Two New York Nurses Arrested for Selling COVID-19 Vaccine Cards for $1.5M Profit

Two Long Island nurses have been arrested for falsifying COVID-19 vaccination records, CNBC reports. 

The nurses, who are  49-year-old Julie DeVuono and 44-year-old Marissa Urraro, are being charged with one count of forgery in the second degree. DeVuono is the owner and operator of Wild Child Pediatric Healthcare in Amityville, and she’s also being charged with a count of offering a false instrument for filing in the first degree. Urraro is DeVuono’s employee.

“Forging COVID-19 vaccination cards and entering false information into the New York State database used to track vaccination records puts the health and well-being of others at risk, and undermines efforts to slow the spread of the COVID-19 virus,” special agent Scott Lampert said in a statement.

In addition to forging the vaccination cards, the pair also logged the fraudulent immunizations in the New York State Immunization Information System database. They were arrested on Friday, and DeVuono’s husband Derin DeVuono, who’s a police officer, is also being investigated by the NYPD’s Internal Affairs Bureau for potentially being part of the scheme.

The two nurses’ scam took place from November 2021 to January 2022, where they made over $1.5 million, according to a ledger that officers found at DeVuono’s home. Authorities also discovered around $900,000 in cash at her house. DeVuono and Urraro priced adults’ immunizations at $220 each and $85 for a child, which included the fake vaccination card and state database entry. 

The arrests arrive a month after New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed off on legislation that criminalizes fake COVID-19 immunization cards.