Morris Pasqual, Acting U.S. Attorney | U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Illinois
Morris Pasqual, Acting U.S. Attorney | U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Illinois
The owner of a Chicago laboratory has been sentenced to seven years in federal prison for his involvement in a Covid-19 testing fraud scheme. Zishan Alvi, 46, from Inverness, Illinois, operated a lab that conducted Covid-19 tests. In 2021 and 2022, Alvi submitted numerous claims to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) for tests that were not conducted as billed.
As part of the fraudulent activity, the lab issued negative test results despite not having tested the specimens or obtaining inconclusive results due to diluted tests. Alvi was aware that these negative results were unreliable but continued to submit claims to HRSA. The fraudulent claims led HRSA to pay more than $14 million.
Alvi had previously pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud. During a hearing in federal court in Chicago, U.S. District Judge John J. Tharp Jr. sentenced him and ordered restitution exceeding $14.1 million along with forfeiture of over $8 million in cash and several luxury vehicles.
The sentence announcement came from Andrew S. Boutros, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois; Matthew R. Galeotti from the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; Douglas S. DePodesta from the FBI's Chicago Field Office; and Mario Pinto from HHS-OIG's Chicago Region.
U.S. Attorney Boutros stated: “At the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, Zishan Alvi disregarded public health concerns in favor of greed and his own financial gain.” He emphasized that pandemic-relief programs are meant for safety rather than fraudulent profit-making.
FBI Special Agent-in-Charge DePodesta added: “In the midst of economic uncertainty for many Americans, the defendant chose to cash in on a global pandemic by stealing millions of dollars and committing extensive fraud.”
The Fraud Section leads efforts against health care fraud through its Health Care Fraud Strike Force Program which has charged over 5,800 defendants since March 2007 with billing more than $30 billion collectively.
More information is available at www.justice.gov/criminal-fraud/health-care-fraud-unit.
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