United States Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Florida

06/12/2025 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 06/13/2025 08:52

Ocala Man Indicted For Wire Fraud And Price Gouging Related To The Sale Of COVID-19 Facemasks

Ocala, Florida - United States Attorney Gregory W. Kehoe announces the return of an indictment charging Frank Adriel Romero Leandro (34, Ocala) with wire fraud and price gouging. If convicted, Romero faces up to 20 years in federal prison for the wire fraud offense and up to 1 year in federal prison for the price gouging offense. The indictment also notifies Romero that the United States intends to forfeit $1,234,360.46, which are funds that are alleged to be traceable as proceeds of the offenses.

According to the indictment, between March 16, 2020, and February 10, 2021, Romero was the sole creator and editor of a website, trendeploy.com, through which he sold goods under the business name "Trend Deploy." Romero made false representations on his website that he sold N95 facemasks. When customers ordered N95 facemasks from Romero over the internet, he would instead purchase cheaper alternatives (not N95 facemasks) to fulfill the orders. He also sold the facemasks at prices more than the prevailing market prices.

An indictment is merely a formal charge that a defendant has committed one or more violations of federal criminal law, and every defendant is presumed innocent unless, and until, proven guilty.

This case was investigated by Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Federal Trade Commission. It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Hannah Nowalk Watson.

Anyone with information about allegations of attempted fraud involving COVID-19 can report it by visiting the Department of Justice's National Center for Disaster Fraud (NCDF) Hotline via the NCDF Web Complaint Form at www.justice.gov/disaster-fraud/ncdf-disaster-complaint-form.

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