Chicago pharmacist charged with selling COVID-19 vaccination cards online

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

Source: WGN

CHICAGO — Federal prosecutors have accused a Chicago pharmacist of selling more than 100 COVID-19 vaccination cards on eBay.

Tangtang Zhao, 34, of Chicago, appeared in federal court Tuesday after he was indicted for theft of government property.

According to court documents, Zhao sold 125 authentic CDC vaccination cards to 11 different buyers for approximately $10 per card in March and April 2021.

He faces a sentence of 10 years in prison for each of the 12 counts against him./snip

Read more: https://wgntv.com/news/coronavirus/chicago-pharmacist-arrested-for-selling-covid-19-vaccination-cards-online/

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Not a lot more information at the link but this sort of bullshit appears to be a growing problem with potentially deadly results on a national level.

[padah513]

1. He faces a sentence of 10 years in prison for each of the 12 counts against him.

Damn, I hope that $1250 was worth it.

[littlemissmartypants]

2. Not a good risk/reward ratio for sure. eom

[SoCalDavidS]

4. He'll Get Off With A Warning

We can't even keep Seditionists in jail for more than a few weeks.

[GregariousGroundhog]

6. If this person has no prior criminal history, it's unlikely that they will get prison time

The first thing to remember is that the sentences will likely run concurrently.

As far as sentencing guidelines, this particular crime has a base Offense Level of 6 (on a scale of 1-43). The offense level can increase up to 30 levels as the criminal's gains and/or the victim's losses increases and there are various other 2-4 level increases when various other conditions are met. The sentencing guideline will be 0-6 months and the pharmacist will probably get probation unless they do something to annoy the judge or there is some offense level enhancement that moves them out of the 0-6 month recommendation.

Determining the offense level:
https://www.ussc.gov/guidelines/2018-guidelines-manual/annotated-2018-chapter-2-c#2b11
Determining the sentence:
https://www.ussc.gov/guidelines/2018-guidelines-manual/annotated-2018-chapter-5

[SWBTATTReg]

3. Good. Putting others in harm's way for making a few bucks selling fake vaccine cards.

Those that bought the fake cards too, should face charges too. For falsely making claims when in fact, they are not vaccinated and
applied for jobs, etc. under these false pretenses.

[SWBTATTReg]

7. Sadly, you're right. At least one thing is somewhat good from our perspective, that there

are so many republican shrills screaming right and left that they are too many to effectively have an effective voice...you have one yell out obscenities, outlandish claims, etc., and then another, and then another, etc. that they drown themselves all out. Truly showing everybody else just how moronic they indeed are.

[greenjar_01]

8. $1250 -- 10 years in prison

Ooopsie daisy.

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

9. Not a very good investment.

[greenjar_01]

10. I mean, he won't even get one year in prison, but he will have a federal felony conviction

and lose his pharmacy license, so he's pretty much fucked.

[whistler162]

11. Nope 120 years maximum

unless sentenced to serve concurrently. 10 years for each of the 12 counts.

[greenjar_01]

12. That will never happen

The news media always likes to use the maximum sentence in their stories "Could face up to..." In practice, sentencing guidelines are specific and almost always come out to less, even much less, than the maximum sentence. If this guy sees any prison time, it will likely be less than one year.

Quite frankly, the media should stop this moronic practice of listing the maximum penalty, as it's very deceptive and silly, and provides no information of any value.

[yonder]

13. Kind of like the cops when announcing a drug bust value.

Instead of the bulk value of the bust they'll convert it to the smallest deliverable value:

10 pounds of something in bulk becomes the value of the deliverable units. Lets say a dime bag is 1 gram. That 10 pounds has now become $44, 800 bucks instead of the wholesale value of the 10 pounds. And because rounding up is their friend, let's call that an even 50 grand.

More is better, I guess.