
Judge Wang:
I understand that the parties
have an agreement on bail?
AUSA Neff: Bond
of $250,000 with two
co-signers. Remoted sessions
with Pre-Trial. Drug testing
and treatment. No firearms.
Surrender all pharmacist
licenses including for Madison
Ave Pharmacy.
Pre-Trial
says add a condition, avoid
excessive use of alcohol, "due
to past DWI." "That was 2008 -
twelve years ago!" Judge Wang:
I am adding it as a
condition."
Earlier U.S.
Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman
said: “As alleged,
Richard Schirripa exploited an
unprecedented crisis to engage
in profiteering. He
allegedly spent over $200,000
accumulating N95 masks and
then sold masks at inflated
prices, charging customers up
to 50% more than he had paid
to acquire those N95
masks. As alleged,
during a sale to an undercover
officer, Schirripa said, ‘I
feel like a drug
dealer.’ He also
allegedly committed several
additional, unrelated crimes,
including lying to law
enforcement, defrauding
Medicare and Medicaid, and
exploiting the personal
information of his pharmacy’s
customers to fill
prescriptions.”
Inner City
Press will stay on this. The
case is US v. Schirripa,
20-mj-5275 (Wang).
***
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