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.
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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.
