PORTLAND, Ore. — Federal prosecutors hope to seize luxury vehicles, including a Lamborghini and Mercedes, along with $25,000 in cash from a West Linn man accused of selling counterfeit N95 masks during the COVID-19 pandemic. 69-year-old Jiang Yu is facing one count of Conspiracy to Traffic Counterfeit Goods.
According to federal court records, Yu and others worked with producers of counterfeit N95 masks to import the products into the United States. Yu created fake documents and certificates of authenticity to help sell at least $2.5 million in counterfeit masks, prosecutors alleged.
Yu and his company, Airfiltech, are also being sued in Multnomah County Circuit Court by an Oregon medical supply company. Medical Pros of Newberg claims it was defrauded after ordering millions of masks through Yu in 2020 and 2021. During the height of the pandemic, N95 and KN95 masks were in short supply, forcing health workers to ration protective masks.
According to the civil lawsuit, Medical Pros noticed the lot numbers and barcodes on the boxes of masks seemed suspicious. Testing confirmed the masks were counterfeit, the lawsuit alleged. Medical Pros claims it suffered damages of roughly $3.7 million. The civil case has been delayed until criminal proceedings are wrapped up.
Yu could not be reached for comment. His defense attorney in the civil suit declined to comment.
Download the KGW News app: Download for iPhone here | Download for Android here
Stream newscasts for free on KGW+ on Roku, Amazon Fire and Apple TV: How to add app to your device here
See a typo in this article? Email web@kgw.com for corrections
