Santa Cruz business owner pleads guilty in federal fraud case – Santa Cruz Sentinel

SANTA CRUZ — Santa Cruz business owner Jaimi Jansen on Friday pleaded guilty to charges related to the distribution of fraudulent COVID-19 vaccination cards, and homeopathic medicine that she claimed would provide lifelong immunity against COVID-19.

According to the federal complaint filed April 19, Jansen, owner of the integrative health and wellness center, Santa Cruz CORE, distributed homeoprophylaxis immunization pellets and fraudulent Center for Disease Control and Prevention COVID-19 vaccination record cards to approximately 170 recipients from May to July 2021, for which she collected about $19,500 and profited $14,000. Jansen’s case is tied to criminal charges against Julie Mazi, of Napa, who pleaded guilty in April to selling the pellets and false vaccination cards to approximately 300 people.

According to the federal complaint, “Jansen served as a distributor for Mazi, a naturopathic doctor based in Napa, and aided and abetted Mazi’s scheme by purchasing the homeoprophylaxis pellets and false and fraudulent CDC COVID-19 vaccination record cards and reselling them to third parties.”

Jansen appeared before Senior District Judge Charles R. Breyer on Friday  in San Francisco with her lawyer, Peter Leeming, and pleaded guilty to three counts of providing false statements related to health care matters. Penalties for each of the counts against Jensen include a maximum sentence of five years in prison, a maximum fine of $250,000, up to three years of supervision after release, and forfeiture of the approximately $19,500 she collected for the pellets and fake vaccination cards.

Jansen is scheduled to appear for sentencing at 10 a.m. on Sept. 28, before Breyer in San Francisco.

Anyone with information about allegations of attempted fraud involving COVID-19 can report it by calling the Department of Justice’s National Center for Disaster Fraud Hotline via the NCDF web complaint form at justice.gov.