Utah woman accused of selling counterfeit negative COVID-19 tests at airport
Apr 21, 2022, 8:14 PM
FILE -- A COVID-19 testing centre sign at Heathrow Terminal 5 on November 28, 2021 in London, England. Following the discovery of a new Covid-19 variant, whose mutations suggest greater transmissibility than previous virus strains, the United Kingdom imposed new restrictions on arriving travelers. From 04:00 today, people arriving from South Africa, Botswana, Lesostho, Eswatini, Zimbabwe and Namibi, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, and Angola will face mandatory hotel quarantine. From Tuesday, all international travelers must isolate until they return a negative PCR test, which must be taken by Day 2. (Photo by Hollie Adams/Getty Images)
(Photo by Hollie Adams/Getty Images)
SALT LAKE CITY — A Salt Lake County woman is accused of selling fake negative COVID-19 test results to travelers and keeping the money, instead of sending it to her employer.
Linda Fufui Toli is facing a charge of wire fraud in U.S. District Court of Utah. Court documents include a notice of intent to seek forfeiture representing the value of any property “traceable to the scheme to defraud.”
U.S. Attorneys contend in court documents that Toli worked at a company — XpressCheck — in the Salt Lake City International Airport that provided on-site COVID-19 testing for those traveling to destinations that required tests during the pandemic, including Hawaii, France, Germany, Italy and Israel. Documents claim Toli, between July 2021 and at least Sept. 4, 2021, “knowingly devised and executed a scheme and artifice to defraud, to obtain money and property by means of materially false and fraudulent pretenses.”
Prosecutors claim Toli diverted XpresCheck’s business to herself by intercepting calls from travelers who were trying to schedule COVID-19 testing and then cancelling passengers’ preflight tests. She told travelers they only needed a letter that they could upload to the destination’s website. It said she then would sell “counterfeit negative COVID-19 test results, instead of obtaining legitimate COVID tests” and keep the money.
Documents state that she would collect traveler’s money with Cash App or other money-exchange apps belonging to her husband or herself. She is said to have charged $200 or $250 for a counterfeit test result alter tests and then provided documents with “misspelled names, fake addresses or unusual items.”
The single count listed in documents is for a Venmo transaction from Sept. 4 to Sept. 6 in 2021. Documents did not state how many transactions or how much money is alleged to have been involved but only one charge of wire fraud was listed, despite the months-long date range.
The document is signed by U.S. Attorney Andrea T. Martinez and Assistant U.S. Attorney Todd C. Bouton.
