Redmond Man Sentenced Over Fake COVID Vaccine Operation

REDMOND, WA — A federal judge sentenced a Redmond man Tuesday who was accused of posing as a biotech expert and promoting "untested and unproven vaccines" across state lines. Prosecutors said Johnny T. Stine, 57, claimed to be the founder of a company called North Coast Biologics and used online postings to market fake vaccines purporting to protect patients from COVID-19 and cancer.

According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, Stine claimed to have developed a COVID-19 vaccine as early as March 2020 and offered to inject customers for between $400 and $1,000. Prior to that, investigators said he profited from selling fake cancer vaccines.

"This wasn't just a COVID fraud scheme," said Nick Brown, the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Washington. "From 2018-2020, Mr. Stine made more than $200,000 selling cancer patients his 'vaccines' that he said would cure their disease. He truly preyed on those who were desperate for any glimmer of hope, injecting people with unapproved substances developed in his rented garage, with no assurance of safety or purity."

According to court filings, federal investigators with the Food and Drug Administration became aware of Stine through social media posts in March 2020. A few weeks later, the FDA received a complaint from a Redmond area resident who reported Stine had injected a friend with a purported COVID-19 vaccine.

Undercover agents met with Stine that April and said he told them he had traveled to several states to administer the shot. Later that month, state Attorney General Bob Ferguson issued Stine a cease and desist, but investigators said he instead rebranded as an "immunogen." A few months later, Stine spoke with another undercover agent and traveled to Idaho planning to administer the vaccine, prosecutors said. Federal investigators then obtained a search warrant for his Redmond warehouse.

In seeking a federal prison sentence, prosecutors wrote that Stine was "dangerously arrogant or overwhelmingly greedy, or both."

"Time and again, he placed his misguided confidence and personal interest ahead of the wellbeing of the people whose health he endangered by providing them unapproved, and most likely ineffective, medical treatment," prosecutors continued. "Medical treatment that dissuaded them from pursuing actual effective treatment and/or acting in ways that would protect them from infection."

Judge Brian A. Tsuchida ultimately settled on a five-year probationary sentence and ordered Stine to pay $246,986 in restitution.

"This is a difficult and troubling case," Tsuchida said. "It would be completely reasonable to send you to jail, but I'm going to give you a longer probation sentence so we can keep an eye on you."

The case was investigated in partnership between the FDA's Office of Criminal Investigations, Homeland Security Investigations, and the Seattle Police Department.