Think Safe in Cedar Rapids was defrauded millions after attempting to purchase masks in October
Paula Wickham (right), Think Safe president and CEO, and Liz Efting, and vice president, in 2019. (Liz Martin/The Gazette)
A Cedar Rapids company was returned $2.4 million after falling victim to a wire fraud scheme in fall 2020.
Think Safe, a Cedar Rapids-based company that sells emergency preparedness equipment and services, attempted to purchase one million N-95 masks in October as COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations were surging and personal protective equipment was scarce, according to court documents.
But the masks never came.
Think Safe’s president and CEO, Paula Wickham, couldn’t be reached for comment.
Documents from a civil lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa Cedar Rapids said Wickham’s broker introduced her to Saransh Sharma and Varun Datta of Datta Holdings in Florida. Sharma said they had a large allocation of masks available and already had sold the product to others, according to a declaration from Wickham.
Sharma had planned to source the masks from the Washington, D.C.-based US FED Group, according to court documents.
US FED Group is a defendant in the civil suit as is Alex St. James Railey Cisco, who is listed as the vice president for overseas market development at US FED Group on LinkedIn.
Railey Cisco also is executive director of the Republican National Policy Committee, a political action committee, according to LinkedIn.
Court documents show US FED Group’s general partner, David Huang, claimed to have an agreement with 3M, the manufacturer of the masks. Huang said the group had secured the production of 500 million N95 masks.
In October, Think Safe wired more than $3 million to a lawyer in Florida, who was acting as a representative of Datta Holdings. The lawyer then wired $2.4 million to US FED Group.
Court documents show $2 million was wired from US FED Group’s account to Trade-Backed Equity LLC, a separate account held by Railey Cisco.
In December 2020, a representative from 3M told Datta Holdings that US FED Group was not authorized to sell 3M respirators.
Railey Cisco denied wrongdoing in the suit and wrote that he had no record of the contracts being made. He did not respond to requests for comment.
After US FED Group failed to appear in court, a judge froze Railey Cisco’s bank accounts and ordered the money to be returned to Think Safe.
Comments: (319) 398-8473; caleb.mccullough@thegazette.com
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