A Canadian casino mogul and his actress’ wife have been accused of behaving like motel workers to receive COVID-19 vaccines for Indigenous residents in a remote community in the Yukon.
Rodney Baker, 55, and his wife of 32, Ekaterina Baker, allegedly rented a private plane to Beaver Creek on Jan. 21 to get doses of the Modern Shot, CBC reported.
“What they did was endanger our community and our isolation team,” Yukon Community Service Minister John Streicker said Monday.
“I’m pretty upset about the whole thing.”
Mobile clinic staff administered the vaccine to about 100 Beaver Creek residents, most of whom are members of the White River Nation.
According to Yukon News, the rich couple allegedly lied to the clinic workers about where they lived and worked.
But the two raised suspicions when they asked for a trip to the airport after receiving the shots, Streicker said.
Clinic staff alerted authorities after the motel confirmed that the Bakers were not actually new employees.
Officers first searched for the couple at a location near Whitehorse, where they were supposed to be quarantined – and eventually found them at the airport, preparing to fly back to Vancouver, according to reports.
“I just didn’t anticipate that anyone would go to great lengths to effectively fool the team to get vaccinated, and I think we all felt pretty offended by everything,” Streicker told CBC.
The Bakers were charged with two counts under the Yukon Civil Emergency Measures Act, one for failing to self-isolate and the other for failing to follow a travel statement.
The maximum sentence each faces is a fine of up to $ 1,150 and / or up to six months in prison.
Rodney Baker, who reportedly earned $ 10.6 million in 2019 as CEO of the Great Canadian Gaming Corporation, resigned on Sunday.
The company, which owns several casinos across Canada, has been involved in an investigation into last year’s allegations of corruption and money laundering.
The mogul married Ekaterina, an actress of Russian origin, in 2017, according to reports.
White River First Nation condemned the couple’s actions in a statement on Saturday and called for the couple to face harsher sanctions.
“We are deeply concerned about the actions of people who put the elderly and the vulnerable at risk of crossing the line for selfish purposes,” Chief Angela Demit said in a statement.
The community, she said, was selected to receive the vaccines “given our removal, the elderly and the high-risk population, and limited access to health care.”
“Although we understand that many want to be vaccinated immediately, it is not appropriate to circumvent the rules that have been implemented and approach our community in this way.”