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a person who seeks or exacts exorbitant , especially through the sale of scarce or rationed goods.
to act as a profiteer.
historical examples

profiteer (after trying a variety of patterns without success).
punch, or the london charivari, vol. 158, may 19, 1920 various

it is the profiteer, not privation, that makes man shake his chains.
a revision of the treaty john maynard keynes

i nearly asked if he was a little dog-fish—this being the italian for profiteer, but refrained in time.
sea and sardinia d. h. lawrence

it was the policy of the army not to “profiteer” in the united kingdom.
g. h. q. frank fox

in the selfishness of the “profiteer,” as we now call him, punch sees a sure provocative of communism.
mr. punch’s history of modern england vol. ii (of iv),–1857-1874 charles l. graves

silas angmering had evidently been what is called a profiteer.
mr. prohack e. arnold bennett

by the way, what are you—peer, profiteer, or plain pater-familias looking for a family air-bus?
punch, or the london charivari, vol. 156, june 11, 1919 various

all the practices of the “profiteer” and his ilk are discountenanced by far-seeing people.
certain success norval a. hawkins

then, as always, what we now call the “profiteer” was holding up supplies for higher prices.
washington and his comrades in arms george wrong

if “the profiteer” is not the right answer, it’s quite a good guess.
punch, or the london charivari, vol. 159, july 7th, 1920 various

noun
a person who makes excessive profits, esp by charging exorbitant prices for goods in short supply
verb
(intransitive) to make excessive profits
v.

1797, but dormant in english until it was revived in world war i, from profit + -eer. from 1912 as a noun. related: profiteering (1814).

or is it simply hysteria which produces what is to-day termed “the profiteer?” it is probable that the modern profiteer is the same person whom we formerly called “the grafter, the extortioner, the robber, the gouger.” [“legal aid review,” april 1920]