A powerful Republican fundraiser has opened up a business selling medical supplies, including testing kits, N95 respirator masks and other personal protective equipment that even hospitals are unable to get.
The fundraiser, Mike Gula sent an email on Thursday abruptly announcing that he would get into a new line of business to capitalize on the coronavirus response, Politico reports.
“Over the last 14 days I have built another business outside politics and will be focusing my full attention there,” he wrote in the email, which was obtained by Politico.
Gula didn’t specify his new line of work in the email. But in an interview, he said he’d started a new company selling medical equipment that’s been in short supply during the coronavirus pandemic.
The company, Blue Flame Medical LLC, was formed Monday in Delaware, according to state records. Its website says it sells coronavirus testing kits, N95 respirator masks, “a wide selection” of personal protective equipment and other “hard to find medical supplies to beat the outbreak.”
Asked how he’d managed to procure such equipment when there are shortages in hospitals across the country, Gula said, “I have relationships with a lot of people.”
Gula said he decided to trade in fundraising to sell medical supplies “because nobody was doing it. Because the president and the vice president were asking people to help.”
Gula also has two other firms: Prime Advocacy, which organizes Washington fly-ins for industry groups and others, and AMP, which he started last month to provide services for PACs.
He said he started Blue Flame in part because he wanted to leave behind the pressures of political work.
“I just want to live a private life,” he said. “I want to get out of politics.”