#Chinese manufacturer charged with selling over 140,000 fake ‘KN95’ masks

A Chinese manufacturer shipped thousands of “adulterated and misbranded” respirator masks to the US in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic, federal prosecutors said.

The feds accused Crawford Technology Group (HK) Co. of selling more than 140,000 bogus “KN95” masks similar to the N95 respirators used by health-care workers battling COVID-19.

Crawford claimed the masks could filter out 95 percent of harmful airborne particles — but testing showed they only filtered roughly 22 percent on average, prosecutors said Wednesday. A complaint filed in New Jersey federal court charged the company with violating the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act.

“It is not enough that this pandemic has upended lives around the world and caused countless suffering and hundreds of thousands of deaths,” Jason Molina, the special agent in charge for US Homeland Security Investigations in Newark, said in a statement. “In the midst of that, we have companies like this that exploited this tragedy for financial gain and in the process put millions of lives at risk.”

Crawford allegedly shipped the defective masks amid a shortage in protective gear caused by the coronavirus crisis, which has killed more than 117,000 people in the US and nearly 450,000 worldwide, according to Johns Hopkins University data.

The Shenzhen-based company regularly makes cases, chargers and other accessories for mobile devices, but it registered with the Food and Drug Administration in early May as an exporter of medical devices such as face masks and gloves, prosecutors said.

A New Jersey electronics distributor that was selling protective gear ordered about $150,000 worth of masks from Crawford around April, the feds said. Crawford had sent the American company materials claiming the masks’ “Filtration reaches 95%,” according to prosecutors.

US Customs and Border Protection officials held the masks for inspection when they arrived at JFK Airport on May 6, the complaint says. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health later tested 19 Crawford masks and found their actual filtration efficiency ranged from just 14.6 percent to 44.2 percent, according to the feds.

Crawford did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday morning.