FLORIDA – Agents with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) have busted an alleged fraudulent N95 mask deal with the arrest of a Florida man.
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The FDLE said its agents arrested Esmeraldo Enrique, 79, of Rockledge, on one count of organized fraud after he offered to sell more than 20 million N95 masks that did not exist.
According to the FDLE, in July 2020, Enrique, doing business as Enrique Technologies & Trading LLC (ETT), entered into a deal to sell the masks to a Canadian healthcare company. As a down payment, the FDLE alleges that Enrique instructed the customer to pay $500,000 to him and $1.8 million to an account in Cairo, Egypt, where the supposed masks were stored.
Agents said there were no masks, and Enrique worked with a known scam artist in Egypt to perpetrate the crime.
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The FDLE stated that Enrique shopped for victims, and once he identified the Canadian company, he gave them various fraudulent offers to purchase different quantities of masks. The money paid was reportedly a down payment for a $20 million deal.
Later, Enrique offered to sell the company $40 million worth of masks, the FDLE said.
According to the FDLE, when the company failed to receive the masks, they contacted Enrique several times, asking for a refund, which they have yet to receive.
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Enrique was arrested on August 16 and booked into the Brevard County Jail on a $10,000 bond. The case is being prosecuted by Attorney General Ashley Moody’s Office of Statewide Prosecution.
FDLE’s Brevard Field Office investigated this case with assistance from the Department of Homeland Security, Office of Inspector General, along with U.S. Secret Service, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and Egyptian authorities.
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