*Sheesh! We can only wonder just what “Shark Tank” star Daymond John was thinking when he reportedly tried to sell N95 masks for a crazy high price to Florida officials to try and get them to front-line health care workers.
The Shark Group CEO is said to have offered to be a middle man and sell 3M-made masks to the state of Florida at $7 each which is more than three times the market rate, according to a Miami Herald report.
“This was not somebody off the street, this was Daymond John,” Jared Moskowitz, director of the state Department of Emergency Management, told the news outlet.
Moskowitz said John, who of course is known for founding the streetwear brand Fubu, expectedly boasted about his experience in the apparel world.
“He came to me and said, ‘I’ve been in the clothing business. I have connections with factories in China,’” Moskowitz said.
UPDATE/RELATED: ‘Shark Tank’ Star Daymond John Denies Trying To Sell Face Masks At Inflated Prices
Desperate to get the supplies, the state agreed to pay $7 million to John’s Shark Group for 1 million masks, the newspaper reported.
Under an unusual agreement, the state signed the purchase order on March 25 with the law firm Foley & Lardner, which would handle the transaction with the company, according to the report.
But wait! It seems that by mid-April, the multimillion-dollar deal fell through and it’s unclear why that happened, the Herald also reported.
An earlier report shows that as John’s and other deals fell through, only a fraction of the 90 million masks the state sought have actually materialized. “Many people were duped,” Moskowitz said.
Now it looks like John may have gotten some attention he didn’t bargain for. That’s because Shark Group’s deal is among the ones being looked at by Minnesota-based 3M, which is going after fraud and price gouging on its supplies, says the Herald.
Get MORE of this story at Miami Herald.
