Guilty verdict tossed in pandemic price-gouging case

A Winnetka man found guilty of price-gouging in the early months of the pandemic will get a new trial.

Krikor Topouzian, the 62-year-old owner of Concord Health Supply, had been found guilty in June. He’s accused of buying nearly 80,000 N95 masks — labeled “scarce materials” during the pandemic as part of the Defense Production Act — and reselling them at four times what he’d paid.

But that trial was held before a magistrate judge — a judge who assists the district judge and often tries misdemeanor cases. In a motion filed Sept. 6, Topouzian’s attorneys argued the verdict should be set aside because he had not been made aware of his right to be tried before a district judge.

That motion was not opposed by prosecutors.

On Thursday, Topouzian once again pleaded not guilty to the charges and requested to be tried by a magistrate judge after being made aware of his rights, according to court documents.

He bought the masks in March and April 2020, according to prosecutors in the initial trial, and continued to mark up the masks even as FBI agents visited his business.

Though friends told him the prices were too high, in text messages obtained by prosecutors, Topouzian bragged about his business, once claiming he was making 40 times what he usually did every day for several weeks.

Topouzian’s sentencing on the original verdict had been set for Oct. 10. He faced up to a year in federal prison.