U.S. Attorney Timothy Duax | U.S. Department of Justice
A Florida man, Saransh "Sam" Sharma, has been sentenced to over three years in federal prison for his involvement in a fraudulent scheme involving N95 masks. The sentencing took place on December 9, 2024, following Sharma's guilty plea on December 14, 2023, to one count of wire fraud.
Sharma, originally from Muscat, Oman and residing in Wellington, Florida, admitted during court hearings that he deceived a company based in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. In October 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the Cedar Rapids company sought to purchase one million 3M N95 masks. Sharma falsely claimed that a Florida limited liability company had recently completed transactions involving 30 million masks. Consequently, the Cedar Rapids firm wired over $3 million to a bank account managed by a Florida lawyer under the expectation of receiving the masks. However, they never received them.
Following this incident, the United States initiated a civil fraud action and managed to recover about $2.4 million for the defrauded company.
This is not Sharma's first offense. In March 2018, he was sentenced to 33 months in prison after pleading guilty to wire fraud related to another scheme in California. His previous sentence concluded on October 9, 2020.
The recent sentence was handed down by Chief Judge C.J. Williams at the United States District Court in Cedar Rapids. Besides serving 37 months' imprisonment without parole (as per federal system rules), Sharma must also pay restitution amounting to $390,454.57 and will be subject to three years of supervised release post-incarceration.
Assistant United States Attorney Timothy L. Vavricek prosecuted the case with investigations conducted by both the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation's Office of Inspector General.
