FDLE agents arrested Esmeraldo Enrique, 79, of Rockledge on one count of organized fraud after he offered to sell more than 20 million N95 masks that did not exist.
In July 2020, Enrique, doing business as Enrique Technologies & Trading LLC (ETT), entered into a deal to sell the masks to a Canadian healthcare company. As a down payment, Enrique told the customer to pay $500,000 to him and $1.8 million to an account in Cairo, Egypt, where the supposed masks were stored.
Agents say there were no masks and Enrique worked with a known scam artist in Egypt to perpetrate the crime. Enrique shopped for victims and once he identified the Canadian company, gave them various fraudulent offers to purchase different quantities of masks. The money paid was a down payment for a $20 million deal. Later, Enrique offered to sell the company $40 million worth of masks.
When the company failed to receive the masks, they contacted Enrique several times asking for a refund, which they never received.
Enrique was arrested Wednesday morning and booked into the Brevard County Jail on $10,000 bond. This case is being prosecuted by Attorney General Ashley Moody’s Office of Statewide Prosecution.
This case was investigated by FDLE’s Brevard Field Office with assistance from the Department of Homeland Security, Office of Inspector General along with U.S. Secret Service, Royal Canadian Mounted Police and Egyptian authorities.
