June 23, 2021 – The city of Houston, Texas, spent more than a million dollars on counterfeit masks, a local NBC affiliate reports.
The court records said the city paid a company called Med-Tech Resource about $1.7 million for around 900,000 3M N95 masks that were intended for frontline employees.
A city employee grew suspicious after hearing many masks on the market were counterfeit. After the masks were delivered, 3M and the city determined they were counterfeit.
A police report included in the court documents said the masks in question were quarantined and never used.
Court records said federal authorities seized the funds used to pay for the masks and the city is now asking to get the money back.
Last month, the Associated Press reported the state of Maine is going through something similar with the same company.