Covid glove fraudster lived in fabulous luxury

A Covid fraudster bragged ‘Let’s clean up!! Milk it’ as he was paid millions of pounds for medical goods he never supplied.

Video footage shows shameless Jogesh Bhandari, 59, pulling back the cover on a shiny new £126,000 Porsche after he was paid millions of pounds for nitrile gloves.

He set up a company buying and selling PPE equipment after Covid-19 swept the globe in 2020.

Bhandari worked with Frank Labruzzo, a US Assistant Attorney General at the Louisiana State Department of Justice, who provided a fraudulent escrow service.

An escrow account is a bank account which acts as a holding point for funds that are release when both sides of an agreement have been reached.

The con began in November 2020 when a company paid funds into the escrow account for a deal involving 12 million boxes of gloves.

But the funds were immediately moved and paid to Labruzzo, Bhandari, and other companies, according to the National Crime Agency.

Bhandari received another $2.7m and almost $500,000 was withdrawn to pay off his and his wife’s debts.

Forged documents, including bank statements showing up to $125m and letters of attestation, were used to lure businesses into deals.

Bhandari was paid more than $3.18m for a nitrile glove order to US hospitals that was never delivered.

In late 2021, Bhandari agreed to a $1.8bn deal using a fraudulent letter from Labruzzo to state he had deposited $35m as a security against the first delivery.

The company then paid $1.35m for the first two planned shipments, which went straight into a business account controlled by his 58-year-old wife Meena Bhandari.

He then sent £200,000 to Craig Morris, 43, and bought himself a brand new 911 Porsche.

Morris, of Lytham St Annes, Lancashire made representations on behalf of the company in numerous fraudulent deals in 2020 and 2021.

Morris was meant to get regular £5,000 payments, but fell out with Bhandari at the end of 2021 and received no further cash.

NCA investigators found 47,000 WhatsApp messages and emails between the defendants during the course of the scam.

In messages Morris says ‘All over the news is all about ppe shortage. Let’s clean up!! Milk it… fill ya boots’.

Bhandari replies: ‘[thumbs up] it’s about a good teamwork and EVERYONE making money’. On another occasion, Bhandari sends an image of a Rolls Royce and tells Morris: ‘But if I want one of these [Rolls Royce] then we need to keep going’.

The Bhandaris spent their cash on a kitchen refurbishment, extensive home mprovements, Rolexes, jewellery, and cars including an Audi A5, Land Rover Discovery, and a VW Golf, and luxury holidays across the world.

‘None of the money was used for its intended purpose,’ an NCA spokesperson said.

The Bhandaris, of Mitchell Drive, Loughborough and Morris, of All Saints Road, Lytham St Annes, were arrested in February 2023 and charged with several counts of fraud by false representation and money laundering.

Police bodycam footage shows Jogesh Bhandari standing in front of posh wallpaper with his hands in his jean pockets looking shellshocked as he realises the game is up.

All three were convicted after a five-week trial at Leicester Crown Court and face on 21 August.

Labruzzo, alongside one other, has already been convicted in the US.

Paul Boniface, operations manager at the National Crime Agency, said: ‘The Covid-19 pandemic was a time of uncertainty for the world, and the increased need for PPE equipment was sudden. This gave fraudsters like the Bhandaris and Morris an opportunity to target businesses and line their own pockets.

‘All of this activity occurred at the height of the pandemic where the demand for PPE went through the roof. Bhandari and his co-conspirators capitalised on these vulnerabilities by exploiting people and businesses for their own financial gain, paying for lavish lifestyles of luxury cars and significant home improvements.

‘Fraud like this diverts essential equipment away from genuine organisations and the effects are far reaching, beyond immediate losses for the legitimate businesses involved.

‘The NCA will continue to target fraudsters like these who cause significant harm to the UK economy.’