Chicago Lab Owner Admits Guilt in $14M COVID-19 Fraud Scheme

A former laboratory owner from Illinois pleaded guilty today for his role in a COVID-19 testing fraud scheme.
 
According to court documents, Zishan Alvi, 45, of Inverness, Ill., owned and operated a laboratory in Chicago that performed COVID-19 testing. From February 2021 through February 2022, Alvi submitted claims to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) for COVID-19 tests that were not performed as billed, the U.S. Justice Department said. As part of the scheme, the laboratory released negative COVID-19 test results to patients, even though the laboratory either had not actually tested the specimens or the results were inconclusive. Alvi knew the laboratory was releasing negative results for tests that were not performed or were inconclusive, but still allowed the laboratory to submit claims to HRSA for those tests. HRSA paid the laboratory more than $14 million as a result of the fraudulent claims Alvi caused to be submitted to HRSA.
 
Alvi pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud. He faces a maximum 20-year prison term at his Feb. 7, 2025, sentencing. 
 
Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri, head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; Acting U.S. Attorney Morris Pasqual for the Northern District of Illinois; Assistant Director Chad Yarbrough of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division; and Special Agent in Charge Mario Pinto of the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG) made the announcement.
 
The FBI and HHS-OIG are investigating the case.
 
Trial Attorney Claire T. Sobczak of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jared Hasten and Misty Wright for the Northern District of Illinois are prosecuting the case.
 
The Fraud Section leads the Criminal Division’s efforts to combat healthcare fraud through the Health Care Fraud Strike Force Program. Since March 2007, this program, currently comprised of nine strike forces operating in 27 federal districts, has charged more than 5,400 defendants who collectively have billed federal health care programs and private insurers more than $27 billion. In addition, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, working in conjunction with HHS-OIG, are taking steps to hold providers accountable for their involvement in healthcare fraud schemes.