N95 masks and medical surgical masks. Photo: Maridav/Shutterstock.com

Two Southern California-based businessmen have been charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud in connection with the sale of personal protective equipment needed amid a global pandemic, according to a complaint unsealed Monday in the Eastern District of New York.

Donald Allen and Manuel Revolorio falsely claimed they had access to millions of masks, including the Chinese-approved variant of the N95, known as the KN95, according to the complaint. They claimed to have been involved in the personal protective equipment supply business since 2014, even though their company was only incorporated in 2017, investigators found.

"The defendants also falsely claimed that [their company] had contracts and agreements in place to resell millions of masks, and attempted to pressure a potential purchaser to wire more than $4 million to secure those masks," according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York.

Investigators were tipped off about the scheme after an associate of the two men contacted a potential investor in the Eastern District in late March, according to the complaint. The investor, who was previously convicted of securities fraud and cooperated with the government, reported the incident.

After a back-and-forth involving Allen and Revolorio, unnamed co-conspirators and a pair of investors cooperating with the government, an undercover agent met Allen and Revolorio at a California house they described as their office April 14, according to the complaint.

The agent saw "a large number of cardboard boxes in plain view, some of which were open and contained face masks," and Revolorio offered to sell 40,000 KN95 masks that day. Revolorio then took the agent to two warehouses and showed him more boxes, telling him they contained millions of surgical masks.

Allen then emailed a series of invoices asking for more than $4 million in payment to the offices of one unnamed co-conspirator, an attorney, according to the complaint.

During a search just a few days later, investigators learned that most of the boxes at the house were empty, according to the complaint. At the two warehouses, the agents found masks but other people came forward as the masks' owners, denying that they worked with Allen and Revolorio.

The men were arrested Monday in California. Allen has a prior conviction for mail fraud from 2002, according to the complaint.

Attorneys representing the men in California did not immediately respond to requests for comment. It was not immediately clear when or how the men will be moved to New York.

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