JAKARTA - A man from Texas, United States (US) has pleaded guilty to involvement in a fraudulent scheme related to the sale of 50 million fake N95 respirator masks for US$317.6 million or around Rp. 4,591,951,050,000 to the Government of New South Wales, Australia.
Arael Doolittle, a man of Texas origin, pleaded guilty in filing his defense on charges of conspiracy to fraud on Tuesday before US District Judge Lynn Hughes in Houston, Texas State, United States, citing Reuters Thursday, July 29.
Prosecutors said Doolittle and other defendant Paschal Eleanya tried to sell 3M-branded masks at five times the selling price, hoping to raise $275 million, with the remainder going to brokers and to representatives of the New South Wales Government.
The US Secret Service managed to thwart this transaction before it was completed, as in the November indictment last year. Doolittle, from Houston, faces up to five years in prison in a sentencing hearing scheduled for October 25. He will remain in custody until trial.
Kevin Cobb, a federal public defender representing Doolittle, declined to comment on his client's case on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, charges against Eleanya are still pending. In an email, her lawyer Ali Fazel referred to Eleanya as a "middleman" trying to make sure the parties got what they negotiated.
"We are working hard to show his behavior is over the line, hoping the government will drop his charges," Fazel said in defense.
Doolittle separately pleaded guilty in June to transfer fraud in connection with an alleged scheme to defraud investors in oil and gas deals. Prosecutors in that case agreed to recommend he spend four years in prison in addition to his sentence in the mask case.
Separately, 3M Co., the world's largest producer of N95 masks, has continued since the COVID-19 pandemic to stop price fraud and other improper sales of its masks, including by filing 36 lawsuits and seizing more than 41 million counterfeit masks.
In a statement, the St. Paul, Minnesota, appreciates the defendant's guilty plea, appreciates the efforts of the US Department of Justice to stop people from illegally exploiting his demand for masks.
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