A Brooklyn company was sentenced to pay a big fine for their role in price-gouging a chain of grocery stores in New Jersey for KN95 masks during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.
The company, Milk & Honey Ventures LLC (MHV), had previously pleaded guilty to violating the Defense Production Act by price-gouging for the personal protective equipment (PPE). It was fined more than $314,000 on Tuesday, and will be on probation for a year.
According to court documents and statements, MHV and two partners bought 250,000 KN95 facemasks from a foreign manufacturer in March 2020, just as the pandemic was starting.
The company, along with one of the partners, then sold 100,000 of the masks to the New Jersey grocery store chain at prices well above market value — charging $5.25 per mask, a markup of more than 400 percent from the price they acquired the PPE for.
Before the pandemic hit, MHV had never sold PPE, court documents stated.
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