About Those 39 Million Masks Located By The SEIU-UHW…
[guest post by Dana]
I knew there was something fishy about the story…at the time, I said:
I have questions: Who’s the distributor and why have they been sitting on theses masks until the union called? This especially as they knew that that medical professionals have been in dire need of them? And why did it take a call from the SEIU to get a manufacturer to say that they can provide 20 millions masks a week? Didn’t they know that there was already a dire need for the product – a need which they could apparently go a long way to filling? Were requests by other entities unanswered or denied? Also, what is the pre-coronavirus cost for an individual mask? And how was it that SEIU-UHW was able to locate them, and no one else was? Was no one else looking? Why didn’t this distributor and manufacturer come forward on their own? While I’m thrilled that the much needed masks are now available (and going to be made available in large quantities), something seems a bit curious about this, no?
[Ed. Now I’m annoyed with myself that I changed “there’s something fishy” to the milder “something seems a bit curious” to appease a concerned commenter…]
Anyway, here we are:
A powerful California union that claimed to have discovered 39 million masks for healthcare workers fighting the novel coronavirus was duped in an elaborate scam uncovered by FBI investigators, the U.S. attorney’s office said Friday.
U.S. Atty. Scott Brady of the Western District of Pennsylvania said FBI agents and prosecutors stumbled onto the arrangement while looking into whether they could intercept the masks for the Federal Emergency Management Agency under the Defense Production Act.
It seems that when the Feds were trying to snatch the masks, they couldn’t locate them. And for good reason:
Brady said investigators tracked the tip back to a Pittsburgh businessman, who said he had been working with the union to secure millions of masks, some of which were purported to be sitting in a Georgia warehouse. Brady said the businessman had been using WhatsApp to connect with a broker in Australia and a supplier in Kuwait, who are both now the target of a federal investigation.
Brady said the union and the Pittsburgh businessman, whom he declined to identify, appear to be among a string of middlemen who were fooled. The union and the Pittsburgh businessman are not under investigation, Brady said.
The scam quickly unfolded when buyers didn’t receive their order:
In the days after the SEIU deal was announced, Kaiser employees began expressing frustration that they hadn’t received any masks. On April 3, a spokesman for Kaiser Permanente told The Times that the seller had “repeatedly failed to provide reliable information about where we could verify and inspect the shipment,” prompting Kaiser to withdraw. The spokesman said Kaiser has been cooperating in the federal investigation.
Not only did I have my suspicions about the discovery of 39 million masks, so too did the Feds:
Brady said federal investigators had reason to suspect the arrangement. The 39 million masks were advertised as N95 masks from 3M, the largest U.S.-based manufacturer. But 3M told federal investigators it manufactured only 20 million such masks last year, making that large of a stockpile unlikely unless the product was counterfeit.
“We believe we disrupted fraud,” Brady said. “We are seeing [personal protective equipment] fraud in every variation, but mostly in respect to N95 masks. We have an anxious public, and resources are strained.”
The SEIU-UHW apparently acted in good faith, believing that they truly had located 39 million masks. Steve Trossman, spokesman for SEIU-UHW, said:
“As far as we knew, he had legitimate masks,” Trossman said of the supplier, “and the people who were going to purchase those masks were going to fully vet it and check it out and do their due diligence.”
Trossman said the union “was trying to save the lives of healthcare workers and patients,” and its officials “were proud of having made that attempt.”
Too many people with good intentions, from the SEIU-UHW to the medical facilities and health care centers that placed orders, forgot the old, cautionary adage that says: If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is [too good to be true]. Perhaps even more so during a pandemic. And how sad is that…
–Dana
I was going to say, not even a pandemic slows down the corrupt, but really, the truth is, the corrupt see a pandemic as an even more ripe opportunity to con and deceive desperate people.
Dana (0feb77) — 4/13/2020 @ 11:35 amand, sadly, many people will read the headlines and assume the whole thing was fraud by the union rather than someone defrauding the union.
aphrael (7962af) — 4/13/2020 @ 11:36 am2. Given our current national state of [whatever is the best literary term for this level of stinking-blind panic], I’d say that’s a distinction without much of a difference.
Gryph (08c844) — 4/13/2020 @ 11:56 amBack from original post when you asked if you were being too cynical:
Reply in comments: “ I would blame years of exposure to the comment section of this blog over days of confinement…“
Props to this comment section – it helped light the way to reality (for some).
harkin (b64479) — 4/13/2020 @ 12:00 pm_
> and, sadly, many people will read the headlines
Just like the NYT, it is of course intentional. Bury the details that distract from your implication (“The SEIU-UHW apparently acted in good faith…”) and run it anyway.
john (cd2753) — 4/13/2020 @ 12:03 pm“FBI agents and prosecutors stumbled onto the arrangement while looking into whether they could intercept the masks for the Federal Emergency Management Agency under the Defense Production Act.”
Is anyone else bothered by this part?
Davethulhu (d0f7de) — 4/13/2020 @ 12:13 pmIn my little Craig’sList fraud hunt, you often see people saying they’re selling their car/truck cheap is because they just lost kid/husband who the car reminds them of (sniffle…). Some compound that by claiming they are in military training for deployment.
Over the weekend, I smoked out my first “I’m a doctor going to NYC to treat the sick, so I need the money” scams.
Frauds are both liars and thieves, and they literally know no shame.
Ragspierre (d9bec9) — 4/13/2020 @ 12:19 pmIs anyone else bothered by this part?
Ragspierre raises paw…
Ragspierre (d9bec9) — 4/13/2020 @ 12:21 pm6. There are a lot of things that bother me right now, Dave. Including but not limited to that part.
Gryph (08c844) — 4/13/2020 @ 12:22 pmYou’d say that huh? It’s a pretty vast freakin’ difference, literally the opposite.
Colonel Klink (Ret) (305827) — 4/13/2020 @ 12:22 pmLook for the union label!
Colonel Haiku (27c440) — 4/13/2020 @ 12:24 pmDavethulhu,
Yes, it bothers me. But it’s not a surprise given that a) we know the federal stockpile is depleted; b) the federal government believes it can lay claim to most anything; c) poor planning on the feds part does not mean that they can’t rectify the problem any way they see fit, even if it’s at the expense of states, and potentially costs lives as a result.
Unfortunately, what bothers me doesn’t really matter to the people who control levers of power.
Dana (0feb77) — 4/13/2020 @ 12:25 pmR.I.P John Conway, mathematician, inventor of the computer Game of Life. 82, complications of Covid-19.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 4/13/2020 @ 12:55 pmIsn’t it odd that during previous crises we didn’t have scams like this. I wonder what is causing the change in behavior.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 4/13/2020 @ 1:01 pmBernie endorses Biden.
Ragspierre (d9bec9) — 4/13/2020 @ 1:07 pmIsn’t it odd that during previous crises we didn’t have scams like this.
We have. Human nature doesn’t change.
The term “shoddy” came from the Union crap that Lincoln cronies foisted off on the troops as quality goods. Things like cardboard boots and shoes.
Ragspierre (d9bec9) — 4/13/2020 @ 1:11 pmNYTimes endorses Biden’s touchy/feely/sniffy/creepy behavior.
The New York Times exonerates Biden from a sexual assault accusation
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/04/the_new_york_times_exonerates_biden_from_a_sexual_assault_accusation.html#ixzz6JWfD95cq
_
harkin (b64479) — 4/13/2020 @ 1:18 pmIs anyone else bothered by this part?
Me. I suspect most of us here are.
Kishnevi (27beb6) — 4/13/2020 @ 1:25 pmZOMG, you’d think that character didn’t matter anymore, anyhow…!!!
Ragspierre (d9bec9) — 4/13/2020 @ 1:27 pmRagspierre, at 16, and Truman initially made his name by running a commission investigating scams being perpetrated on the US military during the war.
aphrael (7962af) — 4/13/2020 @ 1:28 pm17. Good thing the Deemocrats aren’t nominating a pope er’summate…
Ragspierre (d9bec9) — 4/13/2020 @ 1:28 pm20. I’d bet there was ersatz manna in the camp of the Children Of Isreal, too.
Ragspierre (d9bec9) — 4/13/2020 @ 1:31 pmThe term “shoddy” came from the Union crap that Lincoln cronies foisted off on the troops as quality goods. Things like cardboard boots and shoes.
Ragspierre, at 16, and Truman initially made his name by running a commission investigating scams being perpetrated on the US military during the war.
Ask how Trump’s daddy Fred made his money.
nk (1d9030) — 4/13/2020 @ 1:38 pmGood call. When something is too good to be true, its usually because its false.
rcocean (2e1c02) — 4/13/2020 @ 2:18 pm24. Like “only I can fix it”.
Ragspierre (d9bec9) — 4/13/2020 @ 3:03 pmThe term “shoddy” came from the Union crap that Lincoln cronies foisted off on the troops as quality goods.
Perhaps. I’ve come to the conclusion that quite a bit of the “scandals” of the Lincoln and Grant administrations were manufacured by Copperheads and anti-Reconstruction forces. There is a great similarity between the resistance to Reconstruction and those who opposed W over Iraq.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 4/13/2020 @ 3:40 pmTrump is getting absolutely gutted by the press in his conference. He just can’t respond, he’s been called on what happened in February, he cannot answer. He’s floundering like a teenage boy busted with a playboy in the bathroom with the a gallon jug of Jergens. He says he could have done nothing and millions died, or what he did, he’s been perfect, perfect.
Colonel Klink (Ret) (305827) — 4/13/2020 @ 3:58 pmTrump says he let the governors “close down”, and he’s letting the other states not “close down” because, literal quote, “he has the authority to do the things the president can do, calls the shots, we’ve done a job nobody thought, we have local government doing a pointpoint, they can do nothing without the power of the president.”
He has zero idea of how he “orders” the governors to “open it” whatever open and it means. He’s a clueless child.
Colonel Klink (Ret) (305827) — 4/13/2020 @ 4:04 pmThe words coming out of his mouth are just random monkey mouth noises, the have no meaning.
Colonel Klink (Ret) (305827) — 4/13/2020 @ 4:05 pmThey have no meaning.
Colonel Klink (Ret) (305827) — 4/13/2020 @ 4:05 pm“When somebodies the president, their authority is total, total, and that’s the way its got to be”
Colonel Klink (Ret) (305827) — 4/13/2020 @ 4:07 pm26. No “perhaps”. Look it up.
Ragspierre (d9bec9) — 4/13/2020 @ 4:09 pmPoor Duh Donald. I think is safe to say that there’s never been a more clueless thug in the Oval office. Much as I despised Baracula, he at least knew a few things.
Ragspierre (d9bec9) — 4/13/2020 @ 4:12 pmWalk down any street, point at any person, more qualified.
Colonel Klink (Ret) (305827) — 4/13/2020 @ 4:15 pm