Exclusive: almost 46m masks turned out to be unusable after $100m in contracts were awarded to company with little apparent pre-pandemic experience in PPE supply
The Australian government was left with almost 46m unusable face masks after handing $100m in Covid contracts to an obscure online retailer, who sourced the equipment via companies registered in the low-tax jurisdiction of Cyprus.
The Department of Health awarded the contracts in April and June 2020 to Australian Business Mobiles NSW (ABM), a small company whose experience lay predominantly in selling air fryers, robot vacuum cleaners, bedding and massage guns.
ABM subcontracted the supply of the PPE to two companies registered in Cyprus, owned by twins Ricky and Evan Neumann. The Cyprus-registered companies made about $40m on the deals, according to contracts and other documents.
