(Amityville) Two Long Island nurses are accused of fabricating COVID-19 vaccine evidence and pocketing more than $1.5 million with their scheme, prosecutors and investigators say.
Posted at 1:38 p.m.
Julie DeVuono, owner of the Wild Child pediatric care clinic in Amityville, New York, and her employee Marissa Urraro, have both been charged with forgery. Another accusation also weighs against Mr.me DeVuono, that of making a false statement to the public records. The two defendants appeared on Friday.
Mr.’s lawyerme Urraro, Michael Alber, urged the public not to jump to conclusions and judge his client too quickly. He described the lady as a highly respected nurse.
“We look forward to bringing to light the legal obstacles and flaws in the investigation,” he said on Saturday. We hope that an accusation does not come to erase all the good medical work that Mr.me Urraro with children and adults,” he added.
The legal representative of M.me DeVuono did not respond to our requests for comment at this time.
Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond Tierney said the two defendants provided false vaccine evidence in exchange for $220 for adults and $85 for children.
Julie DeVuono, a nurse practitioner, and Marissa Urraro, a nursing assistant, also allegedly entered the false vaccine-related information into the New York State Immunization Database, he said.
According to the lawsuit, the nurses fabricated false vaccine evidence at the request of a double agent posing as a patient. The agent would never have received a vaccine in exchange for the document.
Police conducted a search of Mrs.me DeVuono and disclosed seizing around US$900,000 in cash along with a book of accounts showing profits exceeding US$1.5 million for this scheme that has been in place since November 2021.
“I hope this sends a clear message to others who might be tempted to circumvent the system that we are going to catch them and they will face the consequences under the law,” Attorney Tierney said in a statement.
Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison added that as nurses, “both of these women should understand the importance of reliable vaccine evidence when we all need to work together to protect the population health”.