SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH – The lead defendant in a scheme that manufactured, sold and distributed 120,000 counterfeit COVID-19 vaccination cards was sentenced Thursday.
Nicholas Frank Sciotto, 34, of Salt Lake City, was sentenced to 12 months in prison, three years of supervised release and a $40,000 fine after he admitted in July 2024 to conspiring to defraud the Department of Health and US Human Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) by selling and distributing counterfeit COVID-19 vaccination cards.
In return, Sciotto made approximately $400,000 in profits.
According to court documents and statements made at the hearing, between March and September 2021, Sciotto promoted, manufactured, sold and distributed illegal COVID-19 vaccination cards throughout the country. He also sold COVID-19 vaccination cards wholesale to several co-conspirators, including Kyle Blake Burbage, 33, of Goose Creek, South Carolina.
The accomplices allowed numerous people to use fake vaccination cards to pretend to be vaccinated, so they could evade public health and safety protocols across the country. Sciotto participated in this scheme, without regard to the consequences or public health risks he exposed people to during the pandemic, without their knowledge or consent, and undermined the CDC’s COVID-19 vaccination program and other government health and safety regulations and protocols with significant profits.
On Facebook, Sciotto sold each card for $10 with a minimum of 10 cards per order, plus $5 for shipping, and directed buyers to a mobile payment service to complete the transaction. To continue the crime, Sciotto made a fake badge and identified himself as a volunteer for a major COVID-19 testing company in Utah to trick a print shop worker into believing that Sciotto worked for a hospital and was authorized to print. thousands of copies of COVID-19 vaccination record cards.
