Woman penalised for creating fake COVID vaccination record card
A historic civil penalty hits a former health worker following fake COVID vaccination record card schemes
Former pediatric nurse practitioner Julie DeVuono received a $544,000 civil penalty on Thursday, July 9, 2026, after New York State authorities discovered she operated a widespread immunisation fraud scheme. The New York State Department of Health issued the record-breaking financial punishment to the 53-year-old Amityville resident for falsifying medical documentation for 162 school-aged children. The enforcement action marks the largest civil penalty ever levied by the health agency in its 125-year operational history.
People and an official agency press release reported that the Department of Health’s Bureau of Investigations determined that DeVuono submitted hundreds of pediatric records for injections that she never actually administered. The fraudulent activity involved entering false data into the New York State Immunisation Information System and fabricating common childhood immunisation histories alongside each fake COVID vaccination record card. The falsified documents covered routine immunisations for chickenpox, diphtheria, tetanus, hepatitis B, and polio.
The fraudulent operations occurred between June 15, 2021, and January 27, 2022, according to the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office. DeVuono illegally charged clients between $220 and $350 to create a fake COVID vaccination record card and log the fabricated data online. She subsequently utilised the illicit proceeds to fund personal expenses, which included paying off the residential mortgage on her Amityville home. State Health Commissioner Dr James McDonald stated that the department maintains zero tolerance for individuals who misrepresent records and brazenly undermine the public health system.
The financial penalty follows previous legal proceedings in 2024, where DeVuono received a sentence of five years of probation after pleading guilty to charges of money laundering, forgery, and offering a false instrument for filing. The criminal prosecution required her to forfeit $1.2 million in illicit proceeds and surrender her nursing licence. Although the structural scope of the scheme extended to New York City and the Capital District, the majority of the falsified documents targeted children living in Long Island and the Hudson Valley. Local families were subsequently ordered to provide valid proof of immunisation before the minors could return to school.
