A Silicon Valley engineer who promised to deliver ventilators and banked a $69 million contract with New York to do so hasn’t provided any, BuzzFeed News reports.
Yaron Oren-Pines, an electrical engineer, replied to President Donald Trump’s Twitter plea for ventilators on March 27.
“We can supply ICU Ventilators, invasive and noninvasive. Have someone call me URGENT,” Oren-Pines tweeted back.
Three days later, New York state awarded Oren-Pines a $69.1 million contract for 1,450 ventilators. The contract would pay him $47,656 per ventilator, which BuzzFeed News reports is more than triple the standard retail price of high-end models.
A month has passed and not a single ventilator has arrived. Now officials are working to recoup money the state paid to Oren-Pines. It is unclear how much money the state fronted him.
A state official told BuzzFeed News that New York entered into the contract with Oren-Pines at the direct recommendation of the White House coronavirus task force. A spokesperson for Vice President Mike Pence told BuzzFeed News the task force was not involved in the contract.
"The White House Coronavirus Task Force was never informed of this contract and was not involved in it at all,” Katie Miller, press secretary to Vice President Mike Pence said.
The electrical engineer has no known experience in government contracting or medical devices.
“Neither me nor my company is providing any comment on this,” he told BuzzFeed News before hanging up the phone.
And while the amount he received on March 30 is unknown, BuzzFeed News reports it’s the largest single payment made by the New York Department of Health.
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