Baruch Feldheim, 43, of Brooklyn New York, has had a bit of bad luck recently.
Just as things were looking up for him.
He had managed to get hold of tens of thousands of respirator masks and other hospital supplies and demand was high.
On March 18, 2020, a doctor in New Jersey contacted Feldheim via a WhatsApp chat group labeled “Virus2020!”
Feldheim, who, for his efforts, might be called Respirator-Bro, agreed to sell the doctor 1,000 N95 respirator masks and other assorted materials for $12,000, a 700 percent markup from the normal price charged for those materials.
The masks themselves used to cost about $1 before the pandemic-fueled shortage.
For health care workers, the N95 mask is an invaluable line of defense against the novel coronavirus. These highly protective respirators can keep doctors and nurses from getting infected by patients, but the world is quickly running out of them.
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/8428e6e5261a9d26ec9a46e79f6ef3ce/N95%20face%20masks%20REUTERS%20TT.jpg?resize=689%2C462&ssl=1)
While countries around the world scramble to find stockpiles of N95s and manufacture more of the much-coveted masks, it’s unclear how this shortage will resolve itself.
But Feldheim had it covered. He directed the doctor to an auto repair shop in Irvington, New Jersey, to pick up his order, which he did.
According to the doctor, the repair shop contained enough materials, including hand sanitizers, Clorox wipes, chemical cleaning supply agents, and surgical supplies, to outfit an entire hospital.
On March 23, 2020, the clever Feldheim offered to sell a nurse a number of surgical gowns and directed the nurse to his residence in Brooklyn.
Feldheim also received, on March 25, 2020, a shipment from Canada containing approximately eight pallets of respirator masks.
Feldheim was buying low and selling high – just when demand was peaking.
Where he was getting the items is not known, but one thing is certain, he had what doctors needed and could not get – and the entrepreneurial Feldheim was not opposed to making them available for the right price.
But with success can come misfortune and in these pandemic times, he attracted the attention of the FBI.
On March 25, 2020, the US Department of Health and Human Services issued an executive order designating certain scarce health and medical resources necessary to respond to the spread of the Coronavirus. Those designated materials included N95 filtering face-piece respirators, personal protection equipment (PPE) face masks, surgical masks, sterilization services, and disinfecting devices, among other things.
On March 27, 2020, FBI agents staked out the intrepid Feldheim’s house and observed an empty box that once contained N95 masks outside.
On March 29, 2020, FBI agents witnessed multiple individuals approaching Feldheim’s residence and walking away with boxes or bags that appeared to contain medical supplies.
The agents approached Feldheim when he came outside.
After identifying themselves as FBI agents, they told Feldheim that they wanted to stay a distance away from him given concerns over the spread of Coronavirus. When the agents were within four to five feet of him, Feldheim allegedly coughed in their direction without covering his mouth.
The agents told him they were looking for certain personal protection equipment materials and they had information that Feldheim was in possession of large quantities of them.
Feldheim told the agents he had Coronavirus.
The FBI agents pressed him further about his possession and sale of personal protective equipment and other materials.
He told the agents that he worked for a company that bought and sold personal protective equipment and other materials and that he never took physical custody of the materials.
He also said he did not possess large quantities of personal protective equipment and never sold them directly to individuals.
This is where he made a slight mistake, for it struck the agents as being untruthful since there was an empty box of face respirator masks outside his home and they had seen people coming and going from his house.
While FBI agents are at liberty to lie to anyone and often do so, it is a federal crime to lie to an FBI agent – and the crime is punishable by up to five years in prison.
Feldheim was charged with making false statements to the FBI.
Feldheim was also accused of price-gouging for allegedly selling designated materials, including N95 respirators, to doctors and nurses at inflated prices.
He was also charged with assault because he coughed in the direction of FBI agents. It is not clear if he intended to thwart the agents from arresting him or searching his home or whether he simply coughed as people sometimes do rather unexpectedly and failed to cover his mouth in time.
He probably should not have told them he had coronavirus.
The assault charge carries a maximum penalty of one year in prison and a $100,000 fine.
It is not known if Feldheim was lying or telling the truth about having coronavirus.
Following Feldheim’s arrest, the FBI raided a warehouse on Pennsylvania Avenue in an industrial section of Linden, NJ, that housed Feldhim’s suspected stash of 80,000 masks.
Mask-wearing agents and other workers placed the eight pallets of medical supplies into a box truck.
Where the masks will go next is hard to say. They may have to be held in evidence and since Feldheim is not convicted, the items might still technically belong to him, thus making them unavailable to the public at any price.
Feldheim’s appearance before U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael A. Hammer in Newark federal court was scheduled for yesterday.
The US Attorney asks people to please report COVID-19 fraud, hoarding, or price-gouging to the National Center for Disaster Fraud’s National Hotline at (866) 720-5721 or e-mail disaster@leo.gov.
It’s likely that Feldheim, who sought to profit big from the pandemic might be joining the notorious Pharma-Bro, Martin Shkreli, the former hedge fund manager, and convicted felon, in federal prison.
Shkreli gained infamy for raising the price of the life-saving drug Daraprim by more than 5,000 percent while running a company then known as Turing Pharmaceuticals.
They may even wind up as cellmates.
Pharma-Bro and Respirator-Bro are part of a breed of people who see profit where others see compassion, who see opportunity where others see making our best-united efforts to help avoid calamity.
Feldheim got a hold of a stash of respirator masks that doctors and nurses desperately need, and he had but one thought: How to get the absolute most money out of it – even if people had to get sick or die in the process.
Frank Parlato 
Janine Morrison 
J.J. O'Hara 
Richard Luthmann 
Marie White 
Paul Serran
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The FBI should place a plastic bag over Baruch Feldheim’s head…..
and see if it’s true that a parasitic worm can survive without oxygen for over 24 hours.
The NY Times reported the Cuomo was hoarding 10,000 respirators yet put in an order for more from the federal government. Plus he was on the news claiming NY needs more respirators. He’s still at it on the news screaming for more respirators (not N95 respirator masks). So why aren’t the Feds arresting him for hoarding?
You people on The Frank Report are selective about who you bash..
Now the AG is letting people out of prison instead of putting them into prison. They’ll be under house arrest. How many of them have houses to go to after lawyers fees and time spent in jail or prison?
Common Anti-Parasite Drug May Kill Coronavirus in Under 48 Hours, Say Researchers
Researchers in Australia report that Ivermectin, an FDA-approved drug commonly used to treat parasites, appears to be effective in treating the SARS-COV-2 coronavirus (COVID-19). The drug is widely available and can be “repurposed” for this application, doctors said.
The ScienceDirect journal, Antiviral Research, published an article by a group of Australian researchers from Monash University in Melbourne reporting that Ivermectin appears to be effective at inhibiting the coronavirus that causes COVID-19.
Ivermectin is an inhibitor of the COVID-19 causative virus (SARS-CoV-2) in vitro.
A single treatment able to effect ∼5000-fold reduction in virus at 48h in cell culture.
Ivermectin is FDA-approved for parasitic infections, and therefore has a potential for repurposing.
Ivermectin is widely available, due to its inclusion on the WHO model list of essential medicines.
“We report here that Ivermectin, an FDA-approved anti-parasitic previously shown to have broad-spectrum antiviral activity in vitro, is an inhibitor of the causative virus (SARS-CoV-2),” the researchers write. “Ivermectin, therefore, warrants further investigation for possible benefits in humans.”
https://www.breitbart.com/border/2020/04/04/common-anti-parasite-drug-may-kill-coronavirus-in-under-48-hours-say-researchers/
On a related practical note, I’ve been scrounging through my own supplies to see if I have any N-95 respirators/masks I can share with the elderly and other vulnerable people – I discovered that a lot of paint and dust masks are rated N-95, or the equivalent if not better R-95 (often sold for cleaning) or P-95. I found enough around the house and in the garage for a couple of people, plus one I’d already used for a dirty project (wet-sawing concrete) but can still get some functionality out of for myself if urgently necessary, such as interacting with someone sick – though not enough to take them down to the local hospital, as is advised for anyone who has them in quantity.
My take, based on my military (NBC) and civilian (EMT) experience, is that people in at-risk categories should ideally use N-95 or equivalent respirators/masks if they need to go out, if possible, and otherwise the highest quality and bast-fitting cotton or cloth mask available. A single N-95 type will do for someone who just needs a respirator/mask for light non-medical duty and brief things like trips to the grocery and drug stores; hung up to dry in between uses, it should last for much longer than its 8 hour continuous-use rating. As long as they continue to fit tightly, I’ve found research indicating that they can be good for 100 to 200 total hours of use without significant degredation of their protective capability, which would hopefully get people through to the point that new supplies start to become available again in the consumer market.
There are all kinds of scumbags like Feldheim.
Always be on your guard.
When my mother was a young nurse at Cook County Hospital, she would sometimes visit the Maxwell Street Market, a large flea market on Chicago’s West Side.
Some of the vendors there would sell used toothbrushes and used underwear.
One popular store there was called “Cheat You Fair.”
The Maxwell Street Market
The Original Maxwell Street Market was an impromptu ghetto market established in the late 19th century by newly arrived Jewish residents from Eastern Europe. A Sunday-only affair, it was a precursor to the flea market scene in Chicago. The market was officially recognized by the city in 1912. By the time of its demise (1994), it occupied approximately nine square blocks which was centered at Maxwell and Halsted Streets and stretched from Roosevelt Road to 16th Street. Although there were many fine stationery department stores located in the area, the most notable feature was its open-air market. There one could buy almost anything, new or secondhand, legal and illegal, even though the old Chicago Police Academy on O’Brien Street was adjacent to it
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxwell_Street
China’s Funniest Home Videos
Chinese woman spits on elevator buttons.
COVID 19 virus! Lady in China infecting elevator by spitting in elevator. Will she get arrested?
Frank questioned the location of the masks after the raid.
He questioned if they are being held for evidence. He questioned whether the defendant still owns them.
Answer: Nope and nope.
The stash of masks recovered by the FBI has most certainly been sent to hospitals already.
These thousands of masks are NOT being held as ‘evidence’ and they do NOT belong to the defendant anymore.
How do I know this?
Cuz the executive order signed by Trump (banning the hoarding of masks) gives the government the legal right to confiscate any illegal ‘hoards’ of masks and to take full ownership of them —– as long as the government pays for them at NORMAL market rates (as long as they pay the defendant what he’d normally pay for such masks in a non-gouging market).
The government doesn’t need to hold onto these pallets of masks as ‘evidence’ (they only need to create a video tape showing the pallets of masks for the jury). At most, they only need to hold onto a few actual masks to show to the jury in court.
They don’t need to haul pallets of masks into the courtroom. That wouldn’t be practical anyway.
Also, these charges are too minor to withhold those masks.
Even IF the government needed to hold onto these masks as evidence (which they don’t) they’d still give them away to hospitals —– because the ‘risk’ posed to unmasked doctors outweighs the need to convict this man of hoarding them.
Besides, they’ve already got him for ‘lying to FBI agents’ anyway. That’s enough to send him to jail if they really want to.
Have a nice day.
Government can take ownership of masks by paying fair market value…
Quote from FBI Agent:
=====================
“Our goal is to get those masks out of the hands of the criminals, the wrong-doers, and get them into the hands of the doctors and the medical professionals, and the police officers who really truly need them,” Schneider told 7 Investigator Heather Catallo via a FaceTime interview on Wednesday.
“We have a new federal statute right now that we are able to go in and prosecute, or more importantly grab that medical equipment, pay the person a fair market price and then get it out of the hands of the hoarder and get it into the hands of the medical professionals where we most need it right now.”
=====================
https://www.wxyz.com/news/coronavirus/u-s-ag-issues-warning-to-businesses-hoarding-medical-supplies-we-will-be-targeting-you
And you go after Keith Raniere when there are really bad people like this dude out there
There was a small company that had a US government contract to build huge numbers of small less expensive ventilators to prepare for a pandemic like the one we are in. A larger ventilator company bought them out and tore up the contract. As someone who worked for large US firms and unlike Frank Parlato has a clear idea of US crony capitalism, I post this. Frank, the number of crimes that US firms commit and get away with in our system are too numerous to count. You decry socialism as it exists in places like Germany but my idea of hell is a world run by families like the Kochs and Walmart Waltons, the Epsteins and the Mercers. We are almost there and they are above the law.
You forgot your leftist buddies… Gates, Soros, Rockerfeller, Rothschild, Getty…….
More democrat party crooks in NY. Where is the libtard left wing nut bible on this? The New York Times
Where has $850m gone? Bill de Blasio’s wife can’t account for staggering amount of taxpayer money that the NY Mayor gave her for mental health project
Chirlane McCray was assigned a $850million budget for her ThriveNYC program
But records show scheme has failed to keep track of what it spent the money on
The small amount of data that was collected shows it fell far short of targets
Despite that, organizers have expanded the budget to $1billion over five years
Bill de Blasio’s wife Chirlane McCray cannot explain where $850million given to the mental health program she champions has gone, according to reports.
In the three years it has been running, organizers at ThriveNYC have largely failed to keep records of the initiative’s achievements – and data that has been collected shows it lagging well behind targets.
Despite that, the program has been granted an even bigger budget going forward and is now on track to spend $1billion over five years.
The data comes from a Politico report that shows those running the scheme have largely failed to measure its impact or keep track of spending.
Thrive said it has developed a list of 417 metrics to measure how effective the program is moving forward, but asked to assess its impact so far, Politico said the data was piecemeal and showed a largely failing picture.
For example, 29 hospitals had agreed to screen almost 78,000 new mothers for post-natal depression each year as part of the scheme.
Read more below
Money grabbing pigs
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6760503/Bill-Blasios-wife-account-850m-given-mental-health-project.html
The US has become the giant spreader of the virus because Trump, unlike leaders and governments in better run countries, did nothing for 2 months.
You gotta be kidding….what a fucking clueless moron. How is the weather in Communist China comrade.
Unhinged: Pelosi Claims She Knew About Coronavirus Threat, Defends Prioritizing Impeachment
https://www.invidio.us/watch?time_continue=10&v=0_fhUphCvGc&feature=emb_logo
As an American whose family has lived in this country for 400 years, with a long record of patriotic service down to the current generation (besides myself, a Lt. Colonel and full Colonel in the military, just that I know of), I can tell you that you’re clueless – and given your un-civil, un-American dialog, carrying water for our nation’s enemies who want to divide us, if not deliberately trolling for them.
In our nation’s tradition, leaders, particularly in the military, take responsibility and are held to high standards of accountability, like the USS Roosevelt Captain – who decided to look out for his sailors and servicemembers, knowing he was falling on his sword and ending his career. It’s actually our civic duty to expect our leaders to answer, and hold their feet to the fire, unlike in totalitarian regimes where the leaders paper over failures with a propaganda blitz and revisionist history, and the people just accept it and roll over, such as Xi is now doing in China.
–
* Intelligence officials’ early alarms about possible pandemic went unheeded
https://www.inquirer.com/health/coronavirus/coronavirus-us-intelligence-agencies-reports-20200321.html
* Intelligence officials were warning Trump about a pandemic as early as January, but they ‘couldn’t get him to do anything about it’
https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-intelligence-warned-trump-of-pandemic-in-january-2020-3
–
* The U.S. was beset by denial and dysfunction as the coronavirus raged
‘It did not have to happen this way. Though not perfectly prepared, the United States had more expertise, resources, plans and epidemiological experience than dozens of countries that ultimately fared far better in fending off the virus.
The failure has echoes of the period leading up to 9/11: Warnings were sounded, including at the highest levels of government, but the president was deaf to them until the enemy had already struck.
The Trump administration received its first formal notification of the outbreak of the coronavirus in China on Jan. 3. Within days, U.S. spy agencies were signaling the seriousness of the threat to Trump by including a warning about the coronavirus – the first of many – in the President’s Daily Brief.’
https://www.lmtonline.com/news/article/The-U-S-was-beset-by-denial-and-dysfunction-as-15179067.php
–
Inside the coronavirus testing failure: Alarm and dismay among the scientists who sought to help
https://www.chron.com/news/article/Inside-the-coronavirus-testing-failure-Alarm-and-15178203.php
Seriously slick, you more goofy with every lie you crap out. Why waste your life on a couple of idiots here that take your bullshit seriously.
Between Dave and Dan, you two are live examples of the warrior strategy: “Divide and Conquer” and that’s what bi-partisan politics serving cronie capitalism (not to mention cronie communism) is all about.
Hey dingbat, did you read your buddy Dave’s idiotic comment? What countries have done a better job than the US? If you find one, then move your ass there.
It’s also a tactic that former Russian trolls have exposed as being used in discussion forums and on social media in disinformation operations. They try to stir up as much acrimony and distrust as possible.
Looks like Mr. Feldman is a cousin of Rabbi Shmuli Schmul.
John 8:44
You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and he stood not in the truth; because truth is not in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father thereof.
Bruno, are you TRYING to spook everyone off this blog or are you using the puters in the admin office of your asylum?
Here’s to your recovery from the virus and prison, respirator bro. If a type like you survives it’s only because you were meant to face an even worse fate.