WASHINGTON, Aug 12 A number of criminal organizations and individuals fraudulently offered coronavirus vaccines to dozens of countries in an effort to secure contracts worth millions of dollars, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing documents and sources in its possession. like the Netherlands, Latvia, France, Israel, Czech Republic, Austria and others. Vaccines offered by Pfizer / BioNTech, Johnson & Johnson, and AstraZeneca, and in some cases it came to discussing the details of possible contracts.
WSJ: Pfizer Finds Fake COVID-19 Vaccine in Two Countries Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro's office confirmed that it was negotiating with third-party intermediaries offering COVID-19 vaccines, but stressed that in the end it didn’t come to the procurement of vaccines. In turn, the press secretary of French President Emmanuel Macron said that France receives vaccines against coronavirus through the European Commission and does not conduct direct negotiations with drug suppliers. According to newspaper sources, investigators from the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) «have identified 50 to 75 fraudsters, companies and brokers» who are looking for potential buyers of vaccines among the authorities of the countries. At the same time, it is not known whether any such attempts have been successful.
Rospotrebnadzor told about scammers selling «drugs» for COVID-19 It is emphasized that a number of countries need vaccines against coronavirus in conditions of limited supplies, which, according to international law enforcement officials, may lead to the signing of false contracts. A spokeswoman for Interpol said in this regard that in the coming days the organization plans to warn countries about possible cases of fraud. In particular, Pfizer noted that it is aware of 86 fraudulent proposals that have been submitted to authorities in 45 countries. Pfizer's head of security, Lev Kubyak, stressed that the company passes information on fraud to law enforcement agencies, governments and manufacturers of other vaccines.
