MIAMI (Legal Newsline) – New York City’s multimillion-dollar effort to buy ventilators in the first weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic didn’t go according to plan, and ensuing litigation is having its problems, too.
Legal Newsline previously reported the City was only able to secure a $1.9 million settlement with a company it said took almost $4.3 million without delivering the goods it promised.
Recent court filings in the same case show a minor defendant – Nations Fast Tax & Accounting 2 - sent in unusable checks to satisfy its $15,000 obligation.
“Inexplicably, the checks lacked check numbers and therefore could not be deposited,” lawyers for the city wrote on May 5.
NYC wants a Miami federal judge to enforce the settlement between it and Nations Fast. It says it told counsel for Nations Fast on April 23 about the problems with the checks but has not received a response since.
NYC filed a lawsuit Oct. 8 against Global Medical Supply Group, Nations Fast Tax & Accounting and Zhejiang Jinrong Trading Co., as well as four individuals.
The City said it agreed to pay $8.2 million to Global Medical to buy 130 ventilators in March 2020, when COVID-19 cases were on the rise.
“Exploiting the COVID-19 crisis for their own gain, Defendants obtained millions of dollars from NYC through false statements about their ability to source the equipment in China, where the market for ventilators was in a state of frenzy due to overwhelming worldwide demand,” the lawsuit says.
“Despite their lack of immediate access to the requested ventilators, their complete inexperience and lack of licenses and related credentials required by law, Defendants represented to NYC that they could deliver 130 ventilators of a particular type—model VG70, manufactured by Beijing Aeonmed Co.—in a matter of days.
“In fact, they could not, and they did not.”