Those Lilly threads on Reddit are interesting, I didn’t have any intention on buying so I never really paid attention. So the owner is currently facing charges for fraud? Russ is also co-owner of Lilly? There was no need to vett cause Russ knew exactly who he was dealing with.
How is Russ not suspect after this
This is regarding the owner off Lilly case….
“Details of the RICO Case Against Lilly Finance CEO
A St. Petersburg man is accused of defrauding a Georgia company out of $3.8 million worth of N95 masks, according to a complaint filed Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida in Tampa.
The complaint, filed on behalf of Tri-Pharma Inc., claims that Safe Harvest Medical LLC and Lillian Bay Medical received a $3.85 million payment for N95 masks manufactured in China, which Tri-Pharma intended to sell to two VA medical centers in the United States. The latter of those two companies, Lillian Bay, is based in St. Petersburg and was founded by St. Pete resident Brad Beatty
Beatty currently serves as the CEO of Lillian Bay Medical, which describes itself as a researcher, developer and manufacturer of biomedical products. Safe Harvest Medical is based in Texas.
According to the complaint, Tri-Pharma agreed to purchase 1 million masks being manufactured in China; the company tendered two separate wires of $1.925 million each to two escrow agents designated by the defendants. The money would only be released after the defendants indicated the masks were available for shipment. Half of that $3.85 million was released from the account on April 22, with Lillian Bay and Safe Harvest each receiving $266,000 from that sum. Tri-Pharma approved the release of the remaining money on May 6, which was wired to Dubai-based Virtus Facilities Management Services.
But the complaint said issues with the order had already popped up by this time. Beatty and Safe Harvest Medical President Garrett Mann allegedly told Tri-Pharma that "China changed the volume of permitted exports related to PPE and the masks." Since this would affect Tri-Pharma's commitments to the VA, the complaint said Mann offered to cancel the order and return the $3.85 millionhe complaint claims that the defendants did this in order to sell the N95 masks to another buyer for more money.
When Tri-Pharma did not immediately agree to cancel the contract, the defendants allegedly said that changes made by the Chinese government were causing problems and said that "returning the funds is the best option in our situation."
The defendants then sold the masks to another party for more money, the complaint saidOver the next few weeks, the defendants delayed returning the money, which was now deposited in Dubai. The complaint said the defendants blamed the delays on inefficiencies in the international financial system. Tri-Pharma now dealt with Virtus in trying to obtain the refund, and a Virtus employee told Tri-Pharma that the order was canceled in order to sell to a higher bidder, not because of Chinese interference, the lawsuit said.
Virtus said this sale would net more than $3.85 million, which would allow for Tri-Pharma to receive a refund"It became clear, however, that defendants were engaged in a Ponzi-type scheme, whereby one deal would fund the next deal, and repayment to Tri-Pharma was contingent on the process continuing," the lawsuit said.
Source: [
https://www.bizjournals.com/tampaba...llian-bay-medical-accused-of-defrauding.html)