Australian tennis player Alex de Minaur, 32nd in the world, is among those implicated in a case of falsified health passes provided by an organization whose leaders are in France, Spanish police sources said on Thursday.
These sources "confirmed the name" of De Minaur to AFP, adding that other sportsmen and public figures were on the list of possible buyers of these fake health passes.
De Minaur reached the round of 16 of the Australian Open in January, where vaccination was compulsory, which notably led to world No. 1 Novak Djokovic being excluded from the tournament and expelled from the country.
Commenting on the case, the Australian player charged the Serb.
“This situation has taken a lot of the spotlight away from us players.
We are here to play the Australian Open.
Australians have been through a lot and had it tough since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.
They have gone to great lengths to protect themselves and their borders.
To enter this country, like all other players, Djokovic had to be fully vaccinated.
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Spanish police this week completed the second phase of Operation Jenner, launched in January against the Spanish branch of an organization that provided falsified health passes and PCR tests through instant messaging apps, said Spanish law enforcement in a statement.
The investigation confirmed that the leaders of this organization were in France.
In total, eleven people were arrested for "forgery or use of forgery" and "2,200 people are targeted for having obtained their health pass fraudulently".
This network charged 50 euros for the false PCR test.
To obtain a fake health pass, customers had two options: either pay "about 200 euros" and simply obtain the "fraudulent document", or, for customers with "higher purchasing power", "pay 1 000 euros and be registered on the list of individuals with a complete vaccination schedule”.
According to the Spanish police, to access this database, the network would have convinced a person working in the medical sector and the investigation also targets a possible theft of access codes to this list.
Payments were made by cryptocurrencies “via accounts opened in third countries”.
Once the payment was received, customers obtained a QR code that showed a fake complete vaccination schedule.
“They could then obtain the health pass within two days, in which they were registered as having received two or three doses of vaccine”, detailed the Spanish police.
The police operation is still ongoing and the last phase will focus on "the arrest of the main members of the organization".