(KRON) -- A Silicon Valley company capitalized on the pandemic and defrauded hospitals by selling facemasks that were misbranded as N95 respirators, federal prosecutors said Tuesday.
Santa Clara-based Advoque Safeguard assembles personal protective equipment, including masks, for frontline medical workers.
Three of the company's executives, Andrew Stack, 52, of Santa Cruz, Calif., Paul Shrater, 51, of Simi Valley, Calif., and Jason Azevedo, 33, of Cedar Creek, Texas, will plead guilty to one count of introduction of misbranded devices into interstate commerce, according to the U.S. Justice Department.
Daniel Motha and Jeffrey Motha, who ran the company JDM Supply, agreed to plead guilty to the same scheme, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors said the charges stem from shipments of facemasks that were misbranded as "N95 respirators" during the earliest phase of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the spring of 2020, ASG and JDM allegedly conspired to ship facemasks that were misbranded as National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)-approved N95 respirators. One hospital accepted and paid for hundreds of thousands of purported N95 masks that were manufactured by ASG and sold by JDM, according to the U.S. Justice Department.
In August 2020, a NIOSH lab tested a sample of the ASG-manufactured masks that had been shipped to the hospital. The masks fell under the 95% minimum level of filtration efficiency required for N95 respirators, prosecutors said.
The two companies are now facing up to $600,000 in fines.
Advoque Safeguard's company website states, "Advoque SafeGuard is proud of the role we are playing in providing critical equipment for the fight against current and future emergency needs, putting our decades of experience in manufacturing and distribution to build mask and face shield lines."
Via Coronavirus | KRON4 https://www.kron4.com
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