A California-based lawyer has been charged with violating the Defense Production Act by conspiring to inflate the price of masks needed amid the coronavirus pandemic, according to a complaint unsealed Tuesday in the Eastern District of New York.

Kent Bulloch, 56, was charged alongside an Arizona-based businessman, 64-year-old William Young Sr. Both men are accused of seeking to profit off the pandemic by reselling the masks, according to court filings and a news release. Bulloch also agreed to create fake documents to hide price gouging, according to the complaint.

"It's hard to believe anyone could take advantage of a situation like this, but this case clearly proves that theory wrong," William Sweeney Jr., assistant director-in-charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, said in a statement.