Two nurses on Lengthy Island are accused of amassing greater than $1.5 million by promoting solid Covid-19 vaccination playing cards, in line with the Suffolk County district lawyer’s workplace.
The nurses, Julie DeVuono, who owns Wild Baby Pediatric Healthcare in Amityville, and Marissa Urraro, her worker, offered faux vaccination playing cards and entered false info into New York’s immunization database, prosecutors mentioned. They charged $220 for solid playing cards for adults and $85 for youngsters, in line with the district lawyer’s workplace.
Ms. DeVuono, 49, and Ms. Urraro, 44, had been arraigned on Friday, every charged with one rely of second-degree forgery. Ms. DeVuono was additionally charged with one rely of providing a false instrument for submitting.
Michael Alber, Ms. Urraro’s lawyer, mentioned she had entered a plea of not responsible and had been launched with out bail.
“We sit up for highlighting the authorized impediments and defects on this investigation,” Mr. Alber mentioned. “An accusation shouldn’t overshadow the nice work Ms. Urraro has carried out for youngsters and adults within the medical subject.”
Ms. DeVuono’s lawyer couldn’t be reached for remark.
Throughout their arraignment on Friday, prosecutors accused the ladies of forging a vaccine card for an undercover detective, though the vaccine had not been administered.
Prosecutors mentioned legislation enforcement officers searched Ms. DeVuono’s house and seized about $900,000 in money and a ledger which advised they made $1.5 million within the scheme from November to January.
“I hope this sends a message to others who’re contemplating gaming the system that they’ll get caught and that we are going to implement the legislation to the fullest extent,” the Suffolk County district lawyer, Raymond A. Tierney, mentioned in a press release.
Rodney Okay. Harrison, the Suffolk County police commissioner, mentioned in a press release, “As nurses, these two people ought to perceive the significance of reliable vaccination playing cards as all of us work collectively to guard public well being.”
Nurses in South Carolina and Michigan have additionally confronted fees for vaccine card forgery in current months.
In December, a nurse in Columbia, S.C., was indicted by a federal grand jury on fees of creating fraudulent Covid-19 vaccination playing cards, in line with the U.S. lawyer’s workplace for the District of South Carolina. In September, a nurse at a Division of Veterans Affairs hospital in Michigan was charged with stealing genuine vaccination playing cards from the hospital and reselling them, in line with the U.S. lawyer’s workplace for the Jap District of Michigan.
Yvonne Gamble, a spokeswoman for the Workplace of Inspector Normal on the U.S. Division of Well being and Human Companies, mentioned schemes involving solid vaccination playing cards, just like the one on Lengthy Island, broken efforts to curb the coronavirus pandemic.
“The proliferation of pretend Covid-19 vaccination playing cards can jeopardize efforts to handle the continuing public well being emergency,” Ms. Gamble mentioned. “Subsequently, we encourage the general public to acquire legitimate proof of Covid-19 vaccination from their administering medical suppliers as an alternative of making faux vaccination playing cards or buying them from unauthorized sources.”