A 39-year-old former funding manager in Georgia faces federal charges that he robbed hundreds of retirees of their financial savings through a Ponzi scheme amid coronavirus scare.
Federal authorities said Christopher A. Parris introduced himself as a supplier of surgical masks amid the scramble for protective equipment during the first weeks of the outbreak. Within weeks, Parris made thousands and thousands of dollars on sales orders.
Except there had been no mask. Law enforcement officers say Parris is part of what they're calling a wave of fraud tied to the outbreak.
Ponzi scheme
Associated Press (AP) said Parris was on the pretrial launch for the alleged Ponzi scheme. He was arrested last month while attempting to secure an order for more than $750 million from the Department of Veterans Affairs for 125 million face masks.
"He was trying to sell something he didn't even have," said Jere Miles, the special agent in charge of the New Orleans office of Homeland Security Investigations.
Nationwide, investigators have tracked up more than fake purveyors of PPE. They have exposed an array of counterfeit or adulterated products, from COVID-19 test kits and cures to mask and cleaning products.
Steve Francis, director of the National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center, says the government has tracked counterfeits flowing in the U.S. from 20 countries and on the market through websites.
"[People are popping up] who have never been in the business of securing equipment on a large scale," Francis told AP. Add Parris.
From his home outside Atlanta, he claimed to represent an agency, the Encore Health Group, that had three million surgical masks and personal protective equipment. At the time, there has been a mad scramble for resources that pitted kingdom and neighborhood governments against each other.
PPE scam
As mentioned in court files and interviews, his pitch reached an organization in Louisiana, that previously had done business with the state and helps government groups buy PPE. In late March, it contacted the VA, which was then handling a scarcity of protective devices.
The VA was suspicious of the price, about 15 times what it was paying amid the shortage, and alerted its inspector general, which delivered in Homeland Security. That led to a string that brought about Parris.
"He had no means of producing any PPE," Albence said. He added his business was just a scam.
But it had some takers. Federal authorities say a Parris-controlled bank account had more than $7.4 million. Most transactions came from unknown entities trying to shop for PPEs in March and April, court files wrote. He wired some of the cash to bills overseas, including more than $1.1 million to a Swiss organization's financial institution that authorities may be a shell corporation.
The U.S. government seized more than $3.2 million from his bills.
The move "is sufficiently similar to [ponzi scheme] in this example that it applies to his plan, intent, and modus operandi," according to a seek warrant affidavit.
Miles said a person running a Ponzi scheme "is a special kind of criminal, to begin with." He added a person "that will run a completely fraudulent scheme amid a pandemic "rises to a whole other level of special criminal."
