A criminal complaint was unsealed charging Jonathan Cannon and Julie Dotton with wire fraud in connection with a scheme to defraud a company seeking to purchase personal protective equipment (“PPE”) at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic. According to court filings, as part of their fraudulent scheme, Cannon and Dotton allegedly misrepresented their ability to obtain PPE to a Canadian company that was an official provider of PPE to two Canadian provinces during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using a nominal entity she controlled, Dotton entered into a contract with the company to sell approximately 12 million face masks to it for $8.2 million. Cannon and Dotton then caused the company to wire the $8.2 million payment to a purported third-party escrow agent’s bank account. Rather than use the funds to procure the PPE as promised, Cannon and Dotton caused the purported escrow agent to transfer the funds to a bank account controlled by Cannon, who, in turn, disbursed the funds to various third parties for the defendants’ benefit. After Cannon and Dotton failed to procure the agreed upon PPE for the company, and the company demanded delivery of the PPE or a refund, Cannon and Dotton strung them along with excuses for a number of months.
