Thursday, October 1, 2026
A Long Beach resident was charged Friday with distributing fake Covid vaccine cards to unvaccinated people.
Steven Rodriguez, 27, is a nurse at a clinic in Hempstead. The clinic was not named in an indictment filed by the U.S. Attorney’s office.
He was arrested along with Jia Liu, 26, a Queens resident and United States Marine Corps reservist. Liu was also charged previously with entering the Capitol during the Jan. 6 riots.
FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge Michael J. Driscoll said that more than 300 stolen and fake cards were in circulation. He said that anyone who “defrauds the government in any way – and profit from pocketing the funds – will continue to be held accountable.”
“As alleged, by deliberately distributing fraudulent COVID-19 vaccination cards to the unvaccinated, the defendants put military and other communities at risk of contracting a virus that has already claimed nearly one million lives in this country,” said United States Attorney Breon Peace. “This Office remains committed to rooting out and prosecuting those individuals who threaten our public health and safety for profit.”
The U.S. Attorney said that Rodriguez and Liu stole and forged Covid vaccination cards from at least March 2021 to February 2022. In addition to selling stolen and false cards to unvaccinated people, Liu and Rodriguez also wanted to enter fake vaccination records into New York state databases, allowing unvaccinated people to receive the Excelsior Pass, which is an app that displays a New York citizen’s vaccination status.
According to court documents, Liu purchased blank COVID-19 Vaccination Cards from Rodriguez, and then forged and gave them to buyers and other co-conspirators for money. Liu also directed buyers to meet Rodriguez in person at the healthcare clinic he works at in Hempstead to purchase the cards. Rodriguez would meet the buyer, but instead of administering the vaccine, he destroyed a vial of vaccine intended to be used to vaccinate a patient, which is another offense. He then gave a fake vaccination card to the buyer that he filled out to make it appear that the buyer had received a dose of the vaccine. He further made entries in the Immunization Databases that lied and said that the buyer had been vaccinated.
They created more than 70 false entries in the Immunization Databases.
Rodriguez and Liu promoted their scheme through messages on social media. They referred to vaccination cards using code names, such as “gift cards,” “Cardi Bs,” “Christmas cards” and “Pokemon cards.”
If convicted, they face up to 10 years in prison.
