Photo courtesy of the U.S. Department of Justice.
A Utah man was sentenced to prison Thursday for selling thousands of fake coronavirus vaccination cards.
A federal judge has charged 34-year-old Nicholas Frank with selling at least 120,000 counterfeit COVID-19 vaccination record cards after pleading guilty in July to conspiring to defraud the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Disease Control.・Sciotto was sentenced to 12 months in prison. And prevention.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Ciotto made more than $400,000 in profits.
He was also ordered to serve three years of supervised release and pay a $40,000 fine.
Prosecutors allege that Ciotto was living in Weber County when he began making the cards in March 2021 and conspired with another man, Kyle Blake Burbage. The cards “appeared to be identical to authentic COVID-19 vaccination record cards issued by the CDC at the time,” according to the complaint filed in federal court in March 2023.
“I know someone who sells legal VACC (sic) cards for cheap to people who don’t want to participate in scientific experiments,” Ciotto wrote in a Facebook comment in March 2021.
The suit says Ciotto prints the cards at a local printing shop in Utah and works at a local hospital and is authorized to “print thousands of copies of COVID-19 vaccination record cards.” He said he persuaded the store owner.
Sciotto charged $10 plus shipping for each card and offered a discount of $7.50 for orders of 100 or more. According to the complaint, he sold “many” of the cards to people living in New York City “to facilitate circumvention of local health and safety regulations.” Most of the transactions were done via Venmo or Cashapp, and Sciotto promoted the card on Facebook. Ciotto tried to keep a low profile by changing shipping addresses and envelopes every week.
Some of these cards were then resold, with market prices ranging between $50 and $100 per card, according to the complaint.
“Ciotto has engaged in this program and is committed to supporting the CDC’s COVID-19 vaccination program and other “significantly profited from the undermining of government health and safety regulations and protocols,” a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Utah said.
Utah News-Dispatch is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.
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