Ronald Romano, 58, of Manalapan, New Jersey, was arrested for attempting to deceive and price gouge New York City (the “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. In approximately February 2020, Romano, a used car dealer, began attempting to obtain for resale large quantities of personal protective equipment (“PPE”), including N95 respirators. In furtherance of the scheme, Romano, among other things, created a fictitious authorization letter in March 2020, which falsely represented that his company was authorized to sell millions of units of 3M-brand PPE. Shortly thereafter, in mid-March 2020, brokers acting on Romano’s behalf approached the City, which at the time was in critical need of legitimate, potentially lifesaving PPE, including respirators, in order to supply frontline healthcare workers and first responders during the COVID-19 public health emergency.
During ensuing negotiations, Romano and others repeatedly made false and fraudulent representations regarding, among other things, their authority and ability to supply 3M-brand PPE manufactured in the United States, and their track record in other PPE deals. In an effort to close a deal for seven million N95 respirators, Romano, among other things, submitted a false and misleading references document to the City, which, among other things, listed a PPE deal with the Florida Division of Emergency Management (the “FDEM”) that had never occurred and separately provided a co-conspirator as a reference.
In furtherance of this scheme, Romano attempted to sell PPE at prices far above the prices at which he hoped to acquire the PPE, including after such PPE was designated as scarce materials under the Defense Production Act on March 25, 2020. Romano offered three-ply N99 facemasks to FDEM at prices marked up by more than 500% from the manufacturer’s prices, and he separately offered the City millions of 3M-brand N95 respirators at more than a 400% markup from the list price for such respirators.
