SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — The orchestrator of a scheme that manufactured, sold, and distributed 120,000 counterfeit COVID-19 vaccination record cards was sentenced on Thursday, according to a press release from the Department of Justice (DOJ).
Nicholas Frank Sciotto, 34, of Salt Lake City, was sentenced to 12 months in prison, three years supervised release, and a $40,000 fine. Sciotto reportedly admitted in July 2024 that he conspired to defraud the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention by selling and distributing counterfeit COVID-19 vaccination cards.
Sciotto made over $400,000 in profits in the scheme, according to the DOJ.
Between Mar. 2021 and Sept. 2021, Sciotto operated in the nationwide scheme, which involved selling counterfeit vaccination cards wholesale to “several coconspirators,” the release states. One of these coconspirators has been identified as Kyle Blake Burbage, 33, of Goose Creek, South Carolina.
“Together, the coconspirators enabled numerous people to use fake vaccination record cards to masquerade as being vaccinated, so they could evade public health and safety protocols across the nation,” the DOJ release states. “Sciotto engaged in this scheme–without regard for any public health consequences or risks that he exposed individuals to during the pandemic, without their knowledge or consent, and he undermined the CDC’s COVID-19 vaccination program and other governmental health and safety regulations and protocols at significant profit.”
Sciotto reportedly charged $10 per card, with a 10-card minimum per purchase. Through social media, Sciotto directed his buyers to a mobile payment service to complete the transaction.
In order to get the cards, Sciotto made a fake badge and identified himself as a volunteer with a “major COVID-19 testing company in Utah,” the release states, tricking a print shop worker into believing he worked for a hospital and was authorized to print thousands of copies of COVID-19 vaccination cards.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services – Office of Inspector General and the FBI Salt Lake City Field Office jointly investigated this case.
Anyone with information about attempted fraud involving COVID-19 can report it by calling the Department of Justice’s National Center for Disaster Fraud hotline at 866-720-5721 or submitting an NCDF Web Complaint Form here.
