Mass. man and brother sentenced for fake N95 mask price gouging scheme

A Massachusetts man and his brother have been sentenced in connection with a scheme to price gouge hospitals for face masks that were misbranded as N95 respirators during the earliest phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Massachusetts U.S. Attorney’s Office announced Friday.

Norfolk, Massachusetts, resident Jeffrey Motha, 36, and Miami, Florida, resident Daniel Motha, 40, pleaded guilty to one count of introduction of misbranded devices into interstate commerce and one count of conspiracy to commit price gouging in October 2024, the U.S. Attorney’s office said in a press release. A federal judge sentenced each brother to one year of probation and ordered them to pay a $9,500 fine in connection with the charges.

The two brothers co-owned a now-defunct Florida-based company called JDM Supply LLC that conspired with another company, Advoque Safeguard LLC — a PPE manufacturer, to distribute face masks that were misbranded as National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)-approved N95 respirators in the spring of 2020, the U.S. Attorney’s office said.

JDM Supply misled one hospital into believing that the masks were NIOSH-approved N95s, the U.S. Attorney’s office said. As a result, the hospital accepted and paid for approximately 850,000 of the face masks at a total price of approximately $2.6 million.

JDM Supply sent the hospital NIOSH-passing test results and approval documents for a different mask, the U.S. Attorney’s office said. But ultimately, the hospital did not use the masks, which were eventually returned to Advoque.

In August 2020, a NIOSH lab tested a sample of the masks that had been shipped to the hospital, the U.S. Attorney’s office said. The masks tested between 83.94% and 93.24% filtration efficiency, thus falling below the 95% minimum level of filtration efficiency required for N95 respirators.

In August 2023, Norfolk, Massachusetts, resident Jason Colantuoni pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit price gouging in connection the case, the U.S. Attorney’s office said. Colantuoni is scheduled to be sentenced on June 23, 2025.