Letter from Chairman James E. Clyburn, Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, to Panthera Worldwide, LLC (July 14, 2020)
Summary
In this July 14, 2020 letter to James Punelli of Panthera Worldwide, LLC, the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis writes that it is investigating the federal government's efforts to procure personal protective equipment, testing supplies and other medical equipment. The letter says FEMA canceled a $55 million contract for N95 masks with Panthera, which had received only one previous federal contract four years earlier, and that the contract was awarded without competition at $5.50 per mask against manufacturer list prices of $0.68 to $3.40. It adds that reports indicate Panthera's parent company had no employees since May 2018 and filed for bankruptcy before the award, and that the company's owners have been sued for fraud. The Select Subcommittee requests documents and information on the company's federal contracts and its performance under them by July 28, 2020.
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Full text
July 14, 2020
Mr. James Punelli
Panthera Worldwide, LLC
215 Depot Court, 2nd Floor
Leesburg, VA 20175-3017
Dear Mr. Punelli:
The Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis is investigating the federal
government’s efforts to procure personal protective equipment, testing supplies, and other
medical equipment during the coronavirus outbreak. Recent reports indicate that federal
agencies awarded contracts to businesses with political connections to the Trump
Administration, that lacked federal contracting experience, and that were selected by the White
House without competition or transparency. Some of these companies failed to provide the
supplies promised. The Select Subcommittee is concerned that these contracting practices may
have wasted taxpayer dollars and exacerbated shortages of critical supplies, contributing to the
spread of the coronavirus and the death of Americans. I write to request documents and
information regarding your company’s federal contracts related to the coronavirus crisis and your
company’s performance under those contracts.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) canceled a $55 million contract
for N95 masks with your company, Panthera Worldwide, LLC, which had received only one
previous federal contract four years earlier.1 The contract was awarded without competition,
even though Panthera charged $5.50 per mask, significantly more than the manufacturer’s list
prices of $0.68 to $3.40.2 Reports indicate that Panthera’s parent company had not had any
employees since May 2018, had no history of producing medical equipment, and filed for
bankruptcy before FEMA’s contract was awarded. The company’s owners have been sued for
fraud.3
1
FEMA Cancels $55 Million Contract for N95 Masks, CNN (May 14, 2020) (online at
www.cnn.com/2020/05/13/politics/fema-ppe-contract-cancelled-coronavirus/index.html); USASpending.gov (online
at www.usaspending.gov/#/award/CONT_AWD_70FB7020C00000006_7022_-NONE-_-NONE-).
2
Fraudulent Activity, Price Gouging, and Counterfeit Products, 3M (May 18, 2020) (online at
www.multimedia.3m.com/mws/media/1803670O/fraudulent-activity-price-gouging-and-counterfeit-products.pdf).
3
In Coronavirus Scramble for N95 Masks, Trump Administration Pays Premium to Third-Party Vendors,
Washington Post (April 15, 2020) (online at www.washingtonpost.com/national/coronavirus-trump-masks-
contracts-prices/2020/04/15/9c186276-7f20-11ea-8de7-9fdff6d5d83e_story.html).
Mr. James Punelli
Page 2
This contract award and your company’s performance raise serious questions as to why
your company received this contract, how your company’s performance will impact the federal
government’s response to the coronavirus crisis and ongoing shortages in critical supplies, and
what steps the federal government should take now to address these issues.
For all these reasons, the Select Subcommittee requests that you produce by July 28,
2020, the following documents and information from January 1, 2020, to the present. These
requests are consistent with House Resolution 935, which established the Select Subcommittee
on the Coronavirus Crisis “to conduct a full and complete investigation” of “issues related to the
coronavirus crisis,” including the “preparedness for and response to the coronavirus crisis,
including … the acquisition, distribution, or stockpiling of protective equipment and medical
supplies.”
1. All documents and communications, including internal communications and
communications with any federal employee or third party, related to any federal
contract for personal protective equipment, medical supplies, or testing supplies.
This includes but is not limited to documents and communications regarding:
a. your company’s interest in procuring supplies or in contracting with the
federal government;
b. any solicitation or request for proposals or offers;
c. any offer, bid, or proposal from your company, including pricing
information;
d. the award, modification, or termination of any contract or purchase order;
and
e. your company’s performance under any contract or purchase order,
including any deficiencies in performance; and
2. A list of all company employees or agents that communicated with the federal
government regarding the subjects described in Request 1, including a description
of the date and subject matter of any meetings or telephone conferences.
3. The following documents and information related to any federal contract to
provide personal protective equipment, medical supplies, or testing supplies:
a. all agreements with subcontractors, suppliers, distributors, and other third-
party sellers, including related price information;
b. a detailed description of your company’s actual and expected costs
associated with the contract by product; and
c. a detailed description of your company’s actual and expected profits from
the contract by product.
An attachment to this letter provides additional instructions for responding to the Select
Subcommittee’s request. If you have any questions regarding this request, please contact Select
Subcommittee staff at (202) 225-4400.
Mr. James Punelli
Page 3
Sincerely,
__________________________
James E. Clyburn
Chairman
Enclosure
cc: The Honorable Steve Scalise, Ranking Member
Responding to Oversight Committee Document Requests
1. In complying with this request, produce all responsive documents that are in your
possession, custody, or control, whether held by you or your past or present agents,
employees, and representatives acting on your behalf. Produce all documents that you
have a legal right to obtain, that you have a right to copy, or to which you have access, as
well as documents that you have placed in the temporary possession, custody, or control
of any third party.
2. Requested documents, and all documents reasonably related to the requested documents,
should not be destroyed, altered, removed, transferred, or otherwise made inaccessible to
the Committee.
3. In the event that any entity, organization, or individual denoted in this request is or has
been known by any name other than that herein denoted, the request shall be read also to
include that alternative identification.
4. The Committee’s preference is to receive documents in electronic form (i.e., CD,
memory stick, thumb drive, or secure file transfer) in lieu of paper productions.
5. Documents produced in electronic format should be organized, identified, and indexed
electronically.
6. Electronic document productions should be prepared according to the following
standards:
a. The production should consist of single page Tagged Image File (“TIF”), files
accompanied by a Concordance-format load file, an Opticon reference file, and a
file defining the fields and character lengths of the load file.
b. Document numbers in the load file should match document Bates numbers and
TIF file names.
c. If the production is completed through a series of multiple partial productions,
field names and file order in all load files should match.
d. All electronic documents produced to the Committee should include the following
fields of metadata specific to each document, and no modifications should be
made to the original metadata:
BEGDOC, ENDDOC, TEXT, BEGATTACH, ENDATTACH, PAGECOUNT,
CUSTODIAN, RECORDTYPE, DATE, TIME, SENTDATE, SENTTIME,
BEGINDATE, BEGINTIME, ENDDATE, ENDTIME, AUTHOR, FROM, CC,
TO, BCC, SUBJECT, TITLE, FILENAME, FILEEXT, FILESIZE,
DATECREATED, TIMECREATED, DATELASTMOD, TIMELASTMOD,
INTMSGID, INTMSGHEADER, NATIVELINK, INTFILPATH, EXCEPTION,
BEGATTACH.
7. Documents produced to the Committee should include an index describing the contents
of the production. To the extent more than one CD, hard drive, memory stick, thumb
drive, zip file, box, or folder is produced, each should contain an index describing its
contents.
8. Documents produced in response to this request shall be produced together with copies of
file labels, dividers, or identifying markers with which they were associated when the
request was served.
9. When you produce documents, you should identify the paragraph(s) or request(s) in the
Committee’s letter to which the documents respond.
10. The fact that any other person or entity also possesses non-identical or identical copies of
the same documents shall not be a basis to withhold any information.
11. The pendency of or potential for litigation shall not be a basis to withhold any
information.
12. In accordance with 5 U.S.C.§ 552(d), the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and any
statutory exemptions to FOIA shall not be a basis for withholding any information.
13. Pursuant to 5 U.S.C. § 552a(b)(9), the Privacy Act shall not be a basis for withholding
information.
14. If compliance with the request cannot be made in full by the specified return date,
compliance shall be made to the extent possible by that date. An explanation of why full
compliance is not possible shall be provided along with any partial production.
15. In the event that a document is withheld on the basis of privilege, provide a privilege log
containing the following information concerning any such document: (a) every privilege
asserted; (b) the type of document; (c) the general subject matter; (d) the date, author,
addressee, and any other recipient(s); (e) the relationship of the author and addressee to
each other; and (f) the basis for the privilege(s) asserted.
16. If any document responsive to this request was, but no longer is, in your possession,
custody, or control, identify the document (by date, author, subject, and recipients), and
explain the circumstances under which the document ceased to be in your possession,
custody, or control.
17. If a date or other descriptive detail set forth in this request referring to a document is
inaccurate, but the actual date or other descriptive detail is known to you or is otherwise
apparent from the context of the request, produce all documents that would be responsive
as if the date or other descriptive detail were correct.
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18. This request is continuing in nature and applies to any newly-discovered information.
Any record, document, compilation of data, or information not produced because it has
not been located or discovered by the return date shall be produced immediately upon
subsequent location or discovery.
19. All documents shall be Bates-stamped sequentially and produced sequentially.
20. Two sets of each production shall be delivered, one set to the Majority Staff and one set
to the Minority Staff. When documents are produced to the Committee, production sets
shall be delivered to the Majority Staff in Room 2157 of the Rayburn House Office
Building and the Minority Staff in Room 2105 of the Rayburn House Office Building.
21. Upon completion of the production, submit a written certification, signed by you or your
counsel, stating that: (1) a diligent search has been completed of all documents in your
possession, custody, or control that reasonably could contain responsive documents; and
(2) all documents located during the search that are responsive have been produced to the
Committee.
Definitions
1. The term “document” means any written, recorded, or graphic matter of any nature
whatsoever, regardless of how recorded, and whether original or copy, including, but not
limited to, the following: memoranda, reports, expense reports, books, manuals,
instructions, financial reports, data, working papers, records, notes, letters, notices,
confirmations, telegrams, receipts, appraisals, pamphlets, magazines, newspapers,
prospectuses, communications, electronic mail (email), contracts, cables, notations of any
type of conversation, telephone call, meeting or other inter-office or intra-office
communication, bulletins, printed matter, computer printouts, teletypes, invoices,
transcripts, diaries, analyses, returns, summaries, minutes, bills, accounts, estimates,
projections, comparisons, messages, correspondence, press releases, circulars, financial
statements, reviews, opinions, offers, studies and investigations, questionnaires and
surveys, and work sheets (and all drafts, preliminary versions, alterations, modifications,
revisions, changes, and amendments of any of the foregoing, as well as any attachments
or appendices thereto), and graphic or oral records or representations of any kind
(including without limitation, photographs, charts, graphs, microfiche, microfilm,
videotape, recordings and motion pictures), and electronic, mechanical, and electric
records or representations of any kind (including, without limitation, tapes, cassettes,
disks, and recordings) and other written, printed, typed, or other graphic or recorded
matter of any kind or nature, however produced or reproduced, and whether preserved in
writing, film, tape, disk, videotape, or otherwise. A document bearing any notation not a
part of the original text is to be considered a separate document. A draft or non-identical
copy is a separate document within the meaning of this term.
2. The term “communication” means each manner or means of disclosure or exchange of
information, regardless of means utilized, whether oral, electronic, by document or
otherwise, and whether in a meeting, by telephone, facsimile, mail, releases, electronic
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message including email (desktop or mobile device), text message, instant message,
MMS or SMS message, message application, or otherwise.
3. The terms “and” and “or” shall be construed broadly and either conjunctively or
disjunctively to bring within the scope of this request any information that might
otherwise be construed to be outside its scope. The singular includes plural number, and
vice versa. The masculine includes the feminine and neutral genders.
4. The term “including” shall be construed broadly to mean “including, but not limited to.”
5. The term “Company” means the named legal entity as well as any units, firms,
partnerships, associations, corporations, limited liability companies, trusts, subsidiaries,
affiliates, divisions, departments, branches, joint ventures, proprietorships, syndicates, or
other legal, business or government entities over which the named legal entity exercises
control or in which the named entity has any ownership whatsoever.
6. The term “identify,” when used in a question about individuals, means to provide the
following information: (a) the individual’s complete name and title; (b) the
individual’s business or personal address and phone number; and (c) any and all
known aliases.
7. The term “related to” or “referring or relating to,” with respect to any given subject,
means anything that constitutes, contains, embodies, reflects, identifies, states, refers to,
deals with, or is pertinent to that subject in any manner whatsoever.
8. The term “employee” means any past or present agent, borrowed employee, casual
employee, consultant, contractor, de facto employee, detailee, fellow, independent
contractor, intern, joint adventurer, loaned employee, officer, part-time employee,
permanent employee, provisional employee, special government employee,
subcontractor, or any other type of service provider.
9. The term “individual” means all natural persons and all persons or entities acting on
their behalf.
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