A former employee of the Olympic Stadium vaccination center who admitted to receiving bribes to make fake vaccine passports during the pandemic has just been charged with a series of crimes following an investigation by the Permanent anti-corruption unit (UPAC). According to the police, he made false documents for 630 clients.
“It was very easy money and their security was so poor, it’s like they’re saying do it! », Explained Adams Diwa in an interview with The Press in January 2022.
Mr. Diwa had already been arrested at this stage, because colleagues in the health network had detected his scheme and alerted the police. He did not seek to deny that he had made himself a false vaccination passport even though he was not vaccinated and that he had received money from numerous people for the same service.
“We have to take responsibility for the mistakes we have made,” he said.
No excuses
According to his story, the people who paid him did not even need to go to a vaccination center. The ex-civil servant said he could easily enter the computer system, enter a date and location for the first dose, then the second, and then his clients could receive their Vaxicode on their cell phones.
“I was doing that very clean. I created a real appointment in the system, as if the person had made their appointment. A date for the first dose, and 28 days later, the second dose. I had to write down the type of vaccine and the place where they were vaccinated,” he explained.
“Then you are asked who vaccinated the person. I knew nurses who worked at the Stadium. I could put a vaccinator, or otherwise, you can put a place outside Quebec,” he clarified.
“I have no excuse, no reason for what I did. I’m not going to value it. Money is attractive to everyone. It would make a lot of things in my life easier,” he added without shying away.
Mr. Diwa explained that during a search of his residence in 2021, UPAC police officers seized approximately $60,000 in money.
Many files
The investigation took a long time because the police were overwhelmed by reports linked to the fabrication and use of false vaccine evidence. Certain less serious offenses, for buyers of false proof of vaccination, were settled by a fine and had to be treated as a priority, because there is a limitation period if the case is not resolved quickly.
Criminal charges against officials who accepted bribes to produce false state-issued documents were dealt with next.
“According to the investigation, Mr. Diwa would have used access linked to his function in order to produce false vaccination proof, giving access to the vaccination passport issued by the government of Quebec, between September and November 2021,” declared UPAC in a press release Wednesday morning. The police force specifies that he made 1,200 false entries in the system for 630 customers.
Mr. Diwa is accused of breach of trust, production of forgery and unauthorized use of a computer. He will have to appear on November 27 at the Montreal courthouse.