Utah doctor, others charged with running COVID vaccine scheme, issuing fake records and giving fake shots
Jan 18, 2023, 1:32 PM | Updated: 1:39 pm
FILE PHOTO (Photo by Matthew Hatcher/Getty Images)
(Photo by Matthew Hatcher/Getty Images)
SALT LAKE CITY — A Utah plastic surgeon, his medical corporation and three others have been charged after prosecutors say they issued fake COVID-19 vaccination record cards and injected minors with saline shots.
According to court documents, Dr. Michael Kirk Moore Jr. and his Plastic Surgery Institute of Utah practice in Midvale allegedly destroyed over $28,000 worth of government-provided COVID-19 vaccines and issued “at least 1,937 doses’ worth of fraudulently completed vaccination record cards to others in exchange for either direct cash payments or required ‘donations’ to a specified charitable organization.”
“This defendant allegedly used his medical profession to administer bogus vaccines to unsuspecting people, to include children falsifying a sense of security,” said Acting Special Agent in Charge Chris Miller, Homeland Security Investigations Las Vegas. “HSI remains committed to working with our partners to bring those who seek to take advantage of the pandemic to deliberately harm and deceive others for their own profit to justice.”
Federal prosecutors also alleged Moore and the defendants “also administered saline shots to minors – at the request of their parents – so children would think they were receiving a COVID-19 vaccine.”
“By allegedly falsifying vaccine cards and administering saline shots to children instead of COVID-19 vaccines, not only did this provider endanger the health and well-being of a vulnerable population but also undermined public trust and the integrity of federal health care programs,” said Curt L. Muller, Special Agent in Charge with the Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Inspector General. “HHS-OIG remains committed to working with our law enforcement partners to hold accountable bad actors who attempt to illegally profit from the pandemic.”
A federal grand jury in Salt Lake City returned an indictment on Jan. 11, charging Moore, the Plastic Surgery Institute of Utah, Kari Dee Burgoyne, 52; Kristin Jackson Andersen, 59; and Sandra Flores, 31, with conspiracy to defraud the United States; conspiracy to convert, sell, convey and dispose of government property; and conversion, sale, conveyance and disposal of government property and aiding and abetting.
The defendants are scheduled to appear in court on Jan. 26 at 2 p.m. The FBI, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and Homeland Security Investigations are investigating the case.
