Owner Of Covid Testing Company Indicted For Defrauding US Agency Out of $83 Million

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The co-owner and operator of a Chicago-based laboratory company has been indicted for allegedly cheating the US government out of millions of dollars for his pop-up Covid 19 testing company and lying about test results during the pandemic.

The Illinois man faces federal charges that he defrauded a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) agency out of more than $83 million with bogus or nonexistent testing.

The Epoch Times reports: Zishan Alvi, 44, of LabElite, was indicted by a federal grand jury on March 8 on 10 counts of wire fraud and one count of theft of government funds, according to the indictment from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division. The business is referred to only as “Laboratory A” in the indictment.

Alvi is alleged to have devised a scheme to submit claims for PCR tests that weren’t performed for reimbursement under multiple federal programs set to pay for COVID-19 testing not covered under health insurance, including the Democrats’ Families First Coronavirus Response Act.

According to the indictment, his company often provided COVID-19 test results to customers for tests that were never conducted.

“The charges in this case allege that the defendant disregarded public health concerns in favor of personal financial gain. Doing so by compromising taxpayer-funded programs intended to fight the spread of coronavirus was particularly reprehensible,” Acting U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois Morris Pasqual said in a statement.

The Epoch Times attempted to reach Alvi for comment. His company left a message on its phone that it’s closed.

LabElite is one of several companies that partner with hundreds of pop-up COVID-19 testing sites across the United States. It’s among a string of Chicago-based testing labs that have been under investigation in the past year by various government agencies for their handling of COVID-19 test results.

Massachusetts, Nevada, Washington, Minnesota, and California are among more than a dozen states that have found companies to either be mislabeling tests, not following proper testing procedures, or collecting money and never providing results to the customers who paid for them.

Alvi is the first owner of COVID-19 testing labs with allegedly questionable practices to be criminally charged.

In addition to submitting for reimbursement for tests that were never taken, Alvi is accused of ordering his labs to cut corners and skip testing standards.

According to the indictment, an investigation found that his practices often led to providing customers with incorrect test results.

3 Comments

  1. This is where Australia is years ahead of America, because it was a prison colony from the beginning, so everything’s set up to serve the Governor. Here there’s law firms everywhere whose only reason to exist us to make sure the companies and corporations know every legal truck in the book so that they can get away with every possible profiteering opportunity. And it’s all so controlled the public are almost totally clueless.

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