Thread by @doctorow

The Trump admin has awarded 2.6B in coronavirus contracts to first-time bidders, many of them unqualified grifters who played Trump and his administration for suckers and got away clean.

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Exhibit A: Fillakit LLC, who got $7.3m to provide sterile test-tubes. Instead, they shipped FEMA soda-bottle "preforms" - these are miniature soda-bottles that you fit into a pressure blower that inflates them up 2l bottles.

propublica.org/article/the-tr…

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Not only are these miniature soda-bottles and not test-tubes, they are also in NO WAY sterile. Here's how they were packed:

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"Fillakit employees, some not wearing masks, gathered the miniature soda bottles with snow shovels and dumped them into plastic bins before squirting saline into them, all in the open air."

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Writing for @propublica, @davidmcswane and @ryangabrielson paint a picture of a semi-competent conman who made a fortune while helping to destroy America's capacity to fight the pandemic of the century, abetting mass murder and economic collapse.

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It's not surprising Fillakit had never earned a federal contract prior to coronavirus. The company was formed "just six days" before it won its contract.

Its founder? Paul Wexler, "an ex-telemarketer repeatedly accused of fraudulent practices over the past two decades."

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But, you know, maybe tiny, contaminated soda bottles have some medical value?

"They’re the most unusable tubes I’ve ever seen. They’re going to sit in a warehouse and no one can use them. We won’t be able to do our full plan." - "top public health official," unnamed state.

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"Wexler, Fillakit’s owner, has a background in law and real estate, not medical supplies. In 2012, the Federal Trade Commission accused Wexler and his telemarketing firm of illegal robocalling..."

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"...making unauthorized charges to consumers’ bank accounts and falsely claiming to be a nonprofit org. Wexler’s firm allegedly misrepresented itself as a credit counseling service for several years, charging customers for work it did not do, according to court records."

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"Wexler denied a request to tour the warehouse. Asked about the lack of sterile conditions and the use of soda preforms, Wexler screamed, 'What’s your problem, man?'"

(He seems nice.)

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To recap: a telemarketing grifter with a background in real estate sold Trump $7.3m worth of fake, contaminated test-tubes that undermined multiple states' covid testing capacity.

Ladeez and gennulmun, I give you: THE ART OF THE DEAL!

eof/