Officials in Florida are accusing "Shark Tank" star Daymond John of trying to price gouge them during a deal that would have sent one million highly-coveted N95 masks to front-line health care workers.

© Chelsea Lauren/Shutterstock Daymond John attends the premiere of

The Miami Herald said Daymond, who founded Fubu and now heads the Shark Group, told officials he had access to the masks and could sell them at $7 piece. The masks, made by 3M, typically sell for under $2 each.

"This was not somebody off the street, this was Daymond John," Jared Moskowitz, director of the state's Department of Emergency Management, told the newspaper. "He came to me and said, 'I've been in the clothing business. I have connections with factories in China.'"

© PETER FOLEY/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock Daymond John attends 'The Bloomberg 50' Celebration at Cipriani in New York City on Dec. 19, 2018

Despite the high fee, Florida officials agreed to buy one million masks for the inflated price, saying the Sunshine State needed the masks that badly and was willing to pay any price to help health care workers fight the Covid-19 pandemic.

The deal eventually fell through but got the attention of 3M, who said it was investigating this situation and others like it. Lawsuits for alleged price gouging and fraud could follow.

"3M is not aware of how the Shark Group would gain access to our respirators as it is not an authorized distributor of 3M products or one of our channel partners," said Jennifer Ehrlich, spokesperson for 3M in a statement Wednesday. "3M list prices, which are published on our website, are far lower than what appears to have been offered to the State of Florida."

The statement contained, "3M is filing lawsuits in cases where third parties use the company's name, brand or trademark to engage in price gouging of N95 respirators and other illegal and unethical behavior. We have no knowledge of whether that occurred in this situation. We are happy, though, to assist law enforcement authorities if they wish to look into this matter."

Related slideshow: Celebrities who've had a problematic pandemic