Jia Liu
Source: Department of Justice
A U.S. Marine Corps Reservist from New York who formerly was jailed on charges associated with taking part in theJan 6 Capitol riot has actually been charged in a brand-new case of conspiring to offer phony Covid-19 vaccination cards to fellow reservists, district attorneys stated Thursday.
The reservist, 26- year-old Queens citizen Jia Liu, is implicated of conspiring with a nurse called Steven Rodriguez, 27, to defraud the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in the phony card circulation plan, according to district attorneys in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn.
Liu individually is charged with supplying these cards to Marine Corps reservists, hence defrauding the Defense Department.
The Defense Department formerly purchased that all active and reserve military service members be immunized versus Covid from August to January.
Liu’s supposed circulation of the phony cards to other Marin reservists assisted them avert this requirement, district attorneys kept in mind.
“By deliberately distributing fraudulent COVID-19 vaccination cards to the unvaccinated, the defendants put military and other communities at risk of contracting a virus that has already claimed nearly one million lives in this country,” specified U.S. Attorney Breon Peace.
“This Office remains committed to rooting out and prosecuting those individuals who threaten our public health and safety for profit.”
Prosecutors stated the plan resulted in more than 300 taken or incorrect vaccine cards flowing and produced more than 70 incorrect entries in immunization databases.
That permitted “unvaccinated individuals to receive the Excelsior Pass, which displays a user’s vaccination status in a digital app,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office stated in a news release.
The plan apparently ranged from March 2021 through this month.
Prosecutors stated Liu and Rodriguez, who operated in a Long Island center, “promoted their scheme through messages on encrypted messaging applications and on social media.”
“They referred to COVID-19 Vaccination Cards using code names, such as ” present cards,” “Cardi Bs,” “Christmas cards” and “Pokemon cards.”
Court files state Lin purchased blank vaccine cards, from Rodriguez, and after that created and dispersed them to purchasers and other co-conspirators for a revenue.
Liu likewise informed purchasers to satisfy Rodriguez personally at the center where he works to purchase deceitful cards, files state.
Jia Liu
Source: Department of Justice
“Rodriguez would satisfy the purchaser, however rather of administering the vaccine he ruined a vial of vaccine planned to be utilized to immunize a client,” district attorneys stated.
“He then supplied a created COVID-19 Vaccination Card to the purchaser that he finished to make it incorrectly appear that the purchaser had actually gotten a dosage of vaccine. He even more made entries in the Immunization Databases incorrectly showing that the purchaser had actually been immunized.”
Liu was charged in October by federal district attorneys in Washington, D.C. for getting in the Capitol premises throughout theJan 6, 2021, riot, and other criminal activities linked to the intrusion of the halls of Congress that day by a mob of advocates of previous President DonaldTrump The criminal grievance includes pictures of him around the Capitol that day.
