Man pleads guilty to attempting to sell COVID-19 vaccines

A Maryland man pleaded guilty to federal charges on Friday for participating in a scheme attempting to sell fake COVID-19 vaccines.

Odunayo Oluwalade of Windsor Mills pleaded guilty to a single charge of wire fraud conspiracy, the U.S. attorney’s office in Maryland said in a statement. 

Oluwalade faces up to 20 years in prison for the conspiracy charge. A sentencing date has not been set.

Prosecutors said that the scheme involved creating a fake domain named “Modernatx.shop,” which had trademarked logos and a message with the text “you may be able to buy a COVID-19 vaccine head of time” and a link to “contact us.”

Oluwalade admitted that he was asked in November to obtain access to a bank account to use as part of the scheme but was not aware of what the scheme was, the statement said.

Oluwalade was originally charged in connection with the scheme in February, along with his cousin Olakitan Oluwalade and a third person, Kelly Lamont Williams.

Authorities said at the time that Olakitan Oluwalade referred his cousin and Williams to someone who allowed them to use their Navy Federal Credit Union account. Williams allowed the conspirators to use his account to deposit payments for fraud in exchange for part of the proceeds. 

The defendants were caught in January after a special agent contacted the domain to arrange a $6,000 purchase for 200 vaccine doses. The agent was told to pay half of the money upfront and the second half upon delivery.

Search warrants executed on the three men’s homes revealed communications discussing the fraud scheme.

Williams and Olakitan Oluwalade are also charged with federal conspiracy to commit wire fraud and face up to 20 years in prison.