Woman faces 5 years for selling fake COVID cards

The owner of a wellness center in Santa Cruz has pleaded guilty to federal charges of distributing phony immunization pellets and falsified COVID-19 vaccination cards in a scheme with a Napa naturopathic doctor who already pleaded guilty to the fraud, authorities said.

Jaimi Jansen, a business coach and the founder and CEO of Santa Cruz Core Fitness + Rehab, appeared before Senior District Judge Charles R. Breyer in San Francisco and pleaded guilty Friday to three counts of providing false statements related to health care matters.

Jansen faces the prospect of five years in prison, a $250,000 fine, three years of supervised release, and a “$100 special assessment,” according to charging documents. Her plea possibly could indicate a plea agreement with lesser penalties and, perhaps, a promise to testify against others.

The documents, filed on April 19, said Jansen sold “homeoprophylaxis immunization” pellets for COVID-19 and distributed false and fraudulent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention COVID-19 vaccination record cards from May through July 2021. Prosecutors said she collected nearly $20,000 from approximately 170 customers.

She worked with Juli Mazi, a licensed naturopathic doctor from Napa who was convicted in early April on similar charges. Mazi accepted a plea agreement in February and admitted to wire fraud and making false statements related to health care matters, authorities said in early April.

Jansen provided Mazi the names and birth dates of customers who wanted the fake cards and pellets, authorities said, marking up the products “to make a personal profit,” the charging document states. Jansen pocketed roughly $14,000 of the money she took in during the scheme, it says.

Her sentencing hearing before Breyer is scheduled for Sept. 28.