ROCKLEDGE, Fla. — A Rockledge man was arrested Wednesday, accused of carrying out a scheme to sell millions of N95 masks that he never had.
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According to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, 79-year-old Esmeraldo Enrique, doing business as Enrique Technologies & Trading LLC, entered into a deal in July of 2020 to sell more than 20 million N95 masks to a healthcare company based in Canada.
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According to FDLE, as a down payment for the deal, Enrique told the company to pay him $500,000 and send another $1.8 million to an account in Cairo, Egypt where the masks were supposedly being stored.
FDLE agents say there were never any masks and Enrique had actually worked with a known scam artist in Egypt to help carry out the scheme.
According to FDLE, Enrique shopped around for victims until he found the Canadian company and gave them various fraudulent offers to purchase different quantities of N95 masks.
The money the company paid was meant to be a down payment for a $20 million deal. Later, Enrique offered to sell the company another $40 million worth of masks.
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When the masks weren’t delivered, the company attempted to contact Enrique several times for a refund, but they never received one.
Enrique was arrested Wednesday morning and booked into the Brevard County jail on one count of organized fraud. He’s since been released on $10,000 bond.
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