A Florida man, Saransh “Sam” Sharma, was sentenced to over three years in federal prison for his involvement in a fraudulent scheme involving N95 masks. Sharma, 44, from Wellington, Florida, originally from Muscat, Oman, received this sentence following his guilty plea on December 14, 2023.
During court proceedings, Sharma confessed to deceiving a company based in Cedar Rapids that sought to purchase one million 3M N95 masks during the COVID-19 pandemic. On October 9, 2020, he falsely claimed that a Florida limited liability company had successfully dealt with 30 million masks in the preceding months. As a result of this misrepresentation, the Cedar Rapids company transferred over $3 million to a bank account belonging to a Florida lawyer on October 19, 2020. However, the expected masks were never delivered.
Subsequently, the United States government initiated a civil fraud action and managed to recover approximately $2.4 million of the defrauded funds.
Sharma's legal troubles date back to March 2018 when he was sentenced to 33 months in prison after pleading guilty to wire fraud charges related to another scheme in California. His prior sentence concluded on October 9, 2020.
The recent sentencing took place in Cedar Rapids under United States District Court Chief Judge C.J. Williams. Sharma received a sentence of 37 months and was ordered to pay restitution amounting to $390,454.57 for his fraudulent actions concerning the N95 mask scheme. Following his imprisonment term, he will be subject to three years of supervised release as there is no parole system at the federal level.
Assistant United States Attorney Timothy L. Vavricek prosecuted the case which was investigated by both the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation's Office of Inspector General.