SALT LAKE CITY — A Salt Lake man who sold at least 120,000 fake coronavirus vaccination record cards during the pandemic was sentenced Thursday to a year in prison.
Nicholas Frank Ciott, 34, who pleaded guilty in July to conspiracy to defraud the United States, will also be fined $40,000 and suspended for three years.
According to the indictment, Ciotto lived in Weber County when he started an online business printing and selling vaccine cards “primarily to New York residents who are subject to increased COVID-19 restrictions.” It was.
Prosecutors say that from around March to September 2021, mainly using Facebook, orders of 10 or more cards will receive $10 per card, and orders of 100 or more cards will receive 1 card. He said he sold the cards for $7.50 per person.
During that period, Ciotto posted on Facebook, “I know someone who is selling genuine vaccine cards cheaply for people who don’t want to participate in scientific experiments,” and added, “COVID-19 vaccination record cards. A few days later, he was contacted via Facebook Messenger with “a bunch of images”, the charges state.
According to court documents, in July 2021, Ciotto created a fake badge claiming to be affiliated with a major coronavirus testing company in Utah and asked a local printing shop owner to print vaccine cards from a hospital. I convinced him that it was allowed. He tried to avoid detection by police by “changing the envelopes and shipping locations he used to mail the fake cards every week.”
According to court documents, “Ciotto sold approximately 45,000 counterfeit COVID-19 vaccination record cards from April to June 2021,” and more than 120,000 from March to September 2021. It is said that it was sold. In total, investigators estimate the man made more than $400,000 in profits.
Prosecutors say a South Carolina man, Kyle Blake Burbage, also bought at least three wholesale packages of fake cards from Ciotto and sold at least 10 of them at “market prices ranging from $50 to $100 each.” He was reportedly indicted on similar charges.
Burbage is scheduled to plead guilty in August 2023 and be sentenced on October 29.
