LONG ISLAND EX-NURSE FINED $544,000 OVER FAKE VACCINE CARDS
A former Long Island nurse practitioner who sold fake COVID vaccine cards was hit with a $544,000 civil penalty by New York State.
The New York State Department of Health announced the penalty against Julie DeVuono, 53, of Amityville, on July 9, 2026. The state said her scheme involved falsified vaccination records for 162 school-aged children.
“This is the largest civil penalty imposed for vaccination fraud in the Department of Health’s 125-year history,” State Health Commissioner Dr. James McDonald said in a statement, the New York Post reported.
McDonald added: “Vaccines are the best protection against serious preventable diseases, and the New York State Department of Health has zero tolerance for those that misrepresent or falsify vaccination records as these acts put lives in jeopardy.”
PEOPLE reported that the department’s Bureau of Investigations determined hundreds of pediatric vaccination records were submitted for vaccines that were not administered.
What prosecutors said
The Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office said DeVuono sold forged vaccination cards and laundered the proceeds for her own benefit. Prosecutors said she also entered false vaccination information into the New York State Immunization Information System.
The DA identified her business as Kids-On-Call Pediatric Nurse Practitioner, P.C., doing business as Wild Child Pediatric Healthcare, in Amityville.
The Post reported that DeVuono received vaccine doses through the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and discarded vaccine instead of administering it.
“[DeVuono’s] abuse of authority preyed upon the fears and mistrust of the public during the COVID shutdown to forge COVID cards for the vaccine she never administered, in pursuit of no other purpose than her own enrichment,” Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said after she pleaded guilty, the Post reported.
Tierney also alleged she laundered money toward the mortgage on a home she shared with her husband, whom the Post described as an NYPD officer.
Two co-defendants, licensed practical nurse Marissa Urraro and receptionist Brooke Hogan, reached a secret agreement to testify against DeVuono, the Post reported.
How the criminal case played out
DeVuono was arrested in January 2022, the Post reported.
On September 15, 2023, she pleaded guilty to second-degree money laundering, second-degree forgery and first-degree offering a false instrument for filing, according to the DA’s office.
On June 11, 2024, she was sentenced to six months in jail and five years of probation. She had the option to complete community service instead of serving the jail term, and the DA said that service had to be finished during probation. The Post reported she avoided jail.
DeVuono and her corporation also agreed to forfeit criminal proceeds totaling $1,252,540, and she had to pay $15,000 in fines, the DA said. She surrendered her nurse practitioner and registered professional nurse licenses and can no longer practice in New York’s medical field.
The fallout reached classrooms. On October 6, 2024, NBC New York reported that school officials in Plainedge barred students connected to the scheme from school until they provided legitimate vaccination records.
The station also reported that state health officials had sent subpoenas to school districts seeking records for hundreds of children who had been patients of DeVuono or her former practice.
The $544,000 penalty is a civil one from the Department of Health and is separate from her criminal sentence. The June 11, 2024 sentencing remains the latest criminal outcome in the case.
