Leah B. Foley United States Attorney for the District of Massachusetts | Department of Justice
A California company and three of its executives were sentenced last week in Boston federal court for their involvement in shipping facemasks falsely labeled as N95 respirators during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Advoque Safeguard LLC received a sentence of one year probation and was fined $700,000 by U.S. District Court Judge Myong J. Joun. Jason Azevedo of Cedar Creek, Texas, and Andrew Stack of Santa Cruz, California, each received one year probation and $100,000 fines. Paul Shrater of Simi Valley, California, was sentenced to six months’ probation and fined $100,000.
The company had pleaded guilty in October 2024 to conspiracy to introduce misbranded devices into interstate commerce with intent to defraud or mislead. The three individuals pleaded guilty to introducing misbranded devices into interstate commerce.
Another business involved in the scheme, JDM Supply LLC (JDM), along with Daniel Motha and Jeffrey Motha, also pleaded guilty earlier this year. They were each sentenced in April 2025 to one year probation and ordered to pay $9,500 fines. Jason Colantuoni also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit price gouging; he was sentenced in July 2025 to time served and a $3,000 fine.
In spring 2020, Advoque Safeguard LLC (ASG) and JDM conspired to distribute facemasks that were falsely presented as being approved by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) as N95 respirators. One hospital bought hundreds of thousands of these masks believing they met NIOSH standards. The hospital did not use the masks after discovering their true nature and returned them to ASG.
Testing performed by a NIOSH lab on samples from the shipment showed that all ten masks tested had filtration efficiency between 83.94% and 93.24%, below the minimum 95% required for genuine N95 respirators.
United States Attorney Leah B. Foley announced the sentencing alongside officials from several federal agencies: Ketty Larco-Ward from the U.S. Postal Inspection Service; Fernando McMillan from the Food and Drug Administration’s Office of Criminal Investigations; Christopher Algieri from the Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General; Ted E. Docks from the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Boston Division; and Michael J. Krol from Homeland Security Investigations in New England.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Mackenzie Queenin prosecuted the case.
