Zishan Alvi, the owner of a medical testing facility in Chicago, pleaded guilty to one count of fraud on Monday, according to a statement released by the US Department of Justice. Alvi’s facility, known as LabElite, was issuing negative covid-19 test results to patients that may not have been tested or were incomplete. The only reason anyone found out is that other patients received tests while waiting for their results from LabElite and were confused about the conflicting information from the Chicago lab.
In a statement filed in court from 2023, prosecutors set out how Alvi submitted approximately $83 million in false claims to a sub-agency of the Department of Health and Human Services known as the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) from February 2021 to February 2022. -PCR and rapid tests for covid starting in late 2020, the first year of the epidemic.
Alvi’s lab was raided by the FBI in February 2022 and the 45-year-old student pleaded guilty this week to fraud worth $14 million, admitting he knowingly lied to HRSA, according to a DOJ report.
As Ars Technica notes, Alvi bought dozens of cars and stashed his ill-gotten gains in both traditional bank accounts and a Coinbase account. The vehicles listed in the charges are: 2021 Mercedes-Benz GLB 250, 2021 Land Rover Range Rover HSE, 2021 Lamborghini Urus, A 2021 Bentley, and 2022 Tesla X.
“The defendant defrauded the American people at a time when we were in great danger, in the midst of a global pandemic. This case shows that the FBI and our law enforcement partners are working tirelessly to keep the American people safe and uphold the Constitution as we demand of ourselves,” Robert W. Wheeler, Jr., Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Chicago Office, said in a statement back in 2023 when the case is made public for the first time.
Alvi faces up to 20 years in prison and is expected to be sentenced on February 7, 2025. About 1.2 million Americans have died from the covid-19 pandemic, and the virus continues to spread. And government reimbursement aside, it’s incredibly unruly to give anyone fake test results for any reason.
“It is a crime for the defendant to use a public health crisis to defraud taxpayers and put public health at risk by providing fraudulent COVID-19 test results,” Attorney General Kwame Raoul said in a statement.
“I want to thank the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, the Chicago Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the US Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General, and all of the law enforcement partners who are working to participate. Those who did this will be held accountable.”
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