Long Island nurse who made $1.5M selling fake COVID vaccine cards slapped with $544K fine

A former Long Island nurse who raked in $1.5 million selling fake vaccine cards during the COVID-19 pandemic was slapped with a record-breaking $544,000 fine from the state.Ex-Amityville practitioner Julie DeVuono, 53, who pleaded guilty to forgery and money laundering back in 2023 was hit with the massive penalty for a “large-scale” scheme where she hawked the phony cards to parents of 162 school-aged kids between November 2019 and January 2022, the state Department of Health announced Thursday. “This is the largest civil penalty imposed for vaccination fraud in the Department of Health’s 125-year history,” state Health Commissioner Dr.James McDonald said.“Vaccines are the best protection against serious preventable diseases, and the New York State Department of Health has zero tolerance for those that misrepresent or falsify vaccination records as these acts put lives in jeopardy,” McDonald added.DeVuono was originally arrested in January 2022 after investigators uncovered the scheme, and pleaded guilty a year and a half later.She avoided jail time and was instead sentenced to 840 hours of community service, five years of probation, and had to forfeit $1.2 million, much of which was already seized from her home, along with ledgers documenting the profits.Her guilty plea also came after two co-defendants originally charged in the scheme, Marissa Urraro, a licensed practical nurse, and receptionist Brooke Hogan reached a secret agreement to testify against their ex-boss, The Post previously reported.DeVuono, who owned Wild Child Pediatric Center in Amityville, received free shipments of 3,174 vaccine doses through the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but charged customers $220 to $350 for each dose falsely marked on a vax card for adults — and $85 for kids — then tossed the vaccine in the trash.The former nurse also laundered $236,980 from the scheme to pay off the mortgage on a home she shared with her husband, who is an NYPD ...