NYS paid $69m to Yaron Oren-Pines for ventilators that never showed up

New York State paid a Silicon Valley electrical engineer more than $69 million for a ventilators that never arrived, according to a report on Wednesday.

Yaron Oren-Pines on March 30 pocketed $69.1 million for 1,450 ventilators — a jaw-dropping $47,656 per ventilator — at least triple the standard retail price of high-end models, Buzzfeed News reported.

The Empire State terminated the contract about a month later and is now trying to claw back the cash, the report said.

A “bulk of the money was returned to the state,” said Heather Groll, a spokesperson for the New York Office of General Services, without specifying how much.

“We are in discussions on a few remaining issues,” Groll added.

It was the single-largest payment the Dept. of Health made under Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s March 7 executive order aimed at streamlining the process for obtaining desperately needed medical supplies.

New York’s coronavirus-related contracts are vetted by a team which mainly considers whether potential vendors would fulfill their promises, Rich Azzopardi, senior adviser to Cuomo, told the outlet.

It’s unclear precisely how Oren-Pines was vetted. He is a specialist in mobile phone technology, with no apparent experience in government contracting or medical devices, Buzzfeed found.

He was one of thousands of people who, on March 27, replied to a tweet from President Trump urging Ford and General Motors to “START MAKING VENTILATORS, NOW!”

“We can supply ICU Ventilators, invasive and noninvasive. Have someone call me URGENT,” Oren-Pines had responded.

An unnamed state official told Buzzfeed that he came recommended by the White House coronavirus task force. The White House and the office of Vice President Mike Pence didn’t comment.

Reached by Buzzfeed, Oren-Pines said: “Neither me nor my company is providing any comment on this.” He couldn’t be reached by The Post on Wednesday evening.