A federal lawmaker is lambasting the Trump administration’s COVID-19 pandemic response after a newly released staff memo shed new light on a $38.7 million fraud scheme for N95 masks.
“This failure of leadership allowed those seeking to get rich and exploit the pandemic shortages to win multimillion-dollar federal contracts at inflated prices that they had no realistic plan to fulfill,” Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC), chairman of the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, said in a statement Thursday.
His comments came following the release of a staff memo in regard to a July 2020 investigation into Robert Stewart Jr., CEO and owner of Federal Government Experts, LLC, who lied to the Department of Veterans Affairs and Federal Emergency Management Agency in order to secure several government contracts for N95 masks worth a combined $38.7 million.
Stewart has since been sentenced to 21 months in prison and three years of supervised release after being convicted in February for false statements, wire fraud and theft of government funds.
The document showed Stewart made more than 30 false statements to contracting officials by falsely stating he had millions of masks “on hand and ready.” He also inflated mask prices.
It also revealed that federal officials stated the pandemic forced them to compete on the open market for supplies, which led to them rush awarding the large contracts.
“With no national plan in place, federal agencies like VA and FEMA were forced to scramble to find life-saving supplies during the early months of the pandemic — leaving them vulnerable for fraud and exploitation,” Clyburn said. “The Select Subcommittee will continue its investigations into these critical failures in order to ensure that our nation’s medical supply chain is better prepared for the next public health crisis.”
