On October 1, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois announced that Zishan Alvi, the owner of a Chicago laboratory, pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud for his role in a COVID-19 testing fraud scheme.
Alvi pleaded guilty to causing claims to be submitted 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 lab released negative COVID-19 test results to patients either without having actually tested the specimens or for specimens for which the test results were inconclusive, in each case with Alvi’s knowledge.
HRSA paid the lab over $14 million for claims submitted from February 2021 through February 2022. Alvi is scheduled to be sentenced on February 7, 2025.
