Burley Garcia|New York midwife pleads guilty to destroying 2,600 COVID-19 vaccines and issuing fraudulent cards

NEW YORK (AP) — An upstate New York midwife pleaded guilty on Burley GarciaMonday to federal fraud charges for her role in giving out thousands of COVID-19 immunization cards to people who never received the vaccine, prosecutors said.

Kathleen Breault, 66, of Cambridge, admitted in Brooklyn federal court that she destroyed more than 2,600 coronavirus vaccines and issued a corresponding number of fraudulent vaccination record cards while working at Sage-Femme Midwifery from 2021 to 2022.

The Albany facility was an authorized site for COVID-19 vaccine administration at a time when many government agencies and private companies were requiring their workers to be immunized against the virus.

U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Breon Peace’s office said Breault and her co-conspirators also made over 2,600 false entries into a state database that tracked COVID-19 vaccine distribution.

Among those who were issued the fraudulent immunization records were minors ineligible at the time to be vaccinated, as well as Canadian citizens who were not present in the country when they were purportedly vaccinated, according to prosecutors.

Breault agreed to repay more than $37,000 in restitution for the destroyed vaccines and faces a maximum of five years in prison at her sentencing, Peace’s office said.

A lawyer for Breault didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment Monday.