Three men in Baltimore County are accused of forging the website of Massachusetts pharmaceutical and biotechnology company Moderna to sell fake COVID-19 vaccines. Twenty-five-year-old Owings Mills resident Kelly Lamont Williams, along with his cousins and Windsor Mill residents – 22-year-old Olakitan Oluwalade and 25-year-old Odunayo Baba Oluwalade, also known as Olaki and Baba respectively – were arrested on February 11.
A criminal complaint accuses the three men of copying the source code of Moderna's site (modernatx.com) and using it to create a similar spoof site, modernatx.shop.
A vaccine (mRNA-1273) created by Moderna was approved on December 19, 2020, by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for immediate use in the U.S.to prevent COVID-19 in people aged 18 and older. Through the fake site, the three men appear to have sold hundreds of fake COVID-19 vaccines for $30.
According to an affidavit, the fake site was discovered by the Center for Intellectual Property Rights (HSI) on January 11, 2021. An HSI special agent contacted a phone number listed on the fake domain , which investigators discovered was linked to an account on an encrypted messaging app
Two hours later, the agent received a response asking for an email, which he provided. The agent then received an email from sales@modernatx.shop, “welcoming” him to Moderna, describing the company, and detailing the vaccine.
As Infosecurity Magazine reports, after several emails, the agent agreed to pay $6,000 for 200 doses of the vaccine to a Navy Federal Credit Union account in the name of Kelly Lamont Williams.
On January 15, 2021, the government seized the fake domain. Search warrants executed at the homes of all three defendants revealed communications between Baba, Olaki, and Williams, discussing the fraud.
Olaki had also applied for and “fraudulently” received a COVID-19 Economic Loss Loan, funded by the federal government in the summer of 2020.
All three men are charged with fraud and could face up to 20 years in prison if convicted.
