A man in Brooklyn, New York has been arrested for stockpiling medical supplies such as face masks, and coughing on FBI agents who went to investigate him, according to the US Attorney’s Office in New Jersey.

Baruch Feldheim, 43, is accused of both assault and making false statements to the FBI agents on 29 March outside of his home in Borough Park ,in the southwestern part of Brooklyn, where he allegedly was hoarding large quantities of N95 medical face masks.

FBI agents had been watching Feldheim’s home and found people leaving with what appeared to be medical supplies. Prosecutors said that he was selling them to doctors and nurses with as much as a 700 per cent mark up on the original price.

Pictured: Broadway in Bushwick, Brooklyn, is very quiet during the evening rush hour under coronavirus lockdown. A man in Brooklyn has been accused of hoarding medical supplies

When Feldheim was confronted by the FBI agents at his home, he is accused of coughing in their faces. The statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the District of New Jersey said: ‘When the agents were within four to five feet of him, Feldheim allegedly coughed in their direction without covering his mouth.

‘The agents then told him that they were looking for certain PPE materials and that they had information that Feldheim was in possession of large quantities of such materials. At that point, Feldheim told the FBI agents that that he had the Coronavirus.’

In an attempt to justify his posession of the medical goods, he falsely told the agents that he worked for a company that buys and sells PPE supplies, claiming that he never took physical custody of the goods.

In one case, Feldheim is accused of selling a doctor around 1,000 face masks for $12,000. As a result, he has also been accused of price-gouging.

The doctor is said to have contacted the alleged fraudster through a WhatsApp chat group with the name ‘Virus2020!’ on 18 March, where he arranged to buy the large number of face masks, which doctors are in dire need of during the coronavirus pandemic.

An NYPD traffic officer in Brooklyn wearing personal protective equipment, similar to that which Baruch Feldheim, 43, is accused of hoarding and selling to medical workers at marked-up prices

The statement from New Jersey attorney’s office also described how Feldheim is accused of offering to sell a nurse a quantity of surgical gowns on 23 March from his residence in Brooklyn. He also is said to have received a shipment from Canada containing eight pallets of face masks.

The feds became aware of the man’s actions when he directed another doctor to an auto-repair shop in Irvington, New Jersey, to pick up an order of medical supplies. It was there that the doctor reported Feldheim to authorities for allegedly holding enough supplies ‘to outfit an entire hospital.’

If found guilty, Feldheim is facing a maximum penalty of one year in prison an a $100,000 fine, while the false charge of making false statements to the agents could land him with a $250,000 fine and five years in prison.

The streets of Brooklyn are empty with shops closed and people staying indoors to stem the spread of the virus. New York state has seen over 66,000 cases

New York City has been hit particularly badly by the coronavirus outbreak, and could reach its peak of new coronavirus cases within the next seven to 10 days, experts say.

The number of hospital ER visits is starting to decrease and official data has raised hopes that the city could soon start ‘turning the corner’.

New York City saw 138 deaths from the virus on Monday, an increase of 17% on Sunday but well down from Saturday’s spike of 222 deaths.

There were 4,319 new cases, which is again lower than Saturday’s 5,367 new cases, according to official city figures.