A 21-year-old was arrested and taken into custody in the previous week, his defense attorney Philipp Wolm confirmed on Wednesday the APA a report in the daily newspaper “Heute”. The man, who has a previous conviction for fraud, is said to have been producing and selling fake vaccination certificates on a large scale since November with an accomplice who is at large and as yet unknown accomplices.
The suspect was an employee in Vaccination Street
The 21-year-old was employed as an employee in the vaccination line in the ACV – he was only sentenced to 27 months in prison in June 2021 as a fraudster, but was granted a stay of sentence. He is likely to have used this to form a gang made up of several people and – as can be seen from the detention decision of the regional court for criminal matters, which is available to the APA – “countless false Covid 19 vaccination certificates by sticking in badges in blank blank vaccination cards, provided with two stamps (stamp of the City of Vienna and ACV) and signature, together with the following cause for entry in the electronic vaccination card register (green passport)”.
False vaccination cards are said to have been sold
According to the investigation, the fake vaccination cards were sold for 550 to 650 euros, with one of the 21-year-old’s first customers being the suspected woman who is said to have given him other customers after he gave her a fake entry about a booster vaccination at the end of December had worried about Covid-19. All three alleged stitches that appeared in the woman’s vaccination record are said to have never been put in place.
Samaritan Union: “deeply affected”
The Arbeiter Samariter Bund Österreich (ASBÖ) was dismayed at the imprisonment of the former employee. “We are deeply concerned that we are apparently confronted with massive criminal energy when providing health services. It is all the more important not to show any tolerance here. Suspicious employees are immediately dismissed and the client and the police are informed. Wrongly so Vaccination entries that have been made will also be deleted from the system,” said ASBÖ spokeswoman Stefanie Kurzweil in a press release.
You learned about the latest case from the newspaper and until then you had no knowledge of the allegations against the 21-year-old. In this respect, Kurzweil could not answer an APA inquiry about possible other accomplices of the man or even a fraudulent network. A mystery remained for the time being how the imprisoned 21-year-old could get a job in the vaccination line with his criminal record and an open imprisonment of several years.
According to the ASBÖ, every employee is required to submit a certificate of good conduct when they are hired, which must be submitted within the trial month. Only people with no criminal record are actually employed to provide the sensitive Covid services. Internal reviews of how the 21-year-old has nevertheless obtained employment are underway, it said on Wednesday.
Forgery and intentional endangerment
The 21-year-old is being investigated for forging documents and intentionally endangering people through communicable diseases. In the course of the investigation, 230 Covid vaccination stickers, blank vaccination cards, handwritten notes on batch numbers and stamps from the Health Service of the City of Vienna and the ACV were secured. The detention decision speaks of a “structured, systematic approach” – according to the first media reports about vaccination fraud in the Austria Center Vienna, the 21-year-old is said to have “shifted his allegedly fraudulent agreements to new communication channels”. In this regard, some further evidence should be expected from the evaluation of the confiscated mobile phone of the 21-year-old. Statements made by himself and recorded thanks to telephone monitoring suggest that he could have found far more interested parties or buyers of fake vaccination certificates than the previously known prospective buyers (“There are a bunch of people out there”).
The Viennese regional court accepted the risk of committing a crime as the reason for detention. “It can be assumed that the demand for false vaccination certificates will continue, if not increase, in view of the likely adoption of compulsory vaccination,” says the decision in custody. Furthermore, reference is made to “still unknown accomplices” of the 21-year-old and “liaison people to the vaccination route in the Austria Center”. It is the job of the State Criminal Police Office of Lower Austria, which is responsible for investigating, to find out about them and take them out of circulation. The 21-year-old has so far exercised his right to remain silent and has not commented on the allegations.
Not the first suspicion in the Austria Center
It is not the first time that the vaccination route in the Austria Center has fallen into disrepute in connection with vaccination fraud, which is a criminal offense. The public prosecutor’s office in Vienna is already conducting three separate investigations against former employees of the Arbeiter-Samariter-Bund Österreich. On the one hand, four people have been in the spotlight since last spring for fraud and forgery of documents, who are said to have stolen blank vaccination cards, filled them out and entered the supposed vaccinations into the system. Another procedure concerns an ex-employee who is said to have asked a colleague to enter an immunization in her vaccination card without having been vaccinated. The third procedure has only been running since December. An employee at the Austria Center Vienna, who is said to have entered several names in the health system, is listed as the suspect. This suspect is being investigated for preparing to falsify public documents or certification marks (section 227 of the Criminal Code).
In order to prevent such occurrences in the future, the Vienna Samaritan Association has taken measures. Together with the other blue light organizations in Vienna and the city of Vienna as the client, a task force was set up “which continuously evaluates the entire process for possible weak points and closes gaps before they can be exploited,” said a media release. The Federal Criminal Police Office is also a member of this working group.
In the vaccination lanes, laptops are now secured with two-factor authentication, the entry in the vaccination register is only released when leaving the vaccination lane and accompanying persons are only allowed in the vaccination lane in justified cases. In addition, if a stamp is lost, a notice of loss must be submitted immediately. A forgery-proof stamp was also developed.
Source: Nachrichten
