15 People Charged In Fake COVID-19 Card Conspiracy: Manhattan DA

NEW YORK CITY — An anti-vaccine entrepreneur and her business partner are accused of selling and registering several hundred fake COVID-19 vaccination cards in New York, according to Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance, Jr.

Thirteen people who purchased the cards — all of whom are believed to work in frontline and essential-employee settings throughout NYC, including hospitals and nursing homes – were also charged, his office announced Tuesday.

“We will continue to safeguard public health in New York with proactive investigations like these, but the stakes are too high to tackle fake vaccination cards with whack-a-mole prosecutions,” Vance said in a news release. “We need companies like Facebook to take action to prevent the fraud happening on their platforms. Making, selling, and purchasing forged vaccination cards are serious crimes with serious public safety consequences."

Vance said 31-year-old Jasmine Clifford of Lyndhurst, New Jersey, who goes by @AntiVaxMomma on Instagram, sold approximately 250 forged COVID-19 vaccination cards over the platform and worked with Nadayza Barkley, 27, of Bellport, New York to fraudulently enter at least 10 people into the New York State Immunization Information System database.

According to court documents and statements made on the record in court, beginning in May 2021, Clifford advertised forged Centers for Disease Control and Prevention COVID-19 vaccination cards through her Instagram account.

The DA's Office said in a typical transaction, Clifford would charge $200 for the falsified cards and accepted payment through CashApp or Zelle. For an additional $250 fee, her co-conspirator Barkley, who works at a medical clinic in Patchogue, New York, would enter the person’s name into the NYSIIS database as having received COVID-19 vaccinations.

Clifford has been charged with the following:

• Criminal possession of a forged instrument in the second degree, a class D felony, one count
• Offering a false instrument for filing in the first degree, a class E felony, one count
• Conspiracy in the fifth degree, a class A misdemeanor, one count

Her co-conspirator, Barkley, is facing the following charges:

• Offering a false instrument for filing in the first Degree, a class E felony, one count
• Conspiracy in the fifth degree, a class A misdemeanor, one count

Those 13 people in the DA's jurisdiction accused of purchasing the fake vaccination cards have each been charged with one count of criminal possession of a forged instrument in the second degree. One of them has also been charged with offering a false instrument for filing in the first degree for paying to be entered in the NYSIIS database.

According to the Manhattan District Attorney's Office, the investigation remains ongoing. Anyone aware of someone selling fake vaccination cards is urged to call the DA's Financial Frauds Bureau at 212-335-8900.