Federal officials say the COVID-19 outbreak has unleashed a wave of fraud. Homeland Security Investigations has opened more than 300 cases in recent weeks that include counterfeit products and medicines as well as fake virus tests.
Christopher A. Parris started pitching himself as a broker of surgical masks amid the nationwide scramble for protective equipment in those first desperate weeks of the outbreak, federal authorities said. Within weeks, Parris was making millions of dollars on sales orders.Law enforcement officials say Parris is part of what they are calling a wave of fraud tied to the outbreak.
Parris was on pretrial release for the alleged Ponzi scheme when he was arrested last month in what federal authorities say was an attempt to secure an order for more than $750 million from the Department of Veterans Affairs for 125 million face masks and other equipment. Nationwide, investigators have turned up more than false purveyors of PPE. They have uncovered an array of counterfeit or adulterated products, from COVID-19 tests kits and treatments to masks and cleaning products.
As outlined in court documents and interviews, his pitch reached a company in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, that had previously done business with the state and was trying to help government agencies buy PPE. In late March, it contacted the VA, which was then dealing with a critical shortage of protective equipment.
In the earlier case, Parris and his business partners are accused of defrauding about 1,000 people out of at least $115 million from January 2012 to June 2018 by persuading them to turn over their savings for what turned out to be nonexistent investments, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Parris, who was charged in the case in January, grew up in Rochester, New York, and worked as an insurance agent, owned a dry cleaner and got involved in local politics. He ran unsuccessfully for city council and said he was vice president of a local African American Republican committee.
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