SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, April 20, 2023 (Gephardt Daily) — A federal grand jury has returned an indictment charging a Utah and a South Carolina man “for running a scheme to defraud the United States and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) by obstructing the CDC’s COVID-19 vaccination program.”
A news release from the U.S. Department of Justice, United States Attorney’s Office, District of Utah, says that according to court documents, Nicholas Frank Sciotto, 32, of Salt Lake City (formerly of Weber County), and Kyle Blake Burbage, 32, of Goose Creek, South Carolina, “manufactured, sold, and distributed at least 120,000 counterfeit COVID-19 vaccination record cards across the country between March 2021 through September 2021.”
Sciotto started and operated an online business where he began to fraudulently manufacture and sell the COVID-19 vaccination record cards, the news release says. The indictment alleges most of Sciotto’s buyers lived in New York where they were subject to more stringent COVID-19 vaccine restrictions. Sciotto’s co-conspirator, Burbage, purchased counterfeit vaccination record cards from Sciotto and then resold some of the counterfeit COVID-19 vaccination record cards and distributed them in South Carolina.
“By collectively manufacturing, selling, and distributing thousands of counterfeit COVID-19 vaccination record cards to others during the COVID-19 pandemic, the defendants significantly undermined the CDC’s COVID-19 vaccination program and other governmental health-and-safety regulations and protocols,” the news release says.
“In furtherance of the conspiracy, Sciotto primarily sold the counterfeit COVID-19 vaccination cards online through Facebook and charged approximately $10 each, for orders of 10 or more cards, and $7.50 each, for orders of 100 or more cards.”
The case is part of a nationwide coordinated law enforcement action by the Department of Justice to combat health care fraud related to COVID-19. In total, DOJ announced criminal charges against 18 defendants in nine federal districts across the United States. These cases allegedly resulted in over $490 million in COVID-19 related false billings to federal programs and theft from federally-funded pandemic programs.
See the national DOJ release here.
Sciotto and Burbage are charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States. The defendants are scheduled for their initial court appearances this afternoon before a U.S. Magistrate Judge at the Orrin G. Hatch United States District Courthouse in Salt Lake City.
U.S. Attorney Trina A. Higgins for the District of Utah made the announcement. The case is being investigated by the Office of Inspector General, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS-OIG), and FBI Salt Lake City Field Office. Assistant U.S. Attorney, Todd Bouton, of the District of Utah is prosecuting the case.
