They had amassed 17,700 bottles, planning to sell the stash online.
Matt Colvin told the Times last month that he had sold 300 bottles on Amazon for between $8 and $70 each.
Once his interview with the newspaper was published, his listings and those of thousands of other sellers were deleted by Amazon in an effort to stop people from price gouging and profiting from the nationwide scare, according to the Times.
Instead of prosecution, the Colvin brothers quickly donated their stock to people in the two states where they made the purchases.
Update: Matt Colvin has donated all of the supplies. “It was never my intention to keep necessary medical supplies out of the hands of people who needed them,” he said. “That’s not who I am as a person.” https://t.co/WIbhyJyu6m
— The New York Times (@nytimes) March 16, 2020
The Tennessee attorney general this week said that was enough and will not charge or fine the brothers. They also agreed to not do it again during the coronavirus pandemic, WTVF reported.
The Colvins, however, are still out the thousands of dollars they spent to make their purchases, the Times reported.
Tennessee has a law on the state books that prohibits individuals and businesses from charging inflated prices in response to a disaster, WTVF reported.
The Colvins are not alone in allegedly trying to profit from the pandemic.
A man in the New York City borough of Brooklyn had 192,000 N95 respirators, 130,000 surgical masks and almost 600,000 medical-grade gloves. Officials took the man's stash and gave it to medical workers in New York and New Jersey. The man was charged with lying to federal agents about price gouging. The man was accused of charging a doctor $12,000 for masks, gowns and hazmat gear. The FBI said it was a 700% markup, the Times reported.
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