Law enforcement

FBI DISCOVERS PROMISED STOCKPILE OF 39 MILLION MEDICAL MASKS WAS A SCAM

As state governments and hospitals have scrambled to obtain masks and other medical supplies during the coronavirus pandemic, scammers attempted to sell a fake stockpile of 39 million masks to a California labor union.

The Los Angeles Times first reported on Sunday that the FBI had uncovered the scam, which has been traced back to a broker in Australia and a supplier in Kuwait. The investigators discovered the scam because they were looking into whether the supply could be intercepted by the federal government through the Defense Production Act.

The Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West (known as SEIU) promised at the end of March that it would make the millions of masks available, as government agencies and hospitals planned to purchase some of the supply. But as the FBI investigated, it became apparent that the union had been duped, although no financial transaction had yet been made.

"There are opportunists who are looking for any victim," U.S. Attorney Scott Brady told The Times.