Man Arrested For Hoarding Masks, Coughing on FBI Agents

A Brooklyn man was charged after hoarding medical supplies and purposefully coughing on FBI agents after claiming to be infected with COVID-19.

Baruch Feldheim, 43, is facing charges of assault and making false statement outside his home where he had a large supply of medical equipment, including N95 masks, which there's a shortage of.

On March 18th, he was suspected of price gouging, selling over 1,000 of the masks for $12,000, a 700% markup.

Feldheim had so many supplies hoarded that he sent a doctor buying from him to New Jersey to an auto repair shop to pick up his supplies. The doctor said there were enough supplies to restock an entire hospital.

The materials included the N95 masks, hand sanitizer, Clorox wipes, chemical cleaners and surgical supplies.

He had been trying to push surgical gowns off on a nurse, operating from his house. This caught the FBI's attention.

Two days later, the FBI watched as a massive shipment of eight full pallets of face masks arrived at his house.

Shortly after, the feds watched multiple people enter the house and leave with medical supplies.

The feds confronted Feldheim outside his home to maintain "a safe social distance."

According to the US Attorney's release, “When the agents were within four to five feet of him, Feldheim allegedly coughed in their direction without covering his mouth. At that point, Feldheim told the FBI agents that that he had the Coronavirus."

He falsely told the agents he worked for a PPE company and never took custody of the materials.

Over 80,000 masks were recovered from Feldheim's home. All the equipment was loaded onto a truck and removed.