New York State paid Yaron Oren-Pines, a Silicon Valley electrical engineer, more than $69 million for ventilators that arrived in the state, according to a report released by the New York Post on Wednesday.
On March 30, Oren-Pines received $69.1 million for 1,450 ventilators at a rate of $47,656 per ventilator, approximately triple the standard retail price, according to a Buzzfeed News report.
A month later, New York state ended its contract with Oren-Pines and is now trying to get its money back.
Heather Groll, a spokesperson for the New York Office of General Services, said that a “bulk of the money was returned to the state.”
“We are in discussions on a few remaining issues,” Groll added.
The payment was part of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s March 7 executive order designed to streamline the process of obtaining much needed coronavirus medical supplies to the hard-hit state.
On contracts related to the coronavirus pandemic, New York state vets the conditions on the basis that vendor fulfill their commitments, according to Rich Azzopardi, a senior adviser to Gov. Cuomo
Questions have arisen as to whether Oren-Pines was properly vetted, who is a specialist in mobile phone technology without experience in government. Oren-Pines is among thousands of people who replied to a tweet from US President Donald Trump on March 27 urging Ford and General Motors to “START MAKING VENTILATORS, NOW!”
“We can supply ICU Ventilators, invasive and noninvasive. Have someone call me URGENT,” Oren-Pines responded.
The report also noted that an unnamed state official told Buzzfeed that Oren-Pines came recommended by the Trump Administration's coronavirus task force.
In response to the initial report from Buzfeed, Oren-Pines said that “Neither me nor my company is providing any comment on this.”