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Queens man Jia Liu, age 28, faced his 21-month sentence for the scheme on Friday, April 5, according to the United States Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of New York.
Alongside Steven Rodriguez, a 29-year-old nurse from Long Beach, the two men conspired to steal, forge, sell, and distribute COVID-19 vaccination cards to hundreds of unvaccinated people between March 2021 and February 2022.
Original Story - COVID-19: NY Nurse, Marine Corps Reservist, Indicted For Vaccination Card Fraud Scheme
In addition to the fake cards, the USAO’s Office said, Liu and Rodriguez offered their buyers false entry into the government’s immunization database.
As part of the duo’s scheme and as an attempt to evade law enforcement, the pair would refer to the vaccination cards using names like “gift cards,” “Pokemon cards,” and “Cardi Bs.” When sending out the fake documents, Liu and Rodriguez would either omit writing names or put fake names on envelopes.
“As COVID-19 raged and hundreds of thousands of Americans perished," the USAO’s Office said, “Liu exploited the pandemic to enrich himself, and push his anti-vaccine agenda, messaging a co-conspirator: ‘f--- the vaccine.’”
Liu, a former Marines Corp reservist, specifically targeted members of the armed forces, distributing the fake cards to fellow reservists in order to help them evade vaccination requirements.
According to court filings, he boasted to a co-conspirator, “You have no idea how many documents I have faked in my USMC (United States Marine Corps) career.”
In April 2023, Liu and Rodriguez pleaded guilty to conspiracies to defraud and obstruct the United States’ response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Rodriguez, for his part, was sentenced to 30 months in prison in June 2023.
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