China ordered to pay Missouri $24B in COVID-19 dispute– www.stltoday.com
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Excerpt:
JEFFERSON CITY — A federal judge in Cape Girardeau has ordered Chinese defendants to pay Missouri over $24 billion after finding they hoarded personal protective equipment during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Senior U.S. District Judge Stephen Limbaugh Jr. said in a 32-page order Friday that Missouri showed defendants, including the People’s Republic of China and the Chinese Communist Party, hoarded PPE, violating federal law against monopolization or attempted monopolization of trade.
Limbaugh said the state’s evidence showed that defendants “engaged in monopolistic actions to hoard PPE through both the nationalization of U.S. factories and the direct hoarding of PPE manufactured or for sale in the United States.”
At the same time, the judgment said, China misled the world about the dangers and scope of the COVID-19 pandemic to facilitate and extend the hoarding campaign.
Limbaugh entered a $24.5 billion default judgment in Missouri’s favor after no defendants appeared at a trial last month in Cape Girardeau.
