'Shark Tank' Star Tried to Sell Florida N95 Masks at Inflated Price

Businessman and television personality Daymond John (Michael Loccisano/Getty Images)

By    |   Wednesday, 22 April 2020 01:37 PM EDT ET

"Shark Tank" star Daymond John attempted to sell N95 protective masks at over three times the previous market price to the desperate state of Florida amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Officials did not anticipate the demand for protective gear for healthcare workers and were willing to pay inflated prices to secure supplies.

John, who is the CEO of The Shark Group, approached the state in March claiming he could secure one million masks from China but they would cost the state $7 per mask as opposed to the average market price of less than $2 per mask, the Miami Herald reported.

Jared Moskowitz, director of the Florida Department of Emergency Management, was battling to secure deals for masks and entered an agreement with John.

"This was not somebody off the street, this was Daymond John," Moskowitz told the outlet. "He came to me and said, 'I've been in the clothing business. I have connections with factories in China.'"

Moskowitz and his staff scrambled to sign $600 million in a no-bid purchase order from dozens of vendors, some of which did not have authorization from 3M, the manufacturer of N95 masks, to sell their product, the Miami Herald noted. As a result, many of the deals fell through.

The state signed a purchase order with law firm Foley & Lardner, which held the money in an escrow account instead of signing a purchase order with the vendor. The Herald notes that this was an unusual move. The state was then, according to the agreement, going to pay $7 million to The Shark Group.

"The reason we decided to go through an escrow agent is more and more vendors wanted money upfront because we were identifying potential fraud in the marketplace," Moskowitz said. "We used the legal escrow process to protect the state. It has worked in every case. If the vendor didn’t deliver the product, the money was returned through the escrow agent."

Despite all the unusual machinations, the deal fell through on April 13.

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TheWire
"Shark Tank" star Daymond John attempted to sell N95 protective masks at over three times the previous market price to the desperate state of Florida amid the coronavirus pandemic. Officials did not anticipate the demand for protective gear for healthcare...
shark tank, daymond john, N95, face masks, florida
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2020-37-22
Wednesday, 22 April 2020 01:37 PM
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