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Lawsuit Filed Against Ohio Man Accused Of Price Gouging For N95 Masks

The Statehouse News Bureau | By Jo Ingles,
Jo Ingles
Published April 14, 2020 at 10:30 PM EDT
Natalie Zinardi, Shutterstock.com

The state has filed a lawsuit against a Cleveland-area man for hoarding personal protective equipment that is sorely needed by health care workers fighting coronavirus. 

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost says Mario Salwan and some others sold N95 respirator masks on eBay for nearly 18 times the retail price. Yost has filed a suit, saying Salwan violated Ohio’s antitrust law as well as the Consumer Sales Practices Act, and it's not the only case being pursued. 

"It is not getting better out there and yes, we are going after additional people," Yost says.

The lawsuit says an ER nurse tried to get Salwan to change his prices, and he responded by saying she and her doctor husband should work for free during the crisis. The state is asking Salwan to be forced to surrender all of the N95 masks for reasonable compensation. 

Copyright 2020 The Statehouse News Bureau. To see more, visit The Statehouse News Bureau.

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Health coronavirusCOVID-19personal protective equipmentN95 masksDave YostFrom WKSU
Jo Ingles
Jo Ingles is a professional journalist who covers politics and Ohio government for the Ohio Public Radio and Television for the Ohio Public Radio and Television Statehouse News Bureau. She reports on issues of importance to Ohioans including education, legislation, politics, and life and death issues such as capital punishment. Jo started her career in Louisville, Kentucky in the mid 80’s when she helped produce a televised presidential debate for ABC News, worked for a creative services company and served as a general assignment report for a commercial radio station. In 1989, she returned back to her native Ohio to work at the WOSU Stations in Columbus where she began a long resume in public radio.
See stories by Jo Ingles
Jo Ingles
Jo Ingles is a professional journalist who covers politics and Ohio government for the Ohio Public Radio and Television for the Ohio Public Radio and Television Statehouse News Bureau. She reports on issues of importance to Ohioans including education, legislation, politics, and life and death issues such as capital punishment.
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