China Arrests Leader of Fake Vaccine Scam | Social

China arrested the leader of a multi-million dollar scam that passed off saline and mineral water as Covid-19 vaccines.

The man, identified as Kong, had researched actual vaccine packaging designs before making more than 58,000 of his own concoctions.

A batch of vaccines was smuggled overseas, but it is not known where they were shipped.

Kong is among 70 people who have been arrested for similar crimes, the BBC reports.

The arrests, involving more than 20 cases, came as Beijing vowed to crack down on the fraudulent vaccines.

Although most of the cases emerged late last year, new details were released this week.

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According to a court ruling, Kong and his team made a profit of 18 million yuan ($ 2.78 million; £ 2 million) by putting saline or mineral water into syringes and selling them as Covid vaccines since August last year.

A batch of 600 of these vaccines was shipped to Hong Kong last November before being shipped overseas. Sales were made on the basis that the vaccines were purchased through “internal channels” from genuine manufacturers.

In other cases, counterfeit vaccines were sold at inflated prices in hospitals. Other criminals also carried out their own vaccination programs and had “village doctors” vaccinate people with fake punctures in their homes and cars.

China’s supreme prosecutorial body, the Supreme People’s Prosecutor’s Office, has urged regional agencies to cooperate with the police to curb such activities.

Officials had hoped to administer 100 million doses of Covid before Lunar New Year last week, but so far they have only vaccinated 40 million people. However, the country has largely managed to control the pandemic with strict lockdown, testing and tracking measures.