Two additional Northern California women have been federally charged for assisting a Napa doctor's fake COVID-19 vaccination card and fraudulent treatment scheme.
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Jami Jansen, 40, and Ranna Shamiya, 41, were each charged by the U.S. Department of Justice for making false statements related to health care matters in connection with an alleged scheme, run by naturopathic Napa doctor Juli Mazi, which offered fake cures for COVID-19 and distributed fake COVID-19 vaccine cards, the agency announced on Tuesday.
Authorities announced earlier this month that Mazi, 41, pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud and one count of making false statements related to health care matters. She faces a maximum of 5 years in prison for the first charge and 20 years for the second.
Mazi admitted to selling homeoprophylaxis immunization pellets – which she falsely claimed would provide lifelong protection against COVID-19 – and giving customers fraudulent COVID-19 vaccine cards which were made to appear as if recipients’ received the Food and Drug Administration approved shots.
According to the charges, Jansen, the owner of an integrative health and wellness center in Santa Cruz, allegedly functioned as a distributor for Mazi’s scheme. She allegedly purposed and repackaged Mazi’s pellets and fake vaccine cards for distribution and provided them to approximately 170 recipients. Jansen charged customers a higher price than she paid Mazi for the goods in order to turn a profit. She pocketed roughly $14,000 and received a total of $19,500 as a result of the scheme, according to court documents.
Meanwhile, Shamiya, from Ukiah and the director of pharmacy at an undisclosed hospital in the Northern District of California, allegedly used her access to medical information to identify "legitimate lot numbers for FDA-authorized COVID-19 vaccines," authorities said, She allegedly sent that information to Mazi, who would use the lot numbers and put them on her fake COVID-19 vaccine cards.
Both Jansen and Shamiya’s cases are being prosecuted by trial attorney Babu Kaza of the National Rapid Response Strike Force and Assistant U.S. Attorney Katherine Lloyd-Lovett of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California. If convicted, they each face five years in prison, three years of supervised release and a "$100 special assessment."
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