Krikor Topouzian

A Skokie businessman was convicted June 30 of price gouging customers for scarce N-95 masks during the earliest days of the Covid-19 pandemic

Krikor Topouzian, 62, of Winnetka, was convicted of violating the Defense Production Act, following a bench trial before U.S. Magistrate Judge Jeffrey Cole. Topouzian, who faces up to one year in federal prison, is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 10.

Topouzian owns Concord Police Supply as well as Concord Health Supply. His LinkedIn page says he is a member of the InfraGard National Members Alliance, which is “a partnership between the Federal Bureau of Investigation and members of the private sector for the protection of U.S. Critical Infrastructure.”

Prosecutors say that between March 29, 2020 and April 22, 2020 Topouzian purchased approximately 79,160 respirator masks, including N-95 masks, “for a mean price of approximately $5.08 per mask.”

He then sold the high demand masks for as much as $19.95, and continued to do so despite at least two visits by the FBI. After FBI agents visited Topouzian’s business on April 6, 2020, he dropped the price for a single mask to $18.95. Prosecutors showed that at the time, the federal government was purchasing large quantities of N-95 masks for $7 per mask.

On March 18, 2020 the U.S. President invoked the 1950 Defense Production Act, which provides that “no person shall accumulate … for the purpose of resale at prices in excess of prevailing market prices, materials which have been designated by the President as scarce materials or materials the supply of which would be threatened by such accumulation.”

Topouzian was warned “on at least six separate occasions” that his N-95 masks prices were too high. In one text message Topouzian stated, “You can’t imagine my business. $50,000 -80,000 a day, I did $1 million in the last couple weeks.”

In the middle of March 2020, Genesee County, Michigan Undersheriff Michael Tocarchick telephoned Topouzian and told him the $19.95 price “was excessive and that he was engaged in ‘price gouging.’” Topouzian “acknowledged that his mask prices appeared to be excessive and that he probably should not be selling them at that price.”

In late March, the owner of another company that sold N-95 masks to Topouzian warned him, “if you have large amounts of masks that were made before (the pandemic)” and if you “are trying to sell them for 7x the normal price,” the government is “coming after you.”

Days later, a friend of Topouzian texted him regarding “the Feldheim case” in New York City, in which businessman Baruch Feldman was arrested after hoarding scarce medical supplies, including masks and selling them at massively inflated prices.

The friend said he was not being critical, only that he wanted Topouzian to be aware of the Feldheim case. Topouzian replied: “Who is going to report me? … I’ve already been threatened by so many people that they’re going to call the FBI.”