by Brian Major
Last updated: 2:00 PM ET, Fri April 23, 2021
An Alabama resident is the latest of several people to upload a fake Covid-19 test result into the U.S. Virgin Islands Travel Portal, said Virgin Islands Police Department (VIPD) officials, who arrested 41-year-old Franketa A. Taylor Thursday.
Taylor was charged with fraudulent claims upon the government, access to a computer for fraudulent purposes, use of false information, and filing or recording forged instruments after it was discovered she submitted an "altered negative Covid-19 test result" into the portal.
Unable to post bail of $5,500, Taylor was remanded to the Bureau of Corrections pending a hearing, according to local press reports. Taylor's arrest comes days after VIPD arrested 34-year-old Breanna K. Ward of Kingwood, Texas, and 35 year-old Shania Shervington, a St. Croix resident, on the same charges.
Taylor is reportedly the seventh person to be charged with entering the territory with an altered or forged COVID-19 test in the travel portal. Designed to screen incoming travelers for COVID-19, the online travel portal requires users to acknowledge they could face prosecution if they knowingly submit false information.
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