Lexington CEO will serve prison time after selling counterfeit N95 masks during pandemic

Taylor Six
·2 min read
2

A Lexington CEO was sentenced to 10 months in prison last week for selling counterfeit N95 respirator masks during the COVID-19 pandemic, making him nearly $130,000 in a one-month span, according to the Department of Justice.

Nathan Brown, 47, owns a company which specializes in antique wood reclamation. During the pandemic, he directed his company to begin importing and selling medical-grade N95 masks, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

The company, Old World Timber, purchased more than 100,000 masks from a China-based company and resold them to customers in the United States. But Brown acknowledged in his plea agreement that by March 2021, he was aware the masks were misbranded.

According to his plea agreement, Brown instructed employees to remove seals that distinguished the masks as fraudulent.

“Brown deliberately ignored these concerns and directed his company to continue selling the masks, misleading customers as to their authenticity,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a news release announcing Brown’s sentence Monday.

Between March 2021 and April 2021, Brown’s company sold more than 57,000 masks for a total of $129,353. He pleaded guilty in April to a count of introducing a misbranded device into interstate commerce with the intent to mislead.

Some of Brown’s friends wrote letters to U.S. District Judge Karen Caldwell, who presided over Brown’s case. The letters were filed into court records.

A longtime family friend, Dale Ditto, wrote that Brown had “the best intentions.” Ditto said in their letter that Brown often helped those in recovery and facing felonies find work at his company.

Another friend of Brown’s, Reverend Michael Pounds, wrote to Caldwell to ask for a lesser sentence so Brown could continue to help those in recovery find work.

Under federal law, Brown must serve 85% of his prison sentence, according to the DOJ. He’ll be under the supervision of the U.S. Probation Office for one year after he’s released. Brown was also ordered to pay $129,353 in restitution. He is required to self-report to the Bureau of Prisons in September.